Barbra Streisand

American actor

• Born: April 24, 1942
• Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York

After making her debut in the Greenwich Village theater scene, Barbra Streisand graduated to Broadway and soon had a recording contract with Columbia Records. Streisand is one of the few entertainers in history to have received an Oscar, a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony Award. Streisand is also an outspoken political activist, a social reformer, and a champion of LGBTQ rights.

Early Life

Barbra Streisand was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City to Jewish parents. Her father, Emanuel, died when Streisand was only fifteen months old, but her mother, Diana Ida Rosen, remarried Louis Kind. Despite household tension, Streisand was able to continue her studies and singing throughout her childhood, which included time in the choir at Erasmus Hall High School. She graduated fourth in her class of 1959. The following year, she entered the Greenwich Village club scene under the tutelage of romantic interest Barry Dennen and soon shortened her first name from Barbara to Barbra for additional showbiz appeal.

In 1961, Streisand took up singing in Winnipeg, Canada, at the Town and Country Restaurant, but she soon moved back to New York when Broadway wooed her for a 1962 role in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Rave reviews and audience adulation over her wide-ranging vocals and her onstage charisma led to a record deal from Columbia Records that same year. The Barbra Streisand Album earned her two Grammy Awards in 1963 for album of the year and best female vocal performance.

From a personal perspective, 1963 also brought her marriage to actor Elliott Gould, with whom she had one son, Jason Gould. They divorced in 1971. Shortly thereafter, she reentered the spotlight and resumed a career that would continue to combine acting and singing (both in the studio and on stage). She returned to theater in Funny Girl in 1964 and to music with the number-one charting album People, which paved the way for Streisand’s debut television special, My Name Is Barbra, in 1965. Funny Girl was made into a 1968 film, and Streisand won an Oscar for best actress for her performance in the film.

Life’s Work

After securing household recognition in the United States from, as well as an Emmy Award for, her TV special, Streisand’s fame skyrocketed, leading to blockbuster records, full-length feature films, and additional TV specials. Musically, she churned out a series of original recordings and concert projects, most notably A Happening in Central Park (1968), which also was made into a television special. She also acted in the films Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! (1969) with musical soundtracks. She released A Christmas Album in 1967, which went on to become one of the best-selling albums of her career.

The year 1970, during which she received an honorary Tony Award as the "star of the decade," saw the release of Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, which charted on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified double-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album includes the hit singles “People,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “He Touched Me,” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” Streisand quickly turned in new material with Stoney End (1971), teaming with some of the music industry’s best songwriters and session players of the time. The album’s title track was originally written and performed by Laura Nyro. The song “If You Could Read My Mind” was originally recorded by Gordon Lightfoot, and “I Don’t Know Where I Stand” was penned by Joni Mitchell, with contributions from piano player Randy Newman. Other key recording projects of the decade included The Way We Were (1974); Classical Barbra (1976), which was centered around classical music interpretations; Songbird (1978), which features Neil Diamond’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”; and Wet (1979), known for its disco duet “No More Tears” with Donna Summer. “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” inspired her to record a duet with Diamond.

Among Streisand’s most famous films from the 1970s were The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford and A Star Is Born (1976) with Kris Kristofferson. The latter film’s especially strong all-star pairing helped the film earn more than $70 million at the box office and led to an Oscar for best original song (awarded to Streisand for “Evergreen”). However, critics panned her boxing film The Main Event (1979).

However, the early 1980s proved incredibly fruitful for Streisand as a singer. She partnered with Barry Gibb for the album Guilty (1980), known for its single of the same name plus the follow-up hits “Woman in Love” and “What Kind of Fool.” Three years later, the momentum continued with the film and the soundtrack to Yentl (1983), for which not only she sang and acted but also wrote, produced, and directed. She switched hats yet again for The Broadway Album (1985) and the concert record and television special One Voice (1987), which marked her first concert in more than fourteen years.

