Cannes Winner Barbara Barrie Dies at 95 After Medically Assisted Death

Barbara Barrie died at 95 on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan, ending a career that began with a typist job in New York and concluded with a medically assisted death. The New York Times reported the news, noting that her daughter, Jane Harnick, confirmed the actress had terminal cancer.

Barrie was born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931. She moved to Texas at age nine and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. She traveled to New York by train, worked as a typist, and made her Broadway debut in The Wooden Dish. She later studied with Uta Hagen and performed with the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut.

Her first major recognition came in 1964. She won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for One Potato, Two Potato, a black and white drama directed by Larry Peerce. The film, set in Painesville, Ohio, is believed to be the first U.S. movie to depict an interracial marriage between a white woman and an African American office worker. Barrie recalled in a 1964 interview that she received the role on the same day police used fire hoses in Alabama. She called the timing a spooky coincidence.

She gained wider recognition in 1979 with Breaking Away, set in Bloomington, Indiana. Barrie played the supportive mother of a teenager obsessed with Italian bicycle racing. After reading a revised script, she noticed the character lacked a direct scene with her son. She requested a connecting moment, resulting in a scene where she shows her passport and urges him to pursue his dreams. She said in a 2017 interview that the scene would not have existed without her request. She lost the Academy Award to Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer.

On stage, Barrie performed in the original 1970 to 1972 production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. She played Sarah, a dieting foodie, and received one of the production's record 14 Tony nominations. She also appeared in the first Broadway runs of Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, as well as Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy. In 2017, she starred in Joshua Harmon's Significant Other.

Television audiences recognized her as the wife of the police captain on Barney Miller from 1975 to 1982. She later played the grandmother of Brooke Shields' character on Suddenly Susan from 1996 to 2000. Her film credits include Private Benjamin in 1980 and Judy Berlin in 1999, the latter earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She received two additional Emmy nominations for guest roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.

Barrie was married to Jay Harnick, the artistic director of TheatreworksUSA, from 1964 until his death in 2007. She survived him with her daughter Jane, her son Aaron, a Broadway producer, and three grandchildren. She wrote two novels and two books about overcoming rectal cancer and a colostomy. In 2014, she announced a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Her death marks the end of a career spanning six decades. The New York Times described her Cannes performance as perceptively naturalistic. She was discovered in a Flint, Michigan production of Taming of the Shrew. Her final public appearances included television guest roles and stage performances in New York. She remains a figure known for her naturalistic approach to acting.