Streisand sang "The Way We Were" from the pair's 1973 film of the same name
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/barbra-streisand-robert-redford-2-031526-96324a3b112743b2964c78a89dc54298.jpg "Barbra Streisand; Robert Redford")
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NEED TO KNOW
- The late Robert Redford received a tribute from Barbra Streisand at the 98th annual Oscars on Sunday, March 15
- Streisand, the actor-filmmaker’s costar in the 1973 film The Way We Were, took the stage for a rare performance to sing the film’s title song
- Redford passed away on Sept. 16, 2025 at age 89
Barbra Streisand is remembering the way she and Robert Redford were.
At the 98th annual Academy Awards on March 15, the legendary singer-actress-filmmaker, 83, honored the late Redford with a moving tribute and powerful rendition of “The Way We Were,” her song from their 1973 romance drama of the same name. Redford, who died on Sept. 16, 2025 at age 89, was among the many late Hollywood heavyweights honored at the Conan O’Brien-hosted ceremony.
To pay tribute to her friend, Streisand delivered a rare performance of the song — over a decade after she last performed it at 2013's 85th Annual Academy Awards, when she sang it in tribute to composer Marvin Hamlisch.
Before singing, Streisand recalled the "first script" she ever read for The Way We Were, and how she could "only imagine" one man in the role of Hubbell Gardiner: Redford.
"He turned it down because he said the character had no backbone, he doesn't stand for anything. And he was right. So many draft later, Bob finally agreed to do it," she recalled. "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 the scene."
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Streisand added that she was "thrilled" their film is "now considered a classic love story."
Redford, she said, had a "real backbone" on screen and off given his advocacy for free speech and encouragement of other creatives. "He was thoughtful and bold," she said. "I called him an intellectual cowboy, who blazed his own trail… I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved teasing me. He called me 'Babs' and I said, 'Bob, do I look like a Babs? I'm not a Babs, you know?' But the way he said it made me laugh."
Streisand went on to share she and Redford were "chatting on the phone" years later when he told her "Babs, I love you dearly and I always will" before they hung up.
"And in the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with, 'I love you, too.' And I signed it, 'Babs.'"
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In the Sydney Pollack-directed The Way We Were, Redford and Streisand played unlikely lovers. The movie became a critical and commercial hit, earning a Golden Globe and two Grammys. Nominated for six Academy Awards, it won Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for Streisand’s title track.
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“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy,” Streisand recalled in an Instagram post on the day her costar died.
“We 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,” she added. “Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting — and one of the finest actors ever.”
Redford, the star of such classic films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Out of Africa, was a four-time Oscar nominee, winning the Best Director prize for his 1980 drama Ordinary People. The Sundance Institute founder also earned an Academy Honorary Award in 2002.
Streisand’s record with the Academy, meanwhile, includes fives nominations and two wins, for Best Actress of 1968's Funny Girl and for Best Original Song in 1976's A Star Is Born.
This year’s Oscars In Memoriam segment included dearly departed stars Diane Keaton, Rob Reiner and Catherine O'Hara, among others.
See PEOPLE's coverage of the 98th Academy Awards, airing live on ABC and Hulu on March 15.