Barbara Harris, 1935-2018

Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern in Family Plot (1976)

1970s actress Barbara Harris, who appeared in a diverse string of movies, died on Tuesday at the age of 83.

I didn't realize that she was in the original Second City along with Alan Arkin, or that she was nominated of an Oscar for Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, one of those movies that I've heard of but never gotten around to seeing. Her film career actually started in the mid-1960s with A Thousand Clowns where she plays the social worker who takes an interest in Jason Robards' obnoxiously precocious child. Another prominent role was as Jodie Foster's mother in Freaky Friday.

But I think the role I'll remember Harris for is in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot. Harris plays a phony psychic who sees her chance to get rich when a rich old lady is looking for her missing heir. Her and her boyfriend's (Bruce Dern) search for this heir leads them to cross paths with a pair of kidnappers who get paid off in diamonds (William Devane and Karen Black). It's not Hitchcock's best work -- unsurprising considering his body of work -- but it's entertaining and not a bad way to go out.