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YOU → get → story
Barbara Barrie, the scene-stealing star of stage and screens big and small, died at her home in New York City on Wednesday at 95.
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Barrie → steal → 95
The Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-nominated character actress ended her life via medical aid after she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
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she → nominate → cancer
Her medically assisted death was confirmed by her daughter, actress and writer Jane Harnick, in a statement to the New York Times.
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death → assist → Times
Barrie's signature role, as a nurturing mother in the big-screen hit Breaking Away, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1979.
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role → nurture → 1979
She lost the award to Meryl Streep, who took home her first Oscar that year for Kramer vs. Kramer.
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who → lose → Kramer
Barrie went on to earn an Emmy nod when she reprised her Breaking Away role in the short-lived 1981 television series based on the film.
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she → earn → film
Barbra Barrie, the scene-stealing star of stage and screens big and small, ended her life at her home in New York City on Wednesday via medical aid at the age of 95; seen in 2021
Her medically assisted death – following a terminal cancer diagnosis –was confirmed by her daughter, actress and writer Jane Harnick, to the New York Times; pictured on Suddenly Susan with (clockwise from left) Kathy Griffin, David Strickland, Brooke Shields, Nestor Carbonell and Judd Nelson
Barbara Ann Berman was born May 23, 1931, in Chicago.
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Berman → steal → Chicago
Her family relocated to Texas when she was nine, and she graduated from Corpus Christi Senior High School in 1948, followed by the University of Texas at Austin in 1952.
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she → relocate → 1952
The seven-decade showbiz veteran made her Broadway debut in 1955's The Wooden Dish, which closed after only 12 performances.
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which → make → performances
Barrie later made up for that truncated theatrical run with subsequent star turns in a pair of Neil Simon's '70s comedy classics: The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, as well as a run as Harvey Fierstein’s nagging mama in the groundbreaking Torch Song Trilogy in 1983.
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Barrie → make → 1983
She earned her Tony nomination for originating the role of fad-diet aficionado Sarah opposite Elaine Stritch in Stephen Sondheim's iconic 1970 musical, Company.
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She → earn → musical
'It changed my life, being in 'Company,' Barrie once wrote.
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Barrie → change → Company
'I didn't think I was going to be an actress.'
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I → think → ?
Her final appearances on the Great White Way came as the focus-pulling Yente in a 2004 revival of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, followed by a final bow in Joshua Harmon’s 2017 play Significant Others.
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appearances → come → play
The seven-decade showbiz veteran was perhaps best known to sitcom fans as the wife of eponymous cop Barney Miller (played by Hal Linden) from 1975 to 1982 on ABC, as well as her role as Brooke Shields’s eccentric grandmother on Suddenly Susan, a part of NBC's 'must-see TV' lineup from 1996 to 2000.
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veteran → know → 2000
Other silver screen highlights included an uncredited walk-on bit in the 1956 James Dean-Elizabeth Taylor classic Giant, and her role as weary mother of Goldie Hawn's spoiled society child in 1980's box-office smash Private Benjamin.
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highlights → include → smash
Barrie's signature role, as a nurturing mother in the big-screen hit Breaking Away, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in 1979.
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role → nurture → 1979
Barrie earned an Emmy nod when she reprised her role in the short-lived 1981 TV series based on the film; seen with Shaun Cassidy (L) and Vincent Gardenia (R) in 1980
Barrie and Dean Jones in the original New York City production of the Sondheim musical Company; pictured in the Broadway show circa 1970 with lead Dean Jones (R)
She also racked up additional Emmy nominations for her small screen work on Law & Order in 1992 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2003.
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She → earn → 2003
Her other TV guest star appearances ran the golden era gamut, from The Twilight Zone to The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
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appearances → run → Show
Barrie was also the author of four books published throughout the 1990s, including Second Act and Don’t Die of Embarrassment, nonfiction works that chronicled her life after colon and rectal cancer and fought the stigma of colostomy.
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that → publish → colostomy
'I think if I can get the word out on this thing, that will be my legacy,' Barrie told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1997.
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Barrie → think → 1997
In 2014, she announced that she had the degenerative disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, Variety reported.
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Variety → announce → disease
However, her first brush with career-making critical acclaim came via 1964's One Potato, Two Potato, the Larry Peerce indie film for which Barrie was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of a white woman with a young daughter who, after being abandoned by her husband (Richard Mulligan), falls in love and marries an African-American man (Bernie Hamilton).
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who → make → man
The Times raved that Barrie 'justifies the [Cannes] prize with a portrayal that is perceptively naturalistic.
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that → rave → portrayal
She is timid, worried and, finally, feminine in the extreme as a woman fighting against impossible odds in defense of her love and family.
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She → fight → love
'
Barrie told the outlet in 1964 she had fallen in love with filmmaking while shooting the then-controversial film.
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she → tell → film
'I thought — boy, this is exciting!
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this → think → ?
This is what I want,' she declared at the time.
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she → want → time
Max Gail, Barrie, Gregory Sierra, Jack Soo, Hal Linden, Ron Glass and Abe Vigoda in a cast photo for the sitcom Barney Miller, which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1982
Decades later in 2017, during her final bow on Broadway, Barrie reminded the Times that 'your life is more important than your work.'
Barrie was preceded in death by her husband Jay Harnick, founder and artistic director of TheaterWorksUSA, in 2007.
In addition to her daughter Jane, she is survived by her son, Aaron Harnick, as well as three granddaughters.
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she → run → son
The Aporia
