# Barbara Harris (actress)
**Barbara Harris** (full name Barbara Densmoor Harris; July 25, 1935 – August 21, 2018) was an American actress known for stage and screen work, and a founding figure of modern improvisational theater as an original member of the Compass Players and [The Second City](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-second-city) in Chicago.[1](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/barbara-harris/) • [2](https://www.secondcity.com/people/barbara-harris) She won the 1967 [Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-award-for-best-actress-in-a-musical) for *The Apple Tree* and was nominated for an [Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-supporting-actress) for *Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?*[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [4](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | July 25, 1935, Evanston, Illinois; August 21, 2018, Scottsdale, Arizona, of lung cancer, at age 83[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233) |
| Improv pioneer | Original cast member of The Second City; appeared as the theater's very first performer in its first show on December 16, 1959[2](https://www.secondcity.com/people/barbara-harris) |
| Tony Award | Best Actress in a Musical, 1967, for *The Apple Tree*, playing Eve, Passionella, and Princess Barbara; two earlier Tony nominations (1962, 1966)[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [6](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039) |
| Oscar nomination | Actress in a Supporting Role at the 44th Academy Awards (April 10, 1972) for *Who Is Harry Kellerman...* (1971)[4](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972) |
| Notable films | *A Thousand Clowns* (1965), *Nashville*, *Freaky Friday*, *Family Plot* (both 1976), *Peggy Sue Got Married* (1986), *Dirty Rotten Scoundrels* (1988), *Grosse Pointe Blank* (1997)[5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233) |
| Later career | Left acting after her final screen performance in *Grosse Pointe Blank* and taught improv[5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233) |
## Early life and improvisational theater
Harris was born in [Evanston, Illinois](https://www.edgepedia.org/evanston-illinois), and began acting while still a teenager in Chicago, playing small parts at the Playwrights Theatre Club alongside Edward Asner, Mike Nichols, and [Elaine May](https://www.edgepedia.org/elaine-may).[7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364455/bio/) She attended Wilbur Wright College before beginning her stage career, and also studied at the Goodman Theater School and the University of Chicago.[1](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/barbara-harris/) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harris-barbara)
She joined the Compass Players, the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe in the United States, directed by Paul Sills, whom she married in 1955; by 1958 both the troupe and the marriage had ended.[1](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/barbara-harris/) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364455/bio/) Sills went on to co-found The Second City, where Harris appeared as the theater's very first performer in its first show on December 16, 1959, opening the evening in a spotlight singing "Everybody's in the Know."[2](https://www.secondcity.com/people/barbara-harris) The Television Academy biography describes her as a co-founder of the troupe.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) She is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneering women in improvisational theater.[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harris-barbara)
## Broadway career
Harris made her Broadway debut in *From the Second City* (1961), which brought a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.[6](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039) In 1962 she won both the Theatre World Award and the Vernon Rice Award for the original [Off-Broadway](https://www.edgepedia.org/off-broadway) production of Arthur Kopit's *Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad*, directed by [Jerome Robbins](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerome-robbins).[6](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039) • [9](https://fkks.com/uploads/news/Jerome-Robbins-Vol-6-No-1.pdf) Her other Broadway appearances included *Mother Courage and Her Children* (1963), playing Yvette Pottier, and *On a Clear Day You Can See Forever* (1965), in which she originated the roles of Daisy Gamble and Melinda Wells and earned a 1966 Best Actress nomination.[6](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039)
**The Apple Tree.** In 1966 Harris starred with [Alan Alda](https://www.edgepedia.org/alan-alda) and Larry Blyden in *The Apple Tree*, a three-act musical by Jerry Bock and [Sheldon Harnick](https://www.edgepedia.org/sheldon-harnick) based on tales by [Mark Twain](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-twain), Frank R. Stockton, and Jules Feiffer. The show ran 280 performances and, despite mixed reviews, her performances in three roles won her the 1967 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical.[10](https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/barbara-harris/) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) After *The Apple Tree* she largely left the New York stage, apart from a 1970 off-Broadway appearance as Jenny in the first American production of Brecht and Weill's *Mahagonny*, and turned to film.