{"id":899103,"date":"2026-10-29T19:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899103\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T19:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:56:18","slug":"barbara-barrie-oscar-nominated-actor-dies-with-medical-assistance-at-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/899103\/","title":{"rendered":"Barbara Barrie, Oscar-nominated actor, dies with medical assistance at 95"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oscar-nominated actor Barbara Barrie died Wednesday at her New York City home with medical assistance. <\/p>\n

She was 95. <\/p>\n

Her agent, Gary Gersh, confirmed to NBC News in a statement Thursday that Barrie\u2019s death was \u201cmedically assisted in accordance with the New York State Medical Aid in Dying law<\/a>, of which she was a proponent and advocate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The law took effect on Aug. 5 and allows terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to obtain a self-administered prescription medication to end their lives. <\/p>\n

Barrie\u2019s daughter, Jane Harnick, said her mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer but had always advocated \u201cfor the right to die on your own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer whole life, even before she was ill with anything, she always said, \u2018When the time comes, I want to just take something and go to sleep.\u2019 She used to talk about that,\u201d Harnick said in a phone interview. <\/p>\n

She said the law going into effect in August was perfect timing because her mother \u201cdid not want to get to the point of having us watch her suffer,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is just a huge proponent of the law and was so grateful to be able to do it her way,\u201d Harnick said, adding that the family supported her \u201c100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harnick said one of the most important things to her mother was people being able to discuss medically assisted deaths \u201cwithout judgment.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cShe was 95. She had done everything she wanted in life. She had her family. She had her house. She lived in her favorite city, and she experienced it all to the fullest. And she was ready. She was so ready,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to The New York Times<\/a>, Barrie had also been living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis<\/a>, a type of interstitial lung disease that causes breathing issues, fatigue and weight loss. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a very full, active life, but what lies ahead is unknown and yet known at the same time,\u201d Barrie told Playbill<\/a> in a 2014 interview about her lung disease diagnosis. \u201cI am living full steam ahead and am now trying to help other people do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Dooley, Dennis Christopher, and Barbara Barrie in “Breaking Away.”20th Century Fox \/ Courtesy Everett <\/p>\n

Barrie was best known for her role as Evelyn Stohler in the 1979 movie \u201cBreaking Away,\u201d which earned her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination. <\/p>\n

In 1971, Barrie was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical for \u201cCompany,\u201d Broadway.com reported<\/a>. Her other stage credits included \u201cThe Selling of the President\u201d and \u201cThe Prisoner of Second Avenue.\u201d <\/p>\n

She also received Emmy nominations for her roles in \u201cLaw & Order\u201d and \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit\u201d and \u201cBreaking Away,\u201d a television series based on the movie. Other notable films included \u201cPrivate Benjamin\u201d and the television series \u201cDouble Trouble\u201d and \u201cSuddenly Susan.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oscar-nominated actor Barbara Barrie died Wednesday at her New York City home with medical assistance. She was 95.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-899103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}