# Barbara Harris just died (appreciation thread) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 22, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047 "2018-08-22T13:21:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/1 "2018-08-22T13:21:28Z")
I thought maybe I was the last person to remember her. Apparently not, she made the [BBC news](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45269354). I think she was the most the most beautiful woman that ever made a movie, and also BTW a properly funny actress. My infatuation has tempered a bit since my 20s but I have two (2) stills of her hanging in my living room\* Any other fans/worshippers here? - FWIW, one from _Nashville_ the other from the audition scene in _Who is Harry Kellerman…_ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/2 "2018-08-22T14:06:50Z")
I thought she was a wonderful actress. I think she prefered stage to movies, so she wasn’t in a lot, but every time she was memorable. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/3 "2018-08-22T14:17:42Z")
I loved her in Hitchcock’s last film, _Family Plot_. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/4 "2018-08-22T14:40:41Z")
One of my favorite films, _A Thousand Clowns_ with Jason Robards and Barry Gordon. A classic. ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/5 "2018-08-22T15:03:37Z")
She was good in ‘Freaky Friday’. I saw that relatively recently on tv. I haven’t seen Family Plot in ages, I must rewatch it. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/6 "2018-08-22T16:37:45Z")
> [@blob](#): > > She was good in ‘Freaky Friday’. … That’s the first _Freaky Friday_. Thanks to Disney we are currently up to [number 4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaky_Friday_(2018_film)). She did the voice of Joanie Caucus in a Doonesbury short. A good choice. ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/7 "2018-08-22T19:44:22Z")
Terrific actress but I don’t think even her own mother would consider her the most beautiful to ever make a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/8 "2018-08-22T19:50:35Z")
I thought she was very sexy in _Family Plot_. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/9 "2018-08-22T20:16:34Z")
> [@denquixote](#): > > …I don’t think her own mother would consider her the most beautiful to ever make a movie. I was offering _my_ opinion. I could explain my preference of BH for most beautiful movie-lady over (say) Diane Baker or Liz Taylor\* - but some clown is going to bring up some bond girl or B&W movie goddess or some woman in the Avengers franchise - I’m stopping at c1979, sorry. Watch the final scene of _Nashville_ and report back. - both very pretty but NOT FUNNY ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/10 "2018-08-22T20:20:24Z")
> [@denquixote](#): > > Terrific actress but I don’t think even her own mother would consider her the most beautiful to ever make a movie. Eye of the beholder. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/11 "2018-08-23T03:42:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I think she prefered stage to movies That, and she wasn’t in it for the money. She’s on record somewhere as preferring to be in one movie per year. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/12 "2018-08-23T04:00:12Z")
☹ I agree with the above: she was great in _A Thousand Clowns_. At Second City, she was in “Museum Piece” playing a museum visitor with Alan Arkin as a guitar-strumming beatnik. She finally leaves and he sings after her: “You bourgeois broad! You gimme a pain in my soul!” 😃 At one time there was a short clip of it online, but it seems to be gone (although I did manage to save it). The audio was on the LP “Second City Writhes Again” which has been posted online. I believe she also played the Sphinx in Professor Walther von der Wogelweide’s lecture on “Oedipus Rex” (or “what would have happened to Oedipus if he had read the book before going on the journey”.) ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/13 "2018-08-23T20:05:18Z")
When the original ‘Freaky Friday’ came out, Julie Harris was 41 and Jodie Foster was 14. I was 11. Guess who I had a crush on? That’s right, Julie Harris as the mom character. I hope this says more about Julie Harris than it does about me. [I was too young for it to have been a MILF kind of thing, and I never developed any kind of older woman complex. So, yeah, it was Julie Harris.] ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/14 "2018-08-23T20:56:10Z")
[Here she is on Broadway as a parody of Hollywood blonde bombshells.](http://ca.static.lalalay.com/upload/images/real/2018/08/22/close-up-of-comedic-actress-barbara-harris-wearing-sequined-dress-and-blowing-a-kiss-to-the-camera-f_799552_.jpg?content=1) [She won a Tony for that musical.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apple_Tree) ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/15 "2018-08-23T22:42:57Z")
> [@LLCoolL](#): > > Harris as the mom character. She WAS Jodie in the movie. She did a great job of portraying a teenager, IMO. I can understand why you would have liked her. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/16 "2018-08-24T02:55:03Z")
I love “Nice Girls Don’t Explode”, and her performance in it. Rest well, “Mom” [Nice Girls Don't Explode (1987) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093617/?ref_=nv_sr_1) ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/barbara-harris-just-died-appreciation-thread/820047/17 "2018-08-24T07:46:07Z")
> [@blob](#): > > She WAS Jodie in the movie. She did a great job of portraying a teenager, IMO. I can understand why you would have liked her. Yeah, you make a good point. A tween girl’s personality in an adult woman’s body would be appealing to an 11-year-old boy.