In her Oscar-winning screen debut, Barbra Streisand is Fanny Brice, the vaudeville bit player who rises to Broadway stardom despite emotional hardship (in the form of a strained relationship with gambler husband Omar Sharif). This smash hit was the only musical directed by Wyler (he was half-deaf at the time). He said of working with the singer that it was “not too hard, considering it was the first movie she ever directed.”