The 1990s also kicked off in productive fashion, starting with the film The Prince of Tides (1991), where she again played the parts of actor, producer, and director. She continued to make waves on the concert stage as well, embarking upon her first full-fledged tour in more than twenty-eight years, a tour chronicled for the TV special The Concert (1994). For the 1996 film The Mirror Has Two Faces she also worked as actor, producer, and director, and had a successful soundtrack with the film, thanks mostly to the romantic duet with Bryan Adams “I Finally Found Someone.” In 1998, Streisand married actor James Brolin. Streisand emerged from married life with the celebratory album A Love Like Ours (1999) and performed in Las Vegas to close out the year. This tour, too, was chronicled, in the audiovisual project Timeless: Live in Concert (2000). In 2000, she was presented with the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.

Her success continued into the twenty-first century, and she maintained her prolific output of albums and films. In 2001, she released her second Christmas album, Christmas Memories, which reached number fifteen on the Billboard 200 and went on to be certified platinum. Her subsequent two releases, The Movie Album (2003) and Guilty Pleasures (2005), both peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. In 2004, she appeared in the comedy film Meet the Fockers with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller and, in 2010, she reprised the role in the sequel Little Fockers. Her album of jazz standards, Love Is the Answer, became her ninth album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 when it was released in 2009. Her thirty-third studio album, What Matters Most, was released in 2011 and received a Grammy Award nomination for best traditional pop vocal album. In 2012, the same year in which her album of eleven previously unreleased songs, Release Me, came out, she was the executive producer and star of the comedy film The Guilt Trip with Seth Rogen.

For the remainder of the 2010s, Streisand received further recognition for her work, which included more new music and live performances. In addition to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015, she earned another Grammy nod, this time for her 2014 album of duets, Partners, which had also peaked at the top position on the Billboard 200. Expanding on the duet format for her next record, in 2016 she put out a collection of popular Broadway hits sung alongside fellow actors, titled Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. With this project also securing the number-one spot on the Billboard 200 as well as a Grammy nomination, she supported its release with a tour, which then produced the Grammy-nominated live album The Music . . The Mem'ries . . . The Magic! (2017). Her last album release of the decade came with Walls (2018), which earned her yet another Grammy nomination.

After 2021 saw the release of Streisand's Release Me 2, she published a much-hyped and lengthy memoir in late 2023, titled My Name Is Barbra. Her next award once again recognized her contributions over the years as an actor when, at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Significance

Streisand continued her phenomenal recording and acting career into the twenty-first century but, beyond her work as an artist, she has also engaged in a number of humanitarian and social causes, using her celebrity status to help the less fortunate and to promote social welfare programs. She was active in supporting the Democratic Party, LGBTQ rights, and aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Bibliography

Andersen, Christopher. Barbra: The Way She Is. Morrow, 2006.

"Barbra Streisand." AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/artist/barbra-streisand-mn0000855531#biography. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Considine, Shaun. Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music. Delacorte, 1985.

Dennen, Barry. My Life with Barbra: A Love Story. Prometheus, 1997.

Edwards, Anne. Streisand: A Biography. Little, 1997.

Italie, Hillel. "Streisand Talks Acting, Music and Destiny after Release of Her Memoir 'My Name Is Barbra.'" Associated Press, 5 Dec. 2023, apnews.com/article/barbra-streisand-memoir-yentl-funny-girl-32663525ce8f41b5b58719d4c7cf694c. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.

Mann, William J. Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand. Houghton Mifflin, 2012.

Riese, Randall. Her Name Is Barbra: An Intimate Portrait of the Real Barbra Streisand. Birch Lane, 1993.

Santopietro, Tom. The Importance of Being Barbra. Dunne, 2006.

Spada, James. Streisand: Her Life. Crown, 1995.

Streisand, Barbra. My Passion for Design. Viking, 2010.

Streisand, Barbra. "SAG Honoree Barbra Streisand on Acting, Oscar Snubs and Singing with Bob Dylan." Interview by Glenn Whipp. Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2024, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-02-23/barbra-streisand-sag-life-achievement-award. Accessed 21 Aug. 2024.