Barbara Barrie, Known for Role in Breaking Away, Has Died

Barbara Barrie, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in the 1979 film Breaking Away, died Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 95. Her daughter, Jane Harnick, told The New York Times that Barrie had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that her death was medically assisted.

Her most acclaimed cinematic work arrived early in her career. In 1964, she won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for One Potato, Two Potato. Directed by Larry Peerce, the black-and-white drama depicted a white woman who marries an African-American office worker after being abandoned by her husband. Filmed in Painesville, Ohio, the picture is widely considered the first U.S. movie to portray such an interracial relationship. The New York Times noted that her performance justified the prize with a portrayal that was perceptively naturalistic.

Barrie secured that role after a director spotted her in a production of Taming of the Shrew in Flint, Michigan. She recalled in a 1964 interview that the call came on the same day police used fire hoses in Alabama. She described the timing as a spooky coincidence, adding that she was not a crusader.

Decades later, she became a familiar face on American screens. In Breaking Away, set in Bloomington, Indiana, she played the mother of a teenager obsessed with bicycle racing. After reading a revised script, she noticed her character had no scene with her son despite their shared personality. She asked for a connecting scene, which resulted in her showing her son her passport and urging him to follow his dreams. She stated in a 2017 interview that the moment would not have existed without her request. She lost the Academy Award to Meryl Streep for Kramer vs. Kramer. She reprised the role in a short-lived ABC television series in 1980, earning an Emmy nomination.

On the Broadway stage, she played Sarah, the dieting foodie, in the original 1970 production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. The show received a then record 14 Tony nominations. Her other stage credits include the first runs of Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, as well as Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy. She returned to Broadway in 2017 for Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other.

Television viewers also knew her from other roles. She appeared as the wife of the police captain on Barney Miller from 1975 to 1982. She played a grandmother in Suddenly Susan from 1996 to 2000. She portrayed Mamie Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries Backstairs at the White House. She earned additional Emmy nominations for guest appearances on Law & Order and its spinoff series. Her film credits include Private Benjamin and Judy Berlin, the latter earning her an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

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 studied with Uta Hagen and worked at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. She authored two novels and two books about overcoming rectal cancer and a colostomy. In 2014, she announced a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Barrie 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.