Barbra Streisand Pays Tribute toWhat's Up, Doc?Costar Ryan O'Neal: 'He Was Funny and Charming'

Mar. 15, 2025

Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal in The Main Event in 1979.Photo:Warner Brothers/Getty

Warner Brothers/Getty

Barbra Streisandis remembering her former costar and onetime beauRyan O’Nealas “funny and charming” in the wake of his death.

The legendary star, 81, paid tribute to O’Neal, with whom she enjoyed a brief romance in 1970, on Instagram Friday, shortly after his son Patrick O’Neal announced that the actorhad died at age 82.

“So sad to hear the news of Ryan O’Neal’s passing. �❤️,” Streisand wrote alongside a black-and-white still fromWhat’s Up, Doc?“We made two films together,What’s Up, Doc?andThe Main Event. He was funny and charming, and he will be remembered.”

What’s Up, Doc?, a screwball comedy released in 1972, was a critical and commercial success for the stars, and they reunited onscreen seven years later in the sports romantic comedyThe Main Event.

“We started seeing each other, and it was kind of a new dynamic for me . . . easy and casual,” she writes in her book. “I remember a moment early on when he told me, ‘I love you,’ and I said, ‘What do you mean? You don’t know me.’ Trust me to be so literal.”

Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand in What’s Up, Doc? in 1972.Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Silver Screen Collection/Getty

Streisand says her romance with O’Neal “fizzled” before they began shooting the film, as she was “too serious” for him, but they “remained on good terms.”

O’Neal’s son Patrick, whom he shared with Leigh Taylor-Young, announced the Oscar nominee’s death on Friday, writing on Instagram that he “passed away peacefully” earlier in the day.

While a cause of death remains unclear, O’Neal was diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and prostate cancer in 2012.

source: people.com