Watch A Star Is Born

This film is the story of a struggling young woman singer, Esther Hoffman, played by Barbra Streisand. She develops a relationship with a famous rock star, John Norman Howard, played by Kris Kristofferson. He is impressed with her talent and helps her showcase it. Their romantic relationship grows and they marry as her career takes off. During this same time, Howard’s career starts to suffer because of his uncooperative antics and excessive self-indulgence.

His band restructures itself to exclude him. The people who used to hire him to perform avoid him while she becomes more and more successful. Their roles reverse, and Hoffman campaigns for her husband’s employment. Meanwhile, at home he is reminded of their change in status when a young female interviewer offers to sleep with him for the inside scoop on his wife.

The decline in his stardom takes its toll, and he self-destructs. This theme was explored in the 1937 movie by the same name starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Gaynor played a struggling film actress who marries a movie star played by March. In 1954, Judy Garland played a struggling performer paired with James Mason in a musical version of A Star Is Born.

Singers Rita Coolidge and Tony Orlando make cameo appearances playing themselves in the 1976 version. The movie’s sound track was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Musical Score category and was released as an album. It featured the song Evergreen that won an Academy Award in the Best Original Song category. Evergreen was written by Streisand and Paul Williams. Streisand was also the film’s executive producer.