Barbra Streisand paid tribute to her late The Way We Were costar Robert Redford with a moving speech and performance at the 2026 Oscars.
Streisand, 83, appeared on stage at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, March 15, to honor Redford’s life and enduring Hollywood legacy during the 98th Academy Awards.
“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. But he turned it down because he said the character had no backbone,” she recalled about Redford, who died at age 89 in September 2025. “He doesn’t stand for anything — and he was right. So many drafts later, Bob finally agreed to do it. He was a brilliant, subtle actor, and we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in a scene.”
Streisand praised Redford for his advocacy, adding, “He was thoughtful and old. I called him a little intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail. I miss him now more than ever.”
The actress concluded the In Memoriam segment by singing “The Way We Were” from the iconic film.
Following the announcement of Redford’s death last September, Streisand looked back on the life-changing impact of making The Way We Were alongside the late Sundance Film Festival cofounder.
“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy,” Streisand wrote via Instagram at the time. “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.”
She went on, “Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting— and one of the finest actors ever. 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. #RobertRedford.”
The 1973 blockbuster The Way We Were was a career-defining moment for both Streisand and Redford. Director Sydney Pollack’s romantic drama cast them as Hubbell Gardiner and Katie Morosky, star-crossed and idealistic writers torn apart by the anti-Communist fervor of the 1950s.
Streisand’s title track, “The Way We Were,” won a best original song Oscar, in addition to Streisand receiving a best actress nod. (The Way We Were was nominated for six Academy Awards in total, also winning Best Original Dramatic Score for composer Marvin Hamlisch.)
In her 2023 memoir, My Name Is Barbra, Streisand revealed that her iconic onscreen pairing with Redford in The Way We Were nearly never happened. Redford was apparently unimpressed with an early script because he felt the Hubbell Gardiner character didn’t have enough layers.
“In Bob’s opinion, [Hubbell] was ‘shallow and one-dimensional,’” Streisand recalled in the book. “I wanted to make Bob happy, so I told Sydney, ‘Give him anything he wants. Write more scenes to strengthen his character. Make it equal.’”
Redford went so far as to turn down The Way We Were before Streisand eventually convinced him to reconsider the role of Hubbell.
“Bob and I were genuinely curious about each other, and I believe that’s what comes across on screen,” she confirmed. “Once he asked me about Brooklyn. What was it like growing up there? I guess he thought I was kind of exotic, but to me, he was the exotic one, growing up in California. Did he surf? Fish? Swim in the ocean after eating?”
The Way We Were is now recognized as a classic of 1970s cinema. The movie placed sixth in the American Film Institute’s 2002 poll of the greatest love stories of all time while Streisand’s title song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