[10](https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/barbara-harris/) She explained the move in a 2002 interview: "Who wants to be up on the stage all the time? ... You have to be awfully invested in the fame aspect, and I really never was."[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/21/barbara-harris-nashville-freaky-friday-actor-dies-at-83)
## Film career
Harris made her film debut in *A Thousand Clowns* (1965) with [Jason Robards](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-robards) and [Martin Balsam](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-balsam), earning her first Golden Globe nomination, for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, as Sandra.[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harris-barbara) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) She worked with leading directors including [Alfred Hitchcock](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfred-hitchcock), Francis Ford Coppola, and Robert Altman.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) Her 1971 role as Allison Densmore in *Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?*, opposite Dustin Hoffman, brought a nomination for Actress in a Supporting Role at the 44th Academy Awards, where the award went to Cloris Leachman for *The Last Picture Show*.[4](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972)
In Altman's *Nashville* she played Albuquerque and received a supporting actress Golden Globe nomination.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) In 1976 she appeared in two films released the same year, playing the mother in Disney's *Freaky Friday* opposite [Jodie Foster](https://www.edgepedia.org/jodie-foster), and starring in Hitchcock's final film, *Family Plot*; both brought Best Actress Golden Globe nominations in 1977.[12](https://elpais.com/icon/2024-09-04/hoy-esta-pelicula-no-se-estrenaria-en-cines-la-nostalgia-y-la-revancha-que-han-reunido-a-disney-y-a-lindsay-lohan.html) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) Later films included *Peggy Sue Got Married* (1986), in which she played [Kathleen Turner](https://www.edgepedia.org/kathleen-turner)'s mother for Coppola, *Dirty Rotten Scoundrels* (1988), and *Grosse Pointe Blank* (1997), her final screen performance.[1](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/barbara-harris/) • [5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233)
The count of her Golden Globe nominations differs between sources: the Television Academy describes four (1966, *Nashville*, and the two 1977 nominations), while the Northwestern University finding aid for her papers records three.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233)
## Television and later years
Her television appearances included episodes of *Alfred Hitchcock Presents*, *Naked City*, *The Defenders*, and *Middle Ages* (1992).[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [7](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364455/bio/) Around the time of her final film she began teaching improv.[5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233) Her papers, spanning 1961 to 2018 and including playbills, teaching notes, and photographs, are held by the Northwestern University Archives.[5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233)
Harris died of lung cancer on August 21, 2018, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at 83.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [5](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233) Her Playwrights Theatre Club colleague Ed Asner told the *Chicago Sun-Times*: "I'm bereft. ... I just felt she was the greatest thing in the world."[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/21/barbara-harris-nashville-freaky-friday-actor-dies-at-83)
## Note on birth year
Most sources, including the Television Academy, IBDB, and IMDb, give her birth date as July 25, 1935; the *Encyclopaedia Judaica* entry gives 1937.[3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris) • [6](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039) • [8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harris-barbara)
## References
1. [Barbara Harris – TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/barbara-harris/)
2. [Barbara Harris – The Second City](https://www.secondcity.com/people/barbara-harris)
3. [Barbara Harris – Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/barbara-harris)
4. [The 44th Academy Awards (1972) – Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1972)
5. [Harris, Barbara, 1935–2018 – Northwestern University Archives finding aid](https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/agents/people/4233)
6. [Barbara Harris – IBDB](https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/barbara-harris-15039)
7. [Barbara Harris – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364455/bio/)
8. [Harris, Barbara – Encyclopaedia Judaica via Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/harris-barbara)
9. [Jerome Robbins publication, FKK/S](https://fkks.com/uploads/news/Jerome-Robbins-Vol-6-No-1.pdf)
10. [Barbara Harris – Masterworks Broadway](https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/barbara-harris/)
11. [Barbara Harris, Nashville and Freaky Friday actor, dies at 83 – The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/21/barbara-harris-nashville-freaky-friday-actor-dies-at-83)
12. ["Hoy esta película no se estrenaría en cines" – El País](https://elpais.com/icon/2024-09-04/hoy-esta-pelicula-no-se-estrenaria-en-cines-la-nostalgia-y-la-revancha-que-han-reunido-a-disney-y-a-lindsay-lohan.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1940s to 1960s › Surnames H*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license