Barbara Barrie, the Oscar-nominated actress who played Barney’s wife on “Barney Miller” and the mom in “Breaking Away,” died Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 95.
Her daughter, Jane Harnick, confirmed her death to The New York Times, according to Playbill.
What Was Barbara Barrie’s Cause of Death?
Barrie had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis, and her death was “chosen and medically assisted,” her daughter told the Times. The family hasn’t said what kind of cancer it was.
It wasn’t the first time she’d dealt with cancer. She was treated for rectal cancer in 1994 and ended up with a colostomy, then wrote two books about it, “Second Act” and “Don’t Die of Embarrassment.” In 2014, she said she had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease with no cure.
“It’s not the end of the world. What I’m trying to tell people is that you can have this thing and survive it,” she told the Sun Sentinel in 1997, talking about her cancer, per Closer Weekly.
From Cannes to ‘Barney Miller’
She was born Barbara Ann Berman on May 23, 1931, in Chicago, grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and studied drama at the University of Texas at Austin.
Her first lead role in a movie, in 1964’s “One Potato, Two Potato,” won her best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
On TV, she played Elizabeth Miller, the wife of Hal Linden’s Capt. Barney Miller, on ABC’s “Barney Miller” from 1975 to 1978.
The ‘Breaking Away’ Mom
The role most people remember came in 1979. In “Breaking Away,” she played Evelyn Stoller, the mom of a small-town Indiana kid obsessed with Italian bike racing. It earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
A year later, she played Goldie Hawn’s mother in “Private Benjamin.” She kept working on TV for decades, in “Suddenly Susan” and “Dead Like Me,” and a guest spot on “Law & Order” got her an Emmy nomination in 1992.
The Original ‘Company’
She was just as busy on Broadway. In 1970, she was the original Sarah in Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” a role that earned her a Tony nomination. She was also in the original runs of “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” “California Suite” and “Torch Song Trilogy,” Playbill noted.
Barrie was married to director and producer Jay Harnick from 1964 until his death in 2007. She is survived by her children, Jane and Aaron, and three granddaughters.
