Her Leading Men in Movies Were Part of Their Success

From 1968, when Barbra Streisand became an "Insta-star" by winning the Best Actress Oscar(split with Kate Hepburn) and dominating her debut musical, "Funny Girl," and then on through 1969 and across the entire 70's, Barbra Streisand was the biggest female star in movies. Like a number of other 70s stars -- men in the majority -- the 80's and 90s were more of a struggle, but she ruled the 70's at the movies (in song, she rules forever.)

I'm a straight male, but I saw every Barbra Streisand movie from 1968(Funny Girl) through 1979(The Main Event), except one: Up the Sandbox. And there's a reason for that.

I saw all her movies because I liked the MEN in them. The male stars who got paired with Babs.

That was a draw of her movies: which current male star would "dare to take the Streisand challenge" and try to act opposite her?

Some of the male stars I liked better than others. I went to Hello Dolly because it was a Walter Matthau movie. I went to The Owl and the Pussycat because it was a George Segal movie. I definitely went to The Way We Were because it was a Robert Redford movie.

Those were probably my three favorite actors opposite Streisand but she rather enhanced the stardom of Ryan O'Neal(playing a Cary Grant clone) in What's Up Doc? and the older suave Frenchman Yves Montand(in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever).

Speaking of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever -- a 1970 musical directed by Vincente Minnelli -- Montand has the male lead but in a SMALL role -- and doing a scene or two opposite Streisand -- is young Jack Nicholson. You can see clips of this. Nicholson was playing a "full regalia hippie" (short haired) opposite Babs -- he played her half brother so romance wasn't on the menu. Its quite odd now to see Nicholson -- young and handsome but with that weird "spacey" quality he depended upon in his youth -- opposite Streisand. Almost as odd as when Redford played against her. And this: perhaps thwarted by his lines or his contempt for the part, Nicholson isn't very good in that movie.

Streisand came along when Jewish actors and actresses were no longer hiding their identities(as when Leo Jacob became Lee J. Cobb or Bernard Schwartz became Tony Curtis) and a number of her male co-stars were Jewish: Walter Matthau, George Segal, James Caan(Funny LADY) and , once into the 80s , Richard Dreyfuss("Nuts," in a role sought by Dustin Hoffman, also Jewish, who would eventually play Streisand's husband in "Meet the Fockers.") Not to mention Mandy Patinkin in Yentl(the 80s again.)

Actually, come to think of it, while Streisand's star heyday was the 70's, she did manage to find interesting male co-stars from the 80s on: Patinkin, Gene Hackman(All Night Long), Dreyfuss(quite good in his lawyer role) and onto the 90s and not-quite-superstars Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges(Bridges was Streisand's leading man in The Mirror Has Two Faces, but her FORMER leading man, a now aged George Segal, took a supporting part. Ouch.)

Playing out the card: Omar Sharif was her first leading man -- in Funny Girl -- and came to the movie overcredentialed with Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago on his resume. It made for an odd Ugly Duckling/Suave Guy match-up. Sharif would play the same character in a cameo in Funny Lady(1975) but James Caan had the lead in that one. That the Egyptian Sharif played a gambler named "Nicky Arnstein" was odd -- and Paul Newman had been offered the role first.

Elvis Presley said no and James Taylor was considered, but Kris Kristofferson had the bravery to play the "failing star" in Streisand's A Star Is Born. They were a nice contrast -- but didn't hit the heights that Robert Redford(her best leading man) did.

Meanwhile, back to Up the Sandbox. Its the only 70's Streisand movie I never saw and I think its because it had no major male star in it -- David Selby had the thankless lead.

Michael Sarrazin had the thankless lead in "For Pete's Sake," an odd little NYC comedy that I DID see -- it came after The Way We Were -- and it was clear why a big male star couldn't be gotten.

But take "Up the Sandbox" and "For Pete's Sake" out of the mix and Barbra Streisand is to be commended for finding a decades-long series of truly interesting male co-stars to make her movie more palatable to the male sex. They were good actors all and reflected Streisand's stardom, her good taste, and her realization(I think) that she needed a male partner to shine.

Leaving where I came in. Redford was her greatest co-star, but coming in next in my estimation were George Segal in The Owl and the Pussycaat(with his sexy hangdog personality, big Moustache and comic timing) and...yep..Walter Matthau. Matthau resented Streisands instant Oscar win and stardom after he toiled a decade-plus for HIS, but those two actors are expertly comic on screen together in Hello Dolly. Its a classic case of how big paychecks forced natural enemies to unite on a common cause: entertaining us.