Biography

Trained on a Fulbright Grant to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Barbara's New York theatre work includes "Landscape & Silence" by Harold Pinter, "Water Engine" by David Mamet, Neil Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Broadway Bound", Joseph Chaikin's production of "America Hurrah!", and "Enter The Night" by Maria Irene Fornes. Recent regional standouts include "Long Days Journey Into Night" at Dallas Theatre Center, "Death of a Salesman" at San Diego Repertory, "The Cripple Of Inishman" at the Geffen, "Wonderful World" at Laguna Playhouse, "Six Characters in Search of an Author" at Williamstown, and "Blue Window" and "Sidney Bechet Killed a Man" at South Coast Repertory. Favorite screen roles: the woman with 12 dogs on ER (1994), the aged mother on Cold Case (2003) who comes to terms with her murdered son's homosexuality, Dwayne Johnson's mother in Walking Tall (2004), and Kevin McKidd's mother on Journeyman (2007).
- IMDb mini biography by: Barbara Tarbuck

Attended Cooley High School and Wayne State University, where she won the Eva Woodridge Victor Scholarship and graduated with a bachelor in 1963. Earned her Master's degree in Theatre from the University of Michigan. She then went to Indiana University to work as the lead actress in their inaugural theatre touring company season. She also began to work on her Ph.D. and taught beginning acting. While at Indiana University, she was granted a Fulbright Scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). She then moved to New York to pursue her acting career.

As a child (from the ages of 9-13), she performed as a regular for a children's series called "Storyland", which aired on the AM radio station WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.

Mother of producer, Jennifer Lane Connolly.