In 1973, Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford lit up the screens in the hit movie “The Way We Were,” beginning a long-lasting friendship that extended far beyond the movie.
So, at the 98th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15, Streisand paid tribute to her late co-star, who passed in September 2025 at the age of 89. She referred to him as “an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail” during an emotional tribute in the “in memorium” segment.
“I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me,” she added.
Streisand then broke out into song, singing the film’s Oscar-nominated song “The Way We Were.”
Barbra Streisand Jokes About Robert Redford’s Nickname For Her
“After I read the first script of ‘The Way We Were,,’ I could only imagine one man in the role and that was Robert Redford,” Streisand said, adding that he “turned it down because he said the character had no backbone. He doesn’t stand for anything, and he was right.”
“I’m thrilled that ‘The Way We Were’ is now considered a classic love story, but it’s also about a dark time in our history, the late ’40s and early ’50s, when people were informing on each other and subject to loyalty oaths,” she added. ” He was thoughtful and bold. I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail, and won the Academy Award for best director,
“I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me. He’d call me Babs, and I’d say, ‘Bob, you know, do I look like a Babs? I’m not a Babs, you know.’ But the way he said it made me laugh,” she continued. “And many years later we were chatting on the phone about the usual — politics, art, our favorites — and as we were hanging up, he said, ‘Babs, I love you dearly and I always will.’ And in the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with ‘I love you, too,’ and I signed it ‘Babs.’”
Barbra Streisand Shared Heartfelt Instagram Post Following Robert Redford’s Passing
Following news of Redford’s passing, Streisand shared a beautiful tribute on her Instagram page, paying tribute to the actor with whom she spent so much time with.
“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy,” she began. “We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie.”
“Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting— and one of the finest actors ever,” she continued. “The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings.”
“He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him,” she concluded.
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