{"id":14888,"date":"2026-03-20T14:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=14888"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:24:11","slug":"after-more-than-a-decade-83-year-old-barbra-streisand-returns-to-the-oscars-stage-to-deliver-a-heart-wrenching-tribute-to-robert-redford-recalling-how-he-once-turned-down-the-way-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/?p=14888","title":{"rendered":"After More Than a Decade, 83-Year-Old Barbra Streisand Returns to the Oscars Stage to Deliver a Heart-Wrenching Tribute to Robert Redford \u2014 Recalling How He Once Turned Down \u2018The Way We Were\u2019 Because Hubbell \u2018Had No Backbone,\u2019 How He Finally Said Yes, Their Playful Teasing (\u2018Babs!\u2019), Their Last Phone Call Where He Said \u2018I Love You Dearly,\u2019 Her Final Note Signed Simply \u2018Babs\u2019\u2026 Then She Sang Their Timeless Classic and the Room Wept"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barbra Streisand\u00a0is remembering the way she and\u00a0Robert Redford\u00a0were.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a098th annual Academy Awards\u00a0on March 15, the legendary singer-actress-filmmaker, 83, honored the late Redford with a moving tribute and powerful rendition of \u201cThe Way We Were,\u201d her song from their 1973 romance drama of the same name.\u00a0Redford, who\u00a0died\u00a0on Sept. 16, 2025 at age 89, was among the many late Hollywood heavyweights honored at the\u00a0Conan O\u2019Brien-hosted ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

To pay tribute to her friend, Streisand delivered a rare performance of the song \u2014 over a decade after she last performed it at 2013\u2019s 85th Annual Academy Awards, when she sang it in tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch.<\/p>\n

\n
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\"Barbra<\/div>\n<\/div>
Barbra Streisand at the 98th Annual Academy Awards; Robert Redford.<\/span>Rob Latour\/Shutterstock; Michael Loccisano\/Getty <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before singing, Streisand recalled the \u201cfirst script\u201d she ever read for\u00a0The Way We Were<\/em>, and how she could \u201conly imagine\u201d one man in the role of Hubbell Gardiner: Redford.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cHe turned it down because he said the character had no backbone, he doesn\u2019t stand for anything. And he was right. So many draft later, Bob finally agreed to do it,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe 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 the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Robert<\/div>\n<\/div>
Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand at the 74th Academy Awards in March 2002.<\/span>LEE CELANO\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Streisand added that she was \u201cthrilled\u201d their film is \u201cnow considered a classic love story.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Redford, she said, had a \u201creal backbone\u201d on screen and off given his advocacy for free speech and encouragement of other creatives. \u201cHe was thoughtful and bold,\u201d she said. \u201cI called him an intellectual cowboy, who blazed his own trail\u2026 I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me. He called me \u2018Babs\u2019 and I said, \u2018Bob, do I look like a Babs? I\u2019m not a Babs, you know?\u2019 But the way he said it made me laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Streisand went on to share she and Redford were \u201cchatting on the phone\u201d years later when he told her \u201cBabs, I love you dearly and I always will\u201d before they hung up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with, \u2018I love you, too.\u2019 And I signed it, \u2018Babs.’\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Sydney Pollack-directed\u00a0The Way We Were<\/em>, Redford and Streisand played unlikely lovers. The movie became a critical and commercial hit, earning a\u00a0Golden Globe\u00a0and two\u00a0Grammys. Nominated for six\u00a0Academy Awards, it won Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for Streisand\u2019s title track.<\/p>\n

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\"Barbra<\/div>\n<\/div>
Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in 1973\u2019s \u2018The Way We Were\u2019.<\/span>Columbia Pictures International\/Courtesy of Getty <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEvery day on the set of\u00a0The Way We Were<\/em>\u00a0was exciting, intense and pure joy,\u201d Streisand\u00a0recalled\u00a0in an Instagram post on the day her costar died.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yes, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie,\u201d she added. \u201cBob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting \u2014 and one of the finest actors ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redford, the star of such classic films as\u00a0Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Out of Africa<\/em>, was a four-time Oscar nominee, winning the Best Director prize for his 1980 drama\u00a0Ordinary People<\/em>. The Sundance Institute founder also earned an Academy Honorary Award in 2002.<\/p>\n

Streisand\u2019s record with the Academy, meanwhile, includes fives nominations and two wins, for Best Actress of 1968\u2019s\u00a0Funny Girl\u00a0<\/em>and for Best Original Song in 1976\u2019s\u00a0A Star Is Born<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Oscars In Memoriam segment included dearly departed stars\u00a0Diane Keaton,\u00a0Rob Reiner\u00a0and Catherine O\u2019Hara, among others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barbra Streisand\u00a0is remembering the way she and\u00a0Robert Redford\u00a0were. At the\u00a098th annual Academy Awards\u00a0on March 15, the legendary singer-actress-filmmaker, 83, honored the late Redford with a moving tribute… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14890,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14888\/revisions\/14890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}