'Breaking Away' Oscar nominee Barbara Barrie dies aged 95 with medical assistance under the New York law she championed
Barbara Barrie, who once said she only moved to New York for a boyfriend and stumbled into acting almost by accident, died aged 95 on Wednesday.
Barbara Barrie, the Oscar-nominated actress who became an advocate for New York's Medical Aid in Dying law, chose to use that very legislation to end her life at her Manhattan home on Wednesday aged 95. Her daughter Jane Harnick confirmed the death was medically assisted following a terminal cancer diagnosis. Barrie had also lived with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease she disclosed publicly in 2014.
New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act, signed into law in February by Governor Kathy Hochul, only took effect on 5 August this year.
Barrie won the Best Actress prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival for 'One Potato, Two Potato', a groundbreaking film about an interracial relationship.
Co-star Shaun Cassidy paid tribute on Instagram, thanking her for her 'wisdom, kindness and boundless talent.'
