Barbara Barrie, Cannes Best Actress Winner, Dies at 95

Barbara Barrie, the veteran actor who built a career spanning Broadway, television, and film, has died. She was 95. The New York Times reported that she passed away on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan.

Barrie’s daughter, Jane Harnick, confirmed the news to the newspaper. She said Barrie had been living with terminal cancer and that her death was medically assisted. Barrie had publicly discussed her health struggles in the past, including a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2014.

Barrie’s career began in the early 1960s. She won the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the 1964 drama One Potato, Two Potato. Directed by Larry Peerce, the film was shot in black and white in Painesville, Ohio. It depicted a white woman who marries an African American office worker. The production is believed to be the first U.S. movie to portray such an interracial relationship.

She recalled receiving the role on the same day police dogs and fire hoses were used in Alabama. In a 1964 interview, she noted the timing. "I'm not a crusader, but it was a spooky coincidence," she said. The film marked a shift in her career from stage work in Michigan and New York to leading roles in cinema.

In 1979, Barrie earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Breaking Away. The film, set in Bloomington, Indiana, featured her as the mother of a teenager obsessed with bicycle racing. She requested a specific scene after reading the revised script. In that scene, she shows her passport to her son and encourages him to pursue his dreams. She lost the Oscar to Meryl Streep, who won for Kramer vs. Kramer.

On stage, Barrie played Sarah in the original 1970 to 1972 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. The show received 14 Tony nominations, a record at the time. She also appeared in the first Broadway runs of Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite. Her stage credits extended to Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy and Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other in 2017.

Television viewers recognized her from several long running roles. She played the wife of the police captain on Barney Miller from 1975 to 1982. She also appeared as a grandmother on Suddenly Susan from 1996 to 2000. Her other screen credits included Private Benjamin in 1980 and Judy Berlin in 1999. She received additional Emmy nominations for her work on Law and Order and its spinoff.

Barrie was born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931. She moved to Texas at age 9 and later attended the University of Texas at Austin. She arrived in New York by train and worked as a typist before studying with Uta Hagen. She was married to Jay Harnick, the artistic director of TheatreworksUSA, from 1964 until his death in 2007. She is survived by her daughter Jane, her son Aaron, a Broadway producer, and three grandchildren.