Barbara Barrie, the award-winning actress whose career spanned acclaimed films, Broadway productions and popular television comedies, has died at 95. Her daughter confirmed that the actress received medical assistance in dying after battling terminal cancer.
Barrie died on Wednesday, October 28, at her home in Manhattan, her daughter Jane Harnick told The New York Times. She had also been diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive lung disease that causes scarring of lung tissue and makes breathing increasingly difficult.
Although many television viewers remember Barrie as the grandmother in the 1990s sitcom Suddenly Susan, her career included some of the most significant performances in American film and theatre.
One of her earliest major achievements came in 1964, when she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for One Potato, Two Potato. She played Julie, a woman whose interracial relationship becomes the centre of a custody dispute. The film examined racial prejudice and family relationships at a time when such subjects were rarely addressed so directly on screen.
Barrie later earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Evelyn Stohler in the 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama Breaking Away.
The film, which also featured a young Dennis Quaid, followed a group of recent high school graduates in Bloomington, Indiana. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Barrie continued playing Evelyn Stohler in the television adaptation of Breaking Away, earning an Emmy nomination in 1981.
Her success was not limited to the screen. In 1971, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress for her performance as Sarah in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical Company.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Barrie remained a familiar face on television and in films. She portrayed Elizabeth Miller, the wife of the title character, in the sitcom Barney Miller from 1975 to 1978. She also appeared as Goldie Hawn’s mother in the 1980 comedy Private Benjamin.
Barrie was reintroduced to a whole new generation in 1996 through her role in the NBC sitcom “Suddenly Susan” starring Brooke Shields. As Susan’s grandmother popularly called Nana, she appeared in the series for its four seasons.
Beyond acting, Barrie was an author who used her personal experiences with illness to raise awareness about cancer.
She was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 1994 and subsequently spoke publicly about the disease. In an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, she explained why she wanted others to learn from her experience.
“If I can get the word out on this thing, that will be my legacy,” she said.
Her writing included two nonfiction books addressing cancer, Second Act (1997) and Don’t Die of Embarrassment (1999). She also published the children’s books Lone Star in 1990 and Adam Zigzag in 1994.
Barrie’s professional life encompassed film, theatre, television and literature, with major award recognition across several decades. Her roles ranged from serious portrayals of complicated family relationships to the warm, humorous characters that made her familiar to sitcom audiences.
She is survived by her daughter Jane Harnick, son Aaron Harnick and three grandchildren. Her husband, theatrical director Jay Harnick, died in 2007.
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