Barbara Barrie Dies at 95, Ending a 60-Year Stage and Screen Career

Q: How did Barbara Barrie turn personal battles with cancer into books, and what does that reveal about her life beyond acting?

Barbara Barrie turned her cancer experience into memoir and advocacy. After surviving rectal cancer in the 1990s and living with a colostomy, she wrote *Second Act* (1997) and *Don’t Die of Embarrassment* (1999), drawing directly on the physical and emotional realities of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Those books were not just personal reflections. Reports about her writing say Barrie wanted to reduce the stigma around colorectal cancer and encourage early detection. The title *Don’t Die of Embarrassment* itself underscored her message: shame and silence about symptoms could keep people from seeking lifesaving care. In speaking publicly, she also tried to normalize life after surgery, including the long-term realities of a colostomy. That reveals a life beyond acting marked by candor, resilience and public service. Barrie was not only an acclaimed stage and screen performer; she was also an author who used her own vulnerability to help others. Her response to illness suggests she saw storytelling as more than performance — it was a way to educate, comfort and push back against taboo. It also fits a broader picture of Barrie as a multifaceted creative figure. In addition to those cancer memoirs, she wrote children’s and young-adult books, showing that her work extended well beyond the roles that brought her Oscar, Emmy and Tony recognition.

3 articles · Updated · Variety · Oct 28

Barbara Barrie, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-nominated actress, died Wednesday in Manhattan at 95 after a medically assisted death following a terminal cancer diagnosis, her daughter told the New York Times.
More than 60 years onstage defined her career: she debuted on Broadway in 1955, joined the original cast of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” and earned a Tony nomination for playing Sarah.
On screen, Barrie won Cannes best actress for 1964’s “One Potato, Two Potato” and received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for 1979’s “Breaking Away.”
Television brought Emmy nominations for the “Breaking Away” adaptation and for appearances on “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: SVU.”
Born in Chicago in 1931 and raised in Texas, Barrie also wrote two books about her cancer battle in the 1990s and later disclosed Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2014.