Actress Barbara Barrie Dies at 95

Barbara Barrie, the actress recognized for her roles in the films One Potato, Two Potato and Breaking Away, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 95 years old. Her daughter, Jane Harnick, told The New York Times that Barrie had terminal cancer and that her death was medically assisted.

Barrie’s career spanned nearly seven decades across film, television, and Broadway. She was born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931. The family moved to Texas when she was nine, and she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Classmates included actors Rip Torn, Jayne Mansfield, and Liz Smith. She later moved to New York to pursue acting, initially working as a typist to cover her rent.

Her early stage work included a role in The Wooden Dish and a walk-on part in the 1956 film Giant. A recommendation from Katharine Hepburn led to two seasons with John Houseman’s American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. In the early 1960s, she toured Europe with the State Department’s production of The Miracle Worker. She was spotted by a producer in Flint, Michigan, while performing in Taming of the Shrew, which led to her breakthrough film role.

In 1964, Barrie starred in One Potato, Two Potato, a black and white drama directed by Larry Peerce. The film depicted an interracial romance in Painesville, Ohio, and is believed to be the first U.S. movie to portray such a relationship. Barrie received the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for the performance. The New York Times noted that she justified the prize with a naturalistic portrayal of a woman fighting against impossible odds.

She gained wider recognition in 1979 for her supporting role in the coming-of-age film Breaking Away. Barrie played the mother of a teenager obsessed with Italian bicycle racing. She received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for the part. In a 2017 interview, she recalled asking director Peter Yates for a scene where she shows her passport to her son and encourages him to follow his dreams. She said that scene would not have existed if she had not requested it. She lost the Oscar to Meryl Streep, who won for Kramer vs. Kramer.

Barrie also performed on Broadway in the original production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, receiving one of its 14 Tony nominations. She appeared in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, as well as Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy. On television, she had recurring roles on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller and the NBC series Suddenly Susan. She also starred in the 1980-81 ABC adaptation of Breaking Away, which earned her an Emmy nomination.

The actress wrote novels including Lone Star and Adam Zigzag. She disclosed a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2014. In 2008, she donated career items to the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library. She was married to Jay Harnick from 1964 until his death in 2007. Survivors include her daughter, son Aaron, and three grandchildren.