Barbara Harris Biography

Fast Facts

• Life member of The Actors Studio in New York City
• Began acting as a teenager with various comedy troupes throughout Chicago
• Quote: "(On leaving Broadway) "You have to be awfully invested in the fame aspect, and I really never was․ What I cared about was the discipline of acting, whether I did well or not․․․All I really wanted to do back then was rehearsal․ I was in it for the process, and I really resented having to go out and do a performance for an audience, because the process stopped; it had to freeze and be the same every night․ It wasn't as interesting․""
• Initially hesitant about musical theater, she moved to New York and made her Broadway debut in 1961, eventually mastering the transition to television and film only a few short years later
• Made her professional stage debut at the Playwrights Theatre alongside fellow performer Ed Asner
• A private person, she admits that she doesn't miss acting after retiring after 1997's "Gross Pointe Blank"