Barbara Barrie papers

1949-2008

Barbara Barrie is an American actress and author. She was born as Barbara Ann Berman on May 23, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois to Louis Berman and Frances Rose Boruszak. She was raised in Corpus Christi, Texas and graduated from Corpus Christi Senior High School. In 1953, Barrie received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In July of 1964, she married Jay Malcolm Harnick, a director and producer. They had two children, Jane Caroline Harnick and Aaron Louis Harnick.

Barrie's career as an actress began in the 1950s. The Wooden Dish, 1955, was her Broadway debut, and in 1956 she began television appearances. Barrie won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award (shared with Anne Bancroft) for One Potato, Two Potato in 1964. In 1971, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the musical Company and in 1979 she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in Breaking Away. She received another nomination for Breaking Away in 1981: an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Barrie is the author of two novels, Lone Star (1989) and Adam Zigzag (1995), and a memoir, Second Act: Life after Colostomy and Other Adventures (1997). Second Act was written after Barrie's battle with rectal cancer. From 1996 to 2000, Barrie played the grandmother on the television series Suddenly Susan. She continues to act, making episode appearances in television series; her most recent appearance was in 2011 as Carol in Enlightened, Season 1, Episode 9.