July 8, 2012 7:57 PM

Saying farewell to the extraordinary Mike Wallace

[Johnny Carson: Whaddya waiting for, your pacemaker to start? I think it's gotta kick in just about when you serve.]

The chemistry between Mike and his interview subjects is sometimes complicated.

[Mike Wallace: You would love to control this piece.

Barbra Streisand: Absolutely. Are you kidding?]

He first met Barbra Streisand in the 1960s, when she was a guest on a talk show he hosted. Three decades later on "60 Minutes," they crossed swords in one of Mike's most controversial interviews.

[Mike Wallace: I really didn't like you back 30 years ago. And I don't think you liked me, either.

Barbra Streisand: I thought you were mean. I thought you were very mean.

Mike Wallace: You know something? Twenty or 30 years of psychoanalysis. I say to myself, what is it she's trying to find out that takes 20 to 30 years?

Barbra Streisand: I'm a slow learner. And why do you sound so accusatory, too?

Mike Wallace: I'm not accusing -

Barbra Streisand: Are you against psychotherapy?]

And then there's Shirley MacLaine. She got the full Wallace treatment in 1984.

[Mike Wallace: You really believe that you lived lives before.

Shirley MacLaine: Oh, yes, Mike. I do, there's no doubt in my mind about it.

Mike Wallace: And you really believe in extraterrestrial -- how, do they come visit you on the porch? Now you're being unpleasant, Wallace, is what you're saying.

Shirley MacLaine: Yes. This is what I was a little afraid of. But you don't have to be that unpleasant. It doesn't become you, you know?]

But dare we say it -- in his old age, a side of Mike emerged that was positively paternal. Here he is with actress Hilary Swank, whose rise to the top in Hollywood is a story to soften the heart of even the toughest old crank.

[Hilary Swank: My mom said to me that I could do anything that I wanted in life as long as I worked hard enough. And to this day it still makes me really emotional.

Mike Wallace: Yup.

Hilary Swank: Because I just never questioned it, you know? She just always believed in me.]

Mike Wallace: She was the genuine article.

But his all-time favorite interview -- not just among the performers, but of all of them -- was with piano virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz in 1977.

Mike Wallace: I was in awe of this guy. He comes into the orchestra hall in Chicago. And I say, "Oh, maestro." "Mike Wallace! I watch you every Sunday night!" Come on.

[Mike Wallace: You know what I'm going to ask you...

Vladimir Horowitz: Yes, I know because they ask me all the time.]

Mike Wallace: And when I asked him to play what he had played in Central Park in 1945, the "Stars and Stripes Forever"...



© 2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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