Barbara Barrie, Oscar-Nominated Actress, Ends Her Life Through Medical Aid at 95 After Terminal Cancer Diagnosis

Victoria Edel, Jack SmartWed, October 28, 2026 at 8:50 PM UTC

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Barbara Barrie. -

Barbara Barrie has died at the age of 95

The actress was known for her Oscar-nominated role in 1979’s Breaking Away, as well as the TV series Barney Miller and Suddenly Susan

After her rectal cancer diagnosis, Barrie wrote books to raise awareness and reduce stigma

Barbara Barrie has died at the age of 95.

The acclaimed actress died on Wednesday, Oct. 28 at her Manhattan home following a terminal cancer diagnosis, The New York Times reports. Her daughter, Jane Harnick, said her mother’s death was medically assisted.

Barrie’s career included roles on stage, in film and on television. On Broadway, she received a Tony nomination for her performance in the original production of Stephen Sondheim‘s Company. She was Oscar-nominated for her work in 1979’s Breaking Away. And on TV, she starred on Barney Miller and Suddenly Susan.

Barrie was born Barbara Berman in Chicago in 1931. Her family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, and she attended Del Mar College, where she majored in journalism, but quickly became interested in acting. She didn’t think the transition was strange. “After all, they’re both creative,” she told the Akron Beacon Journal in 1963.

Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton in 1964’s ‘One Potato, Two Potato’Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection

She transferred to the University of Texas, where she received multiple awards for drama, and after graduation, she headed to New York.

“To tell you the truth, the only reason I went was because I had a boyfriend who was living there,” she told the outlet. “We were supposed to get married, but couldn’t right away. Since I had gone to all the trouble of moving to New York, I figured I might as well try to act.”

She began working on the stage and never expected to make the jump to TV and films. “I weighed 138 pounds, had a crooked teeth and a long nose,” she told the Journal. “When I thought of acting, I thought of the stage, nothing else.”

Dean Jones and Barbara Barrie in ‘Company’ in 1970.Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty

Barrie made her Broadway debut in The Wooden Dish in 1955. In 1959, she appeared in The Beaux Stratagem, and in 1966, she starred in Happily Never After.

Barrie’s film debut came in 1956’s Giant, a role that came about because she was visiting her family when the movie was filming in Corpus Christi. But her most significant early career success came on television. Her many TV roles in the ‘50s and ‘60s included episodes of The Defenders, Route 66, Naked City, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Fugitive.

In 1964, she married actor, director and producer Jay Harnick. They had two children, Jane, born in 1965, and Aaron, born in 1969.

From left: Paul Dooley, Dennis Christopher and Barbara Barrie in 1979’s ‘Breaking Away’Credit: Photo 12/Alamy Stock Photo

Barrie’s first big film role was in 1964’s One Potato, Two Potato. The film depicted an interracial relationship between Barrie, a divorcée, and a man she meets at work, played by Bernie Hamilton, who was Black. Barrie won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for the movie.

“To me the story of the picture is primarily the dilemma of a woman. The racial part seemed coincidental,” she told The New York Times in 1964. “Since we actresses are all narcissistic people, I read it for the part first. Then the situation seemed eminently playable.”

“When we began to dig in and work on One Potato, I really saw what films are all about,” she said. “I thought—hoy, this is exciting! This is what I want. It is, too.”

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Barbara Barrie on ‘Barney Miller’ in 1978.Credit: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

In 1970, Barrie appeared in the Broadway production of Company as Sarah and received a Tony nomination. Sondheim’s music was famously difficult to learn, but Barrie had an ace in the hole — her husband. She told The Observer in 2017 that one day when the cast was struggling with the music, which she called “impossible,” she took the score home to Harnick. She explained he was “a sight singer,” adding, “He could look at any piece of music, and he could sing it immediately. After we put the kids to bed, we worked on it about three and a half hours — I don’t read music, he taught it to me — and the next day, I was the only one who knew it.”

Barrie’s love of her husband and children ran deep. Company‘s subject matter is marriage, and when discussing the show in 1970 with Playbill, she said, “I’m very boring about my children. They give me such joy that’s all I talk about.”

Barbara Barrie in ‘Pushing Daisies’ in 2007.Credit: Ron Jaffe/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

“You know what my personal image of marriage is?” she said. “Lying on our bed Sunday morning with the Times spread out and the radio playing music and the kids squealing and laughing in the pillows with us. Somebody called marriage ‘the density of living.’ I think that’s a perfect description, don’t you?” Harnick died in 2007.

Barrie’s biggest movie role came in 1979’s Breaking Away, a drama about four boys who graduate from high school and are wondering what to do next. The film was nominated for five Oscars, including best supporting actress for Barrie — but when she first read the script, her role wasn’t originally as meaty as it ended up being.

”I called the director and said, ‘There’s no scene between the mother and the boy. We don’t even say, Do you want breakfast?”’ she remembered to Entertainment Weekly in 2012. Screenwriter Steve Tesich added a scene where she tells her son she keeps her passport on her all the time.

Sas Goldberg and Barbara Barrie in ‘Significant Other’ on Broadway in 2017.Credit: Walter McBride/WireImage

”We had no idea this movie was going to become what it became,” Barrie told EW. ”But it had so much humanity. It’s a movie about American life: about the haves and have-nots, about the idea that you can do anything if you try hard enough.”

Meanwhile on television, Barrie played Barney Miller’s wife Elizabeth in 11 episodes of the hit comedy series. Breaking Away was adapted into a TV series that ran for one year, which earned Barrie her first Emmy nomination. Other TV roles included Tucker’s Witch, ​​Double Trouble and the Brooke Shields sitcom Suddenly Susan.

Barrie also received two Emmy nominations for appearances on Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. Her appearance on the latter was a sort-of full-circle moment, because she went to college with SVU star Mariska Hargitay’s mother Jayne Mansfield. She also appeared on Broadway many more times, including in the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof — for which the music was written by her brother-in-law Sheldon Harnick.

Barbara Barrie in 2021.Credit: John Lamparski/Getty

In 1994, Barrie was diagnosed with rectal cancer. She had a family history of the disease, but didn’t know it. “My cousins called me and said, ‘Didn’t you know this is a disease that’s been running in our family for three generations?’ No, I didn’t know this was in our family because in those days, you didn’t say rectum, or cancer,” she told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1997.

Because of the stigma, Barrie became a passionate advocate for raising awareness about rectal and colon cancer, and she wrote two books about her illness: 1997’s Second Act and 1999’s Don’t Die of Embarrassment. “I think if I can get the word out on this thing, that will be my legacy,” she told the outlet.

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The actress didn’t care about awards. “I can’t stand that kind of thing,” she told The New York Times in 2017. “I can’t stand it. Your life is more important than your work.”

Barrie is survived by her two children.

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