Barbra Streisand has found success as a top recording artist, a Broadway performer, on concert stages and on film as an actress, producer, writer, composer and a pioneering female director.
Streisand longed for success in show business from a young age. The problem was she just didn’t quite no where her talents were. After seeing the Broadway production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” starring Susan Strasberg, she became inspired to be an actress because she saw another young Jewish girl doing that. After high school she moved to Manhattan and pounded the pavement desperately auditioning for any acting role she could find. She was not very successful in her auditions so she decided to try singing which she had received praise for her as a child.
Cis Corman, who was then Streisand’s neighbor and would later become a producer and hold various other jobs on Streisand films, described in a recent biography that she one day barged into Corman’s apartment saying she thinks she’s going to be a singer now. Corman’s husband then asked Streisand to sing and they’ll tell her if she was any good. Streisand was too shy to do it in person so instead she went into another room and sang there while the Corman’s listened outside. They were stunned by the incredible singing voice they heard coming from their dining room.
By the time she was 20, Streisand scored her first featured role in a Broadway show and quickly started having hit records. The musical “Funny Girl” would launch her to even bigger stardom and she would win a Best Actress Oscar for the film version. She would also win a second Oscar for composing the music to the 1976 Best Original Song winner “Evergreen” from “A Star is Born” as well as four Emmys for her television specials and eight Grammys for her recording work. Streisand holds a rare distinction in winning an Oscar for her first film, an Emmy for her first television special and multiple Grammys for her first album.
We’ve compiled a photo gallery of all 19 film performances in her career, ranked from worst to best. The rankings only consider her work as an actress and not for directing, etc.
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19. LITTLE FOCKERS (2010)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Paul Weitz. Writers: John Hamburg, Larry Stuckey. Starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman.
Streisand probably didn’t realize what she was getting into when she agreed to appear in the first of the Fockers films. She gamely participated in the sequel but has been vocal that these films ended up not being her kind of movies.
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18. MEET THE FOCKERS (2004)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Jay Roach. Writers: Jim Herzfeld, John Hamburg. Starring Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman.
It had been eight years since Streisand had appeared in a film so it was a bit of a casting coup when Ben Stiller got her to appear as his mother in this sequel to his hit film “Meet the Parents.” Despite the starry company of Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, Streisand seems a bit uneasy in the film and not exactly in her preferred type of film.
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17. THE GUILT TRIP (2012)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Anne Fletcher. Writer: Dan Fogelman. Starring Seth Rogan, Kathy Najimy, Adam Scott.
Streisand’s last film to date is this story of a mother reconnecting with her adult son during a cross country journey. Seth Rogan plays Streisand’s inventor son who has grown distant from his mother due to misunderstandings. He feels guilty about that and tries to reconnect his mother with her first love. Streisand is more comfortable here than she was in the Fockers movies and has some funny moments as she creates a quirky character who has built a life around shopping and then returning stuff at The Gap.
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16. ALL NIGHT LONG (1981)
Image Credit: ITV/Shutterstock Director: Jean-Claude Tramont. Writer: W.D. Richter. Starring Gene Hackman, Dennis Quaid, Diane Ladd.
The story behind “All Night Long” is probably more interesting than the film itself. Streisand’s agent at the time the powerful Sue Mengers had put this film together for her husband to direct. They initially cast an up and coming actress named Lisa Eichhorn to play the role of an unhappy housewife Gene Hackman’s drug store manager character falls in love with. For some reason after filming a bit with Eichhorn it was determined she wasn’t right for the film. Mengers convinced Streisand to take over the part and got her a salary that made her the highest paid actress ever in a film. The film received poor reviews and the press over Streisand’s salary made her look greedy. Streisand felt Mengers had betrayed her by giving her bad advice about doing the film so she fired her as her agent. (This was all documented in a one-woman Broadway show called “I’ll Eat You Last” which starred Bette Midler as Mengers.) For the film itself Streisand isn’t actually bad in it but the marketing campaign promised an antic comedy so audiences were disappointed by the quiet character study they found.
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15. THE MAIN EVENT (1981)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Howard Zieff. Writers: Gail Parent, Andrew Smith. Starring Ryan O’Neal, Paul Sand, Whitman Mayo.
