Rastar was an American film company founded in 1966 by Hollywood producer Ray Stark

Ray Stark

Ray Stark was an American film producer and powerbroker known for his Machiavellian ways.While putting together the Broadway musical Funny Girl - the highly fictionalized account of the life of his mother-in-law, Fanny Brice - its producer David Merrick took Stark and his wife to see an unknown...

 (d. 2004), who was involved in most of its productions. Its first film was 1968's Funny Girl

Funny Girl (film)

Funny Girl is a 1968 romantic musical film directed by William Wyler. The screenplay by Isobel Lennart was adapted from her book for the stage musical of the same title...

.

The company was most active during the 1970s and 1980s, with movies like The Owl and the Pussycat

The Owl and the Pussycat (film)

The Owl and the Pussycat is a 1970 romantic comedy film directed by Herbert Ross and starring Barbra Streisand and George Segal. Barbra Streisand plays the role of a somewhat uneducated actress, model and part-time prostitute. She temporarily lives with an educated aspiring writer . Their...

, Murder By Death

Murder by Death

Murder by Death is a 1976 comedy film with a cast featuring Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood, written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.The plot is a spoof of...

, Seems Like Old Times

Seems Like Old Times (film)

Seems Like Old Times is a 1980 comedy film starring Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Charles Grodin, directed by Jay Sandrich, with Neil Simon as screenwriter....

, and Annie

Annie (film)

Annie is a 1982 American musical film directed by John Huston and choreographed by Arlene Phillips. The film is an adaption of the 1977 stage musical of the same name, which in turn was based on the 1924 Little Orphan Annie comic strip by Harold Gray. The movie features music by Charles Strouse,...

. The company's most notable films include Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias is a 1989 American comedy-drama film directed by Herbert Ross that stars Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts....

, and the Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit

Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams, and Mike Henry. It inspired several other trucking films, including two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II, and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3...

trio of films. 1996's Harriet the Spy

Harriet the Spy (film)

Harriet the Spy is a 1996 comedy-drama and mystery film adaptation of the 1964 novel of the same name by Louise Fitzhugh, and starring Michelle Trachtenberg as the title character....

and 2000's Alley Cats Strike

Alley Cats Strike

Alley Cats Strike is a 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie produced by Rastar. It premiered on March 18, 2000.- Plot :A citywide Jr. High sports rivalry erupts when the competing schools manage to split the year-long series of athletic events...

, a film made for Disney Channel, were two of its last endeavors. In 1974, Rastar was acquired by Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

, which included Rastar Productions, Rastar Pictures, Rastar Features, and Rastar Television. Ray Stark then founded Rastar Films, the reincarnation of Rastar Pictures and it was acquired by Columbia Pictures in 1980.