Julian Barry (né Julian Barry Mendelsohn Jr.; December 24, 1930 – July 25, 2023) was an American screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Oscar-nominated script for the 1974 film Lenny about comedian Lenny Bruce. Barry adapted the script from his successful Broadway play of the same name. The film, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine, was nominated for the so-called Oscar Grand Slam, one of some 40 films to be so honored.
Barry wrote or rewrote screenplays for several notable films including The River, Eyes of Laura Mars, and Rhinoceros, Me, Myself and I, and A Marriage - Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz (PBS/American Playhouse Production). Barry appeared as himself in the film documentary Pablo, about the graphic artist and film director Pablo Ferro.
Barry's autobiography, My Night with Orson, was published on July 9, 2011, by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (ISBN978-1-4635-5134-6).
Barry was cast in the 1955 Orson Welles production of King Lear at New York City Center theater. He continued working on Broadway as an actor in the musical Shinbone Alley, where he was also stage manager, He also stage managed the Budd Schulberg treatment of The Disenchanted, about the real life adventures of F. Scott Fitzgerald. He stage managed seven other Broadway productions, appearing as an actor in several of them as well, and he worked in the Broadway theatre in this capacity through the mid sixties when he started writing full-time.
In 1969, Barry was hired by Columbia Pictures to write the screenplay for Lenny. The prospects for the project were reportedly harmed by the commercial success of Love Story, having created a demand for romantic films, which Lenny certainly was not. Barry suggested to theatre director Tom O'Horgan, who was fresh from his success with the musical Hair, that the Lenny screenplay be redone as a play and the play was a hit starring Cliff Gorman.
In 1983, Barry wrote the book for Jean Seberg, a musical biography of the American actress and political activist who committed suicide in Paris in 1979. The production was directed by Peter Hall at London's National Theatre with music by Marvin Hamlisch. The production was a flop. Later he co-authored an opera with Peter Hall, Born Again at the Chichester Festival Theatre in England starring Mandy Patinkin and José Ferrer.
Barry ventured back into opera writing the libretto for Zyklon, an opera about the life of German-Jewish scientist Fritz Haber. The music was composed by the British composer Peter King.
Barry met his second wife, Patricia Foley when he hired her to be for a Chicago production of Guys and Dolls to play the role of Sister Sarah Brown, opposite Tony Bennett. Barry and Patricia were married three weeks later. They had three children: Sally, Michael, and Jennifer. Patricia died in November 1981 in a car accident.
Barry later married and divorced film producer Laura Ziskin, who died in 2011. They had a daughter, Julia (born 1983).