Barbara Barrie, 'Breaking Away' star and actor who was not just any on-screen mom, dies at 95

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Set us as preferred Actor Barbara Barrie, best known for films in which she elevated the role of Mom — including her Oscar-nominated turn in “Breaking Away” (1979) — died Wednesday in her Manhattan home.She was 95.Barrie’s death was confirmed to the L.A.

Times by the actor’s representatives, who said it was medically assisted.Her daughter, Jane Harnick, told the New York Times that her mother’s death followed a terminal cancer diagnosis.Barrie’s representatives said in a statement to the L.A.

Times that the actor was a proponent and advocate of New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act, a law that took effect on Aug.5.Born Barbara Berman in Chicago in 1931, Barrie and her family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, where she attended Del Mar College.

She would later transfer to the University of Texas, where she received multiple awards for drama.After graduation, she took her acting dreams to the Big Apple, where she made her Broadway debut in the 1955 play “The Wooden Dish.” Throughout her career, Barrie starred in various Broadway productions, among them “The Selling of the President” (1972), “California Suite” (1976) and, most notably, the 1970 musical “Company,” by Stephen Sondheim, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for featured actress in a musical.Her last Broadway stint was in 2017 in the original role of Helene Berman in the Joshua Harmon play “Significant Other.”Barrie extended her acting expertise beyond the stage, however, making her first television appearance on “Kraft Television Theater” in 1955.A year later, she made her film debut, albeit uncredited, in the western epic “Giant” while she was in Texas visiting her family.With more than 120 credits to her name, Barrie began appearing in popular TV shows in the 1950s and ’60s, such as “Naked City,” “The T...