Barbara Barrie, who added a key scene to Breaking Away, has died

Barbara Barrie, the actress known for reshaping a pivotal moment in Breaking Away and winning top honors at Cannes, has died. She was 95. The New York Times reported that she died Wednesday at her home in Manhattan.

Her daughter, Jane Harnick, confirmed the death to the newspaper. Harnick stated that Barrie had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and that her death was medically assisted.

Barrie’s early career breakthrough came with the 1964 drama One Potato, Two Potato. Directed by Larry Peerce, the black and white film was shot in Painesville, Ohio. In the story, she played a white woman who marries an African American office worker after her husband abandons her. The film is believed to be the first U.S. movie to portray such an interracial relationship. It arrived three years before Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

She won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for that performance. In a 1964 interview with the Times, she recalled receiving the call about the role on the same day police dogs and fire hoses were used in Alabama. She noted the coincidence was spooky, even though she did not consider herself a crusader.

Barrie found wider fame in the 1979 film Breaking Away. Set in Bloomington, Indiana, the movie followed a teenager obsessed with Italian bicycle racing. Barrie played his mother. After reading a revised script, she noticed the son shared traits with his mother but had no dedicated scene with her. She asked the director for a connecting scene.

The result was a moment where the character shows her passport to her son and urges him to follow his dreams. Barrie said in a 2017 interview that the scene would not have been in the picture if she had not asked for it. She earned an Oscar nomination for the role but lost to Meryl Streep, who won for Kramer vs. Kramer. She reprised the role in a short lived ABC series adaptation in 1980 and 1981, earning an Emmy nomination for that work.

On stage, Barrie was a central figure in the original production of Stephen Sondheim's Company. She played Sarah, a character described as a dieting foodie. The show ran from 1970 to 1972 and received a then record setting 14 Tony nominations. Her stage credits also included Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue and California Suite, Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, and Joshua Harmon's Significant Other in 2017.

Television viewers recognized her from the series Barney Miller, which aired from 1975 to 1982. She played the wife of the police captain portrayed by Hal Linden. She also appeared as a grandmother on Suddenly Susan from 1996 to 2000. Her film credits included Private Benjamin in 1980 and Judy Berlin in 1999, the latter earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination. She received two more Emmy nominations for guest roles on Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU.

Born Barbara Ann Berman in Chicago on May 23, 1931, she moved to Texas at age 9. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin before moving to New York by train. She worked as a typist and made her Broadway debut in The Wooden Dish. She studied with Uta Hagen and worked at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. She wrote two novels and two books about overcoming rectal cancer and a colostomy. She announced a diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2014.

Barrie was married to Jay Harnick, the longtime artistic director of TheatreworksUSA, from 1964 until his death in 2007. She is survived by her daughter Jane, her son Aaron, a Broadway producer, and three grandchildren.