Oscar-Nominated Actress Barbara Barrie Dies at 95

Barbara Barrie — who won Best Actress at Cannes for One Potato, Two Potato, a Tony nomination for Company, and Oscar and Emmy nominations for the same character — has died at the age of 95. News of her death was confirmed to the New York Times by her daughter, Jane Harnick. She said her mother’s death was “medically assisted” after a terminal cancer diagnosis.

Born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago in 1931, she adopted the stage name of Barrie early in her career. She made her Broadway debut in 1955, in The Wooden Dish. Around the same time, she had her film debut (uncredited) in Giant. In 1964, she starred in One Potato, Two Potato as a divorcee who has remarried a Black man. Her ex-husband files for sole custody because he fears their child growing up in a house with a man of color. “It was an odd, eerie day when that phone call came to Flint,” she told the NYT in 1964. “It was the very same day with police dogs and fire hoses in Alabama. I’m not a crusader, but it was a spooky coincidence.” Barrie won the Best Actress prize at Cannes that year for the part. The film was later nominated for Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards.  

In 1970, she originated the role of Sarah in Stephen Sondheim’s Company, alongside such luminaries as Elaine Stritch and George Coe. Although she does not sing in the musical, she does appear in the documentary of the cast recording. Barrie received an Obie and Drama Desk Award for her role in The Killdeer in 1974. Other stage credits included the original stage production of Neil Simon’s California Suite, and replacing Estelle Getty in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy. 

In 1979, Barrie played the mother of townie cyclist Dave Stohler in Breaking Away. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the role at the Oscars, and an Emmy nomination when she continued the role in the TV adaptation in 1981. From then on, she had the “feisty mother” niche on lock. She played Goldie Hawn’s mom in Private Benjamin, Edie Falco’s mom in Judy Berlin, Brooke Shields’s grandmother in Suddenly Susan, and Ellen Muth’s grandmother on Dead Like Me. 

Barrie married Jay Harnick in 1964. They met in an audition, became friends, and married a scant 12 years later. They stayed married until his death in 2007, and had two children. She is survived by daughter Jane, son Aaron, and three grandchildren.