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Barrett was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Oklahoma. Like many future actors, Nancy staged backyard plays as a child, often featuring her sister, Martha. She spent two years at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where she met drama professor Ivan Rider, who became a major influence on her early stage career.
After her sophomore year at Baylor, Nancy and two friends spent a summer in Los Angeles. She starred in a production of "Little Mary Sunshine" and fell in love with the city. She transferred to UCLA and graduated a year later. In Los Angeles, she played the lead in "The Fantasticks" alongside Bill Bixby, who later became known for TV shows like "My Favorite Martian" and "The Incredible Hulk." She then moved to New York to continue stage work, making her Broadway debut in "Pickwick" with Davy Jones, future star of "The Monkees."
In 1966, Nancy joined the original cast of Dark Shadows, portraying Carolyn Stoddard, daughter of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, played by screen legend Joan Bennett. Over 405 episodes, she played seven characters on the show, taking breaks to appear in plays such as Neil Simon's "The Star-Spangled Girl" and "The Physicists."
Nancy was briefly married and divorced in the early 1960s. While on Dark Shadows, she married co-star David Ford, but they also divorced. In the early 1970s, she wed Dr. Harold Kaplan, a well-known New York psychiatrist who passed away in January 1998. Before his death, Dr. Kaplan witnessed Nancy fulfill a longtime dream by performing a one-woman show, "As If We Never Said Good-bye," at the 1997 Dark Shadows Festival in New York City. She has since performed similar shows in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, the Midwest, and at the New York cabaret club "Don't Tell Mama."
During the 1999 holiday season, Nancy made her ballet debut in a production of "The Nutcracker." She is currently planning a music CD, aiming for completion in early 2003.
