Barbara Barrie, Oscar-nominated actor, dies with medical assistance at 95
Oscar-nominated actor Barbara Barrie died Wednesday at her New York City home with medical assistance.
Her agent, Gary Gersh, confirmed in a statement Thursday that Barrie’s death was “medically assisted in accordance with the New York State Medical Aid in Dying law , of which she was a proponent and advocate.”
The law, which took effect Aug. 5, allows terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to obtain self-administered prescription medications to end their lives.
Barrie’s daughter, Jane Harnick, said her mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer but had always advocated “for the right to die on your own terms.”
“Her whole life, even before she was ill with anything, she always said, ‘When the time comes, I want to just take something and go to sleep.’ She used to talk about that,” Harnick said in a phone interview.
She said the law’s going into effect in August was perfect timing, because her mother “did not want to get to the point of having us watch her suffer.”
“She is just a huge proponent of the law and was so grateful to be able to do it her way,” Harnick said, adding that the family supported her “100%.”
Harnick said one of the most important things to her mother was for people to be able to discuss medically assisted deaths “without judgment.”
“She 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,” she said.
According to The New York Times , Barrie had also been living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis , a type of interstitial lung disease that causes breathing issues, fatigue and weight loss.
“I have a very full, active life, but what lies ahead is unknown and yet known at the same time,” Barrie told Playbill in a 2014 interview about her lung disease diagnosis. “I am living full steam ahead and am now trying to help other people do the same.”
Barrie was best known for her role as Evelyn Stohler in the 1979 movie “Breaking Away,” which earned her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination.
In 1971, Barrie was nominated for a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical for “Company.” Her other stage credits included “The Selling of the President” and “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.”
She also received Emmy nominations for her roles in “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Breaking Away,” a television series based on the movie. Other notable films included “Private Benjamin” and the television series “Double Trouble” and “Suddenly Susan.”
Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.