Barkin was born in the Bronx, New York, to a chemical salesman father and a hospital administrator mother who worked at Jamaica Hospital. Barkin was raised in a lower-middle-class Jewish family, a descendant of immigrants from Siberia and the Russia-Poland border. Barkin received her high school diploma at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. She then attended Hunter College and double majored Read more...

Barkin became a notable actress in the 1980s. Her break out role was in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982), for which she received favorable reviews. Barkin would later appear in several successful films, including the thrillers Sea of Love, opposite Al Pacino (1989), and The Big Easy (1987), opposite Dennis Quaid.

Barkin also appeared in off-Broadway plays. New York Times critic Frank Rich summarized Read more...

Barkin has a brother, George, who was formerly the editor in chief of National Lampoon and High Times. Barkin is the mother of two children, Jack Daniel (born 1989) and Romy Marion (born 1992), from her first marriage to actor Gabriel Byrne. The two separated in 1993 and divorced in 1999, but are still close; Byrne even attended Barkin's 2000 wedding to businessman Ronald Perelman. According to Read more...