Barbra Streisand Took Over Her Ex-Husband’s Role in a Movie After Their Divorce
Barbra Streisand Is a major star thanks to her musical and filmmaking achievements over the past five decades. During her initial ascent, she was romantically linked with another renowned artist, actor Elliott Gould. The pair were together for nearly a decade before breaking up, blaming the frantic schedule of their careers on their separation.
Streisand and Gould remained on good terms afterward, but soon moved on with other relationships.
Streisand and Gould were together during the breakout performances of their careers
As detailed by InStyle, the two entertainers met in 1962 when Streisand auditioned for the Broadway production of I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Gould was already cast in the musical as the lead character Harry Bogen, and he later told CBS Sunday Morning the story of how he got her phone number without ever asking for it.
“After her last audition, they say, ‘Thank you.’ She then was very flummoxed as to being right there and not knowing what was going to happen next, and so she announced her phone number and said, ‘So would somebody call me,'” Gould recalled. “I remembered her number and I called her.”
Streisand invited Gould to come see her sing that night, but he declined on the basis that she would be cast in the play and they would get to know each other during rehearsals. Streisand did win the part and the romance between her and Gould started immediately.
They got married on September 13, 1963. Both Streisand and Gould are now considered legendary figures in their fields, but they tied the knot well before they became household names. Streisand released her first two solo albums earlier that year, while Gould was still a year away from making his film debut. In fact, some of the press only referred to him as “Mr. Streisand.”
The couple had their first and only child together, a son named Jason, in 1966, but the honeymoon phase didn’t last much longer.
Why did Streisand and Gould divorce?
Streisand and Gould separated in 1969 and officially divorced two years later. In separate interviews, they both agreed that the focus on their individual careers led to fractures in their relationship that they couldn’t overcome.
In a 1970 profile of Gould for Time Magazine, Streisand admitted that she “wasn’t considerate enough of his problems” when their partnership was still salvageable. “It must have been very difficult for him,” she said. “Marriages between people who are self-involved is hard. It’s safer for actors not to be married to one another.”
In the same profile, Gould compared their marriage to feeling at times like “a bath of lava”. When The Long Goodbye star was asked about Streisand during that CBS Sunday Morning piece decades later, he was far more conciliatory towards his ex and their bond.
“We didn’t grow together, and the reason for that was because she became more important than us,” Gould concluded before recounting a previous conversation he’d had between him and Streisand. “Then I also said to her, ‘We did great. We made it very fast and nobody has what we have. There’s you and me and our kid.'”
Interestingly enough, after the split, Gould’s film “A Glimpse of Tiger” was cancelled, and then reimagined as “What’s Up, Doc?,” which was recast with Streisand taking on the role originally meant for Gould.
Both parties went on to marry other people years later
Gould’s love life would be more low-key after separating from Streisand, but was still notable because he married the same person twice. He and actress Jennifer Bogart first became husband and wife in 1973, divorced in 1975, and got back together in 1978. They had two children together, Samuel and Molly, before breaking up for good in 1989.
Streisand’s dating history was far more high-profile. She dated the likes of Hollywood hairdresser Jon Peters, Clint Eastwood, and Andre Agassi over the years before meeting actor James Brolin. The two wed in 1998 and have been together ever since.
