Oscar-nominated actress Barbara Barrie has died at the age of 95.<\/p>\n
The family of the theatre, television and movie veteran confirmed on Wednesday, local time, that she passed away at her home in Manhattan, New York, with medical assistance following a battle with a degenerative health condition.<\/p>\n
Daughter Jane Harnick\u2019s announcement capped off Barrie\u2019s 12-year health battle that started in 2014 when she announced her diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative disease that attacks the lungs.<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Nightly’s newsletters.<\/p>\n
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n She was probably best known to big screen fans as the supportive mother of an Indiana teen in 1979 movie Breaking Away, with Barrie scoring an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. She also earned an Emmy nomination for the same role when she filled it again for a television adaptation in 1981.<\/p>\n Her movie promise was evident 15 years earlier when she was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964 for drama One Potato, Two Potato.<\/p>\n On the small screen, she scored roles in long-running sitcom series such as the wife of Hal Linden\u2019s police captain on Barney Miller as well as the grandmother to Brooke Shields\u2019 titular character on Suddenly Susan.<\/p>\n She also earned a Tony nomination for her work on Broadway as Sarah in Stephen Sondheim\u2019s lauded 1970 musical Company.<\/p>\n Barbara Ann Berman was born in Chicago on May 23, 1931, the second child and only daughter of Louis Berman, an insurance salesman, and Frances (Boruszak) Berman, The New York Times reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n After the family\u2019s move to Texas during her childhood, she grew up in Corpus Christi and graduated as a drama major at the University of Texas in 1952.<\/p>\n She moved to New York that same decade, eventually scoring television jobs before focusing on theatre productions and making her Broadway debut in the 1955 comedy The Wooden Dish.<\/p>\n She went on to a number of Broadway and off-Broadway roles, including Elizabeth Proctor in Arthur Miller\u2019s The Crucible, Hermia in Shakespeare\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream and Helena in All\u2019s Well That Ends Well.<\/p>\n Her first credited film role was in 1963\u2019s The Caretakers, as a mental patient. Apart from Breaking Away, she filled a number of roles on the Big Screen, including as the mother of Goldie Hawn\u2019s titular character in 1980 hit comedy Private Benjamin.<\/p>\n She tol The Times in 1964 that she had fallen in love with filmmaking early, while shooting One Potato, Two Potato.\u201d<\/p>\n