After the controversy Streisand generated with her prior film “A Star is Born” Streisand retreated from the screen for three years which was unusual since she had pretty much been making a film a year. She chose to return with this comedy which reunited her with Ryan O’Neal with whom she had struck comedy gold in “What’s Up Doc?” a few years prior. The plot casts Streisand as a perfume tycoon who loses her fortune to due embezzlement and her only remaining asset is a contract with a boxer played by O’Neil. She encourages him to return to the ring to make them both money. Streisand and O’Neal never quite reached the comic level they did in “What’s Up Doc?” but they did manage to milk some laughs and a hit theme song from this film.
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14. UP THE SANDBOX (1972)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Irvin Kershner. Writer: Paul Zindel. Starring David Selby, George S. Irving, Paul Benedict.
This was the first of Streisand’s films that wasn’t a lavish musical or outright comedy so audiences were a little confused how to react to the film. The poster with Streisand strapped to a huge baby bottle gave audiences the idea that they would be seeing an outrageous comedy but instead they got a meditative film about a bored housewife who imagines various fantasy scenarios of a more exciting life.
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13. THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996)
Image Credit: Tri-Star/Phoenix/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Barbra Streisand. Writer: Richard LaGravenese. Starring Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, George Segal.
After making great efforts to direct her own films Streisand seemed to lose interest in the job after this her third time in the director’s chair. The film depicts a bookish spinster college professor who enters into a platonic marriage with another professor. She then proceeds to drastically change her physical appearance to make herself more desirable to her husband. The story and philosophy of the film get a bit muddled and Streisand has stated that she is less proud of this film than her other two directorial efforts.
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12. FOR PETE’S SAKE (1974)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Peter Yates. Writers: Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin. Starring Michael Sarrazin, Estelle Parsons, Molly Picon.
“For Pete’s Sake” was clearly an attempt to place Streisand in another screwball comedy after she scored so well with “What’s Up Doc?” While this film doesn’t rise to that level it does present Streisand with numerous comedic moments as she plays a wife trying to earn extra money to help her struggling taxi cab driving husband. This financial quest takes her through prostitution, terrorist bombing, and cattle rustling all in a comic way. While the plot is quite uneven Streisand gets to display her natural comedic talent which she now says she regrets not using more often. (And I defy anyone to hear the phrase “pork bellies” and not think of this film.)
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11. A STAR IS BORN (1976)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Frank Pierson. Writers: John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, Frank Pierson. Starring Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey, Oliver Clark.
Streisand did the third remake if the classic story (fourth of you count “What Price Hollywood”) and moved it to the music world instead of the film business as in the other versions. Streisand and director Frank Pierson clashed vehemently on the film to the extent that he wrote a magazine article detailing how awful his experience was working with her. In the end this version of the story’s biggest crime was that it was a bit dull. Streisand has some electric moments during the musical numbers but the other aspects of the film just didn’t come together all though it was a huge box office success and Streisand and Kristofferson won Golden Globes for Best Actress and Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Streisand also won her second Oscar for this film in the category of Best Original Song for her music to the song “Evergreen.”
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10. FUNNY LADY (1975)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Herbert Ross. Writers: Jay Presson Allen, Arnold Schulman. Starring James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall.
Streisand once again played Fanny Brice the role that made her a star both on stage and on film in “Funny Girl” in this sequel that tells of the later years of the famed stage singer and comedienne. The film offers Streisand the same comic and musical showcases as the first film and adds a bit of feminism to the mix when Streisand gets to finally stop longing for her unscrupulous ex-husband Nicky Arnstein. The film earned five Oscar nominations though Streisand was left off the Best Actress list despite this being a notoriously weak year for women in film.
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9. HELLO DOLLY! (1969)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Chenault/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Gene Kelly. Writer: Ernest Lehman. Starring Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew.
Streisand was only 27 when she took on the role of the famous widow and matchmaker in the film version of the show that had been a huge hit on Broadway usually starring much older actresses such as Ethel Merman, Pearl Bailey, and Ginger Rogers. (Interestingly Carol Channing who created the role won the Tony for it beating out Streisand for her performance in “Funny Girl.”) The film was nominated for seven Oscars and won three but Streisand was surprisingly not among the nominees (a pattern that would follow her throughout her career.)
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8. THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: Barbra Streisand. Writers: Pat Conroy, Becky Johnston. Starring Nick Nolte, Kate Nelligan, Blythe Danner.
