Barbara Barrie Dies at 95, Ending Career Defined by Naturalism and Advocacy

Barbara Barrie, the actor who won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for a 1964 interracial romance, died Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 95. Her daughter, Jane Harnick, told The New York Times that Barrie suffered from terminal cancer and chose medically assisted death.

Barrie’s Cannes honor came for her role in "One Potato, Two Potato," directed by Larry Peerce. The black-and-white film, shot in Painesville, Ohio, depicted a white woman who marries an African-American office worker after her husband abandons them. The movie predated "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" by three years and is considered the first U.S. film to portray such a relationship. In a 1964 interview, Barrie noted that the offer to join the cast arrived the same day police dogs and fire hoses were used in Alabama. "I'm not a crusader, but it was a spooky coincidence," she said.

Her career spanned five decades and included a pivotal moment in the 1979 film "Breaking Away." Playing the mother of a teenager obsessed with bicycle racing, Barrie read a revised script and noticed her character had no scene with her son. She requested a "connecting scene," resulting in a moment where she shows her passport and urges him to follow his dreams. "That scene would not have been in the picture if I hadn't asked for it," she said in 2017. She received an Oscar nomination for the role but lost to Meryl Streep.

On stage, Barrie received a Tony nomination for playing Sarah in the original 1970 production of Stephen Sondheim’s "Company." The show received a then-record 14 Tony nominations. She also appeared in Broadway productions of Neil Simon’s "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" and "California Suite," as well as Harvey Fierstein’s "Torch Song Trilogy." In 2017, she performed in Joshua Harmon’s "Significant Other."

Television audiences recognized her as the wife of Hal Linden’s character on "Barney Miller" and as the grandmother on "Suddenly Susan." She portrayed Mamie Eisenhower in the 1979 miniseries "Backstairs at the White House" and earned Emmy nominations for guest roles on "Law & Order" and its spinoff. Her film credits included "Private Benjamin" and "Judy Berlin," the latter earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Barrie was born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931. She moved to Texas at age 9, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, and arrived in New York by train to work as a typist. She studied with Uta Hagen and performed at the American Shakespeare Theatre. In 2014, she publicly announced a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. She also wrote two novels and two books about overcoming rectal cancer and a colostomy.

Barrie was married to Jay Harnick, 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.