Barbara Barrie died aged 95 after a terminal cancer diagnosis, her daughter confirmed.
Her Breaking Away performance earned a 1979 Academy Award nomination.
The veteran actress received Tony recognition for Stephen Sondheim’s Company on Broadway.
Barbara Barrie, the acclaimed American actress known for her work in film, television and theatre, has died aged 95. She died at her Manhattan home on Wednesday, October 28, following a terminal cancer diagnosis, The New York Times reported. Her daughter, actress and writer Jane Harnick, confirmed that her death was medically assisted.
Barrie earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and several Emmy Awards during a career spanning seven decades. She was best known on screen for Breaking Away and television roles in Barney Miller and Suddenly Susan.
Barbara Barrie’s Oscar-nominated role and Broadway career
Born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931, Barrie moved to Texas with her family during childhood. She graduated from Corpus Christi Senior High School in 1948 and later attended the University of Texas at Austin.
Her breakthrough came with the 1964 film One Potato, Two Potato, in which she played a woman who marries an African-American man after being abandoned by her husband. Her performance won her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Barrie received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for playing a caring mother in Breaking Away (1979). She later reprised the role in a television adaptation, earning an Emmy nomination. On Broadway, she received a Tony nomination for originating the role of Sarah in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company.
A career beyond film and television
Barrie also appeared in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, as well as Torch Song Trilogy and Fiddler on the Roof. Television audiences knew her as the wife of the title character in Barney Miller and as Brooke Shields’ eccentric grandmother in Suddenly Susan.
Beyond acting, Barrie wrote four books during the 1990s, drawing on her experience of colon and rectal cancer and seeking to challenge the stigma surrounding colostomies. In a 1997 interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, she said, 'I think if I can get the word out on this thing, that will be my legacy.'
Barrie was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative lung disease, in 2014, according to Variety. Her husband, Jay Harnick, died in 2007. She is survived by her daughter Jane, son Aaron and three granddaughters.