Streisand is said to have fallen in love with this novel about a football coach dealing with his sister’s suicide attempt and childhood trauma with the help of a New York psychiatrist only to find out that Robert Redford had already purchased the rights to the book intending to star and direct and possibly offer Streisand the co-starring role. When he found out Streisand wanted to direct the film, he signed the rights over to her. Perhaps knowing of his “The Way We Were” co-stars controlling ways it is interesting to note that Redford didn’t continue on as star of the film. Instead the role went to Nick Nolte who earned a Golden Globe Award for the film and was the favorite going into that year’s Oscars only to be upset by Anthony Hopkins in “The Silence of the Lambs.” The film would receive 7 Oscar nominations including Best Picture but Streisand who seemed in line to become the first American woman ever nominated as Best Director failed to make the cut.
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7. NUTS (1987)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Martin Ritt. Writer: Tom Toper. Starring Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan, Alvin Sargent. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden.
The Broadway play “Nuts” was a bit of a flop in New York only running two months. It did earn a Tony nomination for its star (Anne Twomey) and despite the poor reaction in New York the script was purchased by Hollywood and adapted for the screen. Debra Winger was originally slated to star but Streisand eventually got the part of a high price call girl who kills one of her clients and is put on trial to determine her sanity. The film provides Streisand with one of her most dramatic roles on screen and plays into her long-held interest in psychotherapy. She is helped in the film by an excellent supporting cast of veteran actors such as Maureen Stapleton, Karl Malden, James Whitmore, Eli Wallach, and Leslie Nielsen. Richard Dreyfuss is also quite good as the lawyer defending Streisand and the two have an especially good chemistry on screen. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Actress (Streisand), and Supporting Actor (Dreyfuss) at the Golden Globes but all were left out at the Oscars (see a pattern?)
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6. ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (1970)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Vincente Minnelli. Writer: Alan Jay Lerner. Starring Yves Montand, Bob Newhart, Larry Blyden.
Streisand’s first exploration of the world of psychiatry and psychology (which as we’ve seen became a theme in her work) came in this lavish adaptation of the Broadway musical by the lyricist of “My Fair Lady.” Directed by Vincente Minnelli with all the grandeur his films were known for casts Streisand as young woman who seeks out the help of a famous doctor in order to help her quit smoking. The doctor uses hypnosis and discovers that Streisand’s character has actually lived many past lives. The doctor falls in love with one of the women Streisand used to be. The rich score delivers plenty of songs for Streisand (who is in peak vocal form) including the title song and the especially effective “What Did I Have I Don’t Have.”
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5. YENTL (1983)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock Director: Barbra Streisand. Writers: Jack Rosenthal, Barbra Streisand. Starring Mandy Patinkin, Amy Irving, Nehemiah Persoff.
Streisand struggled for years to bring this story of a young woman who disguises herself as a boy in order to study the Talmud to the screen. The offbeat subject matter as well as her inexperience as a director made the film a risky box office proposition. Streisand eventually got the film made on her terms with her both directing and starring in the production. Based on a Broadway play Streisand and her team added songs to the story which served as inner monologues for Streisand to comment on what was happening in the film. The film won the Golden Globe as Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and Streisand won the Best Director prize. Streisand was shockingly excluded from that year’s Oscars being snubbed for acting, writing, directing and producing. The film only managed only a few Oscar nominations mostly for its music and a surprise nomination for Amy Irving as Best Supporting Actress.
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4. THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT (1970)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Herbert Ross. Writers: Buck Henry. Starring George Segal, Robert Klein, Roz Kelly.
Streisand has one of her best comic roles as a hooker and sometime actress who gets involved with aspiring novelist George Segal. The two meet when the ultra-straight-laced Segal reports Streisand to the landlord of the building they both live in when he discovers she is a hooker entertaining clients in the building. She then barges into his apartment in anger and with no place to go. The two begin to argue, converse and eventually fall in love. Segal teaches her about the intellectual world and she teaches him about the world of deviant sexuality she works in. Streisand has proclaimed this one of her favorite films and the witty banter and performances hold up today. (The two actors’ boisterous debate over the first line of his novel and Streisand’s exclamations of “the sun does not spit!!” are a particularly funny highlight.)
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3. WHAT’S UP DOC (1972)
Image Credit: Snap/Shutterstock Director: Peter Bogdanovich. Writers: Buck Henry, David Newman, Robert Benton. Starring Ryan O’Neal, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars.
