Barbara Barrie

Barbara Barrie (born May 23, 1931) is an American actress and author of children's books.

Personal life

Barrie was born as Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago, Illinois, of Jewish heritage,^[1] the daughter of Frances Rose (née Boruszak) and Louis Berman.^[2] She was raised in Texas. Barrie is a widow and the mother of two children, Aaron and Jane. Her late husband, Jay Harnick (d. 2007), was the brother of the musical lyricist Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof).

She was treated successfully for rectal cancer and wrote a memoir, Second Act: Life After Colostomy and Other Adventures, about the experience.

Career

Barrie has had a lengthy career on stage and in film and television. She received the award for Prix d'interprétation féminine (best actress - tied with Anne Bancroft) at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival for her role in "One Potato, Two Potato," a breakthrough film about an interracial marriage and institutionalized American anti-miscegenation. Her other high-profile roles have been as Susan's (Brooke Shields) grandmother on the sitcom Suddenly Susan, and as the title character's Hal Linden wife on the comedy-drama Barney Miller. In the mid-2000s, Barrie played a recurring role on the Showtime cable-TV drama series Dead Like Me.

In 1970, Barrie earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company, in which she played "Sarah", the weight-watching, karate-practicing married friend of the lead character, "Robert". Barrie is the author of two critically acclaimed novels for young adults: Lone Star (1989) and Adam Zigzag (1995).

A near-encounter with Barrie is the subject of Christine Lavin's song "The Moment Slipped Away."

Awards

• 1964 winner. Cannes Film Festival Prix d'interprétation féminine (Best Actress): as "Julie Richards" in One Potato, Two Potato. (Tied with Anne Bancroft for the Pumpkin Eater)
• 1970 nomination, Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical: as "Sarah" in Company
• 1980 nomination, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress: as "Evelyn Stoller", the mother of the main character in Breaking Away.

References

External links

• Barbara Barrie at the Internet Broadway Database
• Barbara Barrie at the Internet Movie Database
• Barbara Barrie at Allmovie