Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director, and producer who has achieved extraordinary success in show business. She is the only individual to have received all of the following: an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, National Endowment for the Arts award, and Peabody award, as well as the Kennedy Center Honor, the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement honor, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Chaplin Award. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942 to Diana Kind (née Ida Rosen), a former singer who later worked as a school secretary, and Emanuel Streisand, a high school teacher. Her father died when she was 15 months old. She has a brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister, Roslyn Kind, from her mother's remarriage. As a child, she attended the Beis Yakov Jewish School in Brooklyn. She was raised in a middle-class family and grew up with aspirations of becoming an actress (or even an actress and conductor, as she described during a concert reflecting on her teenage years). After a period performing as a nightclub singer and in off-Broadway productions in New York City, she began to attract attention and build a fan base due to her distinctive and powerful vocal talent. She made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the musical comedy "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" by Harold Rome, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a New York Drama Critics Poll award. The following year, she achieved significant commercial success with her first solo albums on Columbia Records, "The Barbra Streisand Album" (which won multiple Grammys, including "Best Album of the Year") and "The Second Barbra Streisand Album" (her first RIAA Gold Album); these albums, primarily featuring the works of composer Harold Arlen, earned her critical praise and widespread public acclaim across the United States. In 1964, she had another major Broadway success when she portrayed the legendary Broadway star Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill; the show's signature song, "People," became her first hit single and led to her appearance on the cover of Time magazine. After numerous television appearances as a guest on various music and variety shows (including an episode of The Judy Garland Show in 1963, for which she was nominated for an Emmy), she signed an exclusive contract with CBS for a series of annual TV specials. "My Name Is Barbra" (1965), which won an Emmy, and "Color Me Barbra" (1966) were highly successful. After a brief period on London's stage and the birth of her son Jason Gould (with her then-husband Elliott Gould), she gave a notable free concert in New York City in the summer of 1967, "A Happening in Central Park," which was filmed and later broadcast (in an edited version) as a TV special; she then moved to Hollywood for her first film, "Funny Girl" (1968), an adaptation of her stage success. Directed by William Wyler, the film premiered in 1968 and became a hit in the U.S. and internationally, cementing her status as an international "superstar" and earning her multiple awards, including the Best Actress Oscar. Following a series of screen musicals, such as Gene Kelly's "Hello, Dolly!" (1969) and Vincente Minnelli's "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" (1970), she shifted to comedies, appearing in "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970) and "What's Up, Doc?" (1972). She then moved into dramas, starring in "Up the Sandbox" (1972) and the classic "The Way We Were" (1973), directed by Sydney Pollack and co-starring Robert Redford. The song "The Way We Were," written by Marvin Hamlisch and the Bergman siblings, became one of her most iconic and successful songs. She returned to television with a new special, "Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments" (1973), which explored various world music styles. For contractual reasons, she reprised her Fanny Brice role in a sequel to her hit film, "Funny Lady" (1975), and the following year completed one of her most personal film projects, "A Star Is Born" (1976), which was one of the year's biggest hits. For this film, she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress and her second Oscar, for the song "Evergreen." Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she remained active in music, releasing an average of one album per year and producing a string of successful singles and albums, including "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (a duet with Neil Diamond), "Enough is Enough" (with Donna Summer), "The Main Event" (from her film "The Main Event" (1979) with Ryan O'Neal), and the album "Guilty," written for her by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, which sold over 10 million copies worldwide. She made her directorial debut with the musical drama "Yentl" (1983), in which she also starred as a Jewish girl who disguises herself as a man to pursue her dreams. The film received generally positive reviews, and the score by Michel Legrand and the Bergman siblings is considered one of Streisand's finest musical works. The film received several Oscar nominations, winning in two categories, but she was not