Director Peter Bogdanovich could seemingly do no wrong in the early seventies. His much-acclaimed drama “The Last Picture Show” was released in 1971 and in 1973 he would have another hit in “Paper Moon.” In between came this beloved screwball comedy that is arguably one of the funniest films ever made. Streisand stars as disaster prone college student who can’t seem to get through a semester without blowing up a classroom due to a chemistry experiment or some other such mishap. She becomes infatuated with an uptight musicologist she sees in a hotel and sets about trying to seduce him much to the dismay of his controlling fiancée played by Madeline Kahn in one of the most memorable film debuts ever given. The film was Bogdanovich’s homage to the screwball comedies of the thirties and in particular Howard Hawks’ “Bringing Up Baby.” Streisand though was quite insecure on the film and always in doubt as to whether or not she was funny enough. At a TCM Festival event two years ago Bogdanovitch described the first table reading in which every word Madeline Kahn said brought gigantic laughs including even the way she would pronounce her fiancée’s name Howard (played by Ryan O’Neal.) Streisand feeling a bit overshadowed by Kahn in the comedy department said to Bogdanovitch “I feel like an extra in my own movie!” Despite her trepidation the film came together marvelously with all the principals and supporting cast (including Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Mabel Alberson and Stephen Gierasch) giving wonderful comic turns. The films final comic chase scene through the streets of downtown San Francisco a comic masterpiece of physical comedy.
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2. THE WAY WE WERE (1973)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Sydney Pollack. Writer: Arthur Laurents. Starring Robert Redford, Bradford Dillman, Lois Chiles.
“The Way We Were” is usually regarded as one of the great romances ever to be filmed and also provided Streisand with one of her most popular songs in the Oscar winning title track. Streisand and Robert Redford play college students who meet during WWII. She is a hard-working student with strong political opinions while he is an easy-going college golden boy who does however have a talent for writing. The two fall in love and marry but are torn apart by their political beliefs. The final cut of the film was a great source of controversy with Redford and the director on one side and Streisand and the screenwriter on the other. Redford and director Sydney Pollack eventually had their final say and the final cut makes it look like Redford has left Streisand for another woman. The version as originally written was supposed to have Streisand leave Redford due to his lack of political conviction during the McCarthy trials. Streisand was nominated for Best Actress for the film (Redford was nominated as Best Actor but not for this film but instead for “The Sting.”) This was perhaps the beginning of Streisand’s troubles with the Academy. Not only did she refuse to sing the nominated title song on the telecast she refused to sit in the audience as the nominee’s names for Best Actress were read. Instead she waited backstage only to appear if her name was called as the winner. (It wasn’t. Glenda Jackson won for “A Touch of Class.”) From then on out it was never smooth sailing between Streisand and the Academy.
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1. FUNNY GIRL (1968)
Image Credit: SNAP/REX/Shutterstock Director: William Wyler. Writer: Isobel Lennart. Starring Omar Sharif, Kay Medford, Walter Pidgeon.
It is rare that an actor becomes so enmeshed in a role that you don’t know where the actor ends and the role begins. Such is the case with Barbra Streisand and Fanny Brice. Brice was a very successful theater performer in the “Ziegfeld Follies” on Broadway and on radio. She was a skilled comedienne and also a singer but she didn’t really posses the vocal talents that Streisand did. A Broadway musical story of her life had been in the works for a while with women such as Anne Bancroft and Eydie Gorme mentioned for the lead. After Streisand scored a hit in a supporting role in the musical “I Can Get It for You Wholesale” she was given the lead role in this. The musical became an enormous personal success for her and after a multi-year run in New York and London Streisand signed for the film version. Things during shooting did not go well when Streisand began to clash with director William Wyler. Wyler however empathized with Streisand’s plight since he saw how the script’s constant insults about how ugly the character was supposed to be caused personal insult to Streisand. When the cinematographer told Wyler to look at the dailies to see how the camera loved and exposed all Streisand’s humanity and vulnerability he bonded with the actress and tried to bring out the best in her. Streisand would later say that Wyler taught her everything she knows about filmmaking. The film version would bring Streisand the Oscar for Best Actress in a shocking tie alongside Katharine Hepburn in “The Lion in Winter.”
