Tony Winner Barbara Harris Passes Away at 83

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that stage and screen star Barbara Harris has passed away after a battle with lung cancer, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She was 83 years old.

Harris was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Natalie (née Densmoor), an accomplished pianist, and Oscar Graham Harris, an arborist who later became a businessman. She began her stage career as a teenager at the Playwrights Theatre in Chicago. Her fellow players included Edward Asner, Elaine May and Mike Nichols.

A life member of The Actors Studio, Harris received a Tony nomination in 1962 for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her Broadway debut in the original musical revue production From the Second City.

She won a Theatre World Award for her role in playwright Arthur Kopit's dark comedic farce, Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. She earned a nomination for the 1966 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), a Broadway musical created for her by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane.

She also appeared on Broadway with Anne Bancroft in a 1963 production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, staged by Jerome Robbins, at the Martin Beck Theater; the production received five Tony Award nominations. Harris gave another memorable performance in The Apple Tree, another Broadway musical created for her, this time by the team of composer Jerry Bock and lyricist Sheldon Harnick, known best for Fiddler on the Roof.

Harris appeared in such movies as A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Harris has won a Tony Award and has been nominated for an Academy Award and received four Golden Globe Award nominations.