Born Sandra Markowitz in Evanston, IL; educated at Wright Junior College, Goodman School of the Theatre, Chicago, IL, and the University of Chicago, IL. This charming stage-trained comedy specialist had an intermittent but once beguiling screen career dating back to the mid-1960s. Long a critic's darling, Harris convinces as scatterbrained characters with endearing child-like qualities. This aptitude made her, for a time, something of a thinking man's Goldie Hawn. Her performances often garnered far better notices than the films that framed them. Harris' reprisal of her off-Broadway role as what Variety called a "nymphet chippie" in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1967) was deemed the film's only saving grace in some circles. As a late arriving love interest of discontented rock star Dustin Hoffman in WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN AND WHY IS HE SAYING THOSE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME?, Harris fared better than the star and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her efforts. British culture mag Time Out deemed the "delightful" Harris "wasted" as the married old flame of lecherous film producer Walter Matthau in a segment of Neil Simon's PLAZA SUITE (1971), but she fared well opposite a cranky Jack Lemmon in the James Thurber-inspired THE WAR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN (1972). A founding member of Chicago's celebrated Second City Players in 1960, Harris came with them to appear in "From Second City" on the NY stage. Moving to NYC she established a positive reputation on and off-Broadway before alternating between stage and screen. Harris racked up three Tony nominations, winning one in 1967 for Best Actress In a Musical Play for The Apple Tree. Two of her most noteworthy feature credits were in memorable 70s films from divergent auteurs Robert Altman and Alfred Hitchcock in NASHVILLE (1975), Harris was Albuquerque, a housewife whose dream of becoming a country-Western singing star seemingly comes true after an unexpected tragedy; in FAMILY PLOT (1976), she was a phony but basically benign psychic. Hollywood was less kind for the remainder of the decade. Harris struggled gamely in the Disney comedies FREAKY FRIDAY (1977) and THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS (1979) and won some excellent notices as the frustrated wife of senator Alan Alda in THE SEDUCTION OF JOE TYNAN (1979), but by then her star had decisively fallen. Harris all but disappeared in the 1980s, surfacing briefly in Hal Ashby's disastrous SECOND-HAND HEARTS (1981), where even her performance was savaged by reviewers; a bit as Kathleen Turner's mom in Francis Coppola's time-traveling PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986); and a small part as a wealthy traveler conned by a scheming Michael Caine in the comedy DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988). Since then, she has made only one feature film: GROSSE POINTE BLANK (1997). Harris should not be confused with the young character actor of EVERYBODY'S ALL-AMERICAN (1988), or with the ADR voice casting director (sometimes credited as Barbar Iley) who have the same name, or with Barbara Eve Harris who has worked extensively in TV since the mid-1980s.  Nominated for Supporting Actress 1971: WHO IS HARRY KELLERMAN AND WHY IS HE SAYING THOSE TERRIBLE THINGS ABOUT ME? 1 nomination