Barbra Streisand is an American award-winning singer, actress, film producer and director considered as one of the most commercially successful women in the entertainment industry. She was born on April 2, 1942 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and was raised in a Jewish family. She attended Erasmus Hall High School where she graduated third in class. Barbra Streisand has always wanted to be a singer but her mother discouraged her, saying that she wasn’t attractive enough. During her high school, she sang in the school choir with Neil Diamond and was good friends with Bobby Fischer.
Barbra Streisand first worked as a nightclub singer while in her teens. She also appeared in a number of Off-Off Broadway Productions including one with Joan Rivers. She made her first television appearance on The Tonight Show, hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961. Later that year, she became a semi-regular on the variety series, P.M. East P.M., hosted by Mike Wallace. In 1962, Streisand had her first appearance on Broadway, as Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. She also signed for her first recording contract with Columbia that year. Since then, Streisand has already recorded more than 60 albums, with majority under Columbia Records label.
Streisand’s first movie was a remake of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968). The film became an artistic and commercial success for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress. This was then followed by two other movies which were also based on musicals; Hello Dolly! (1969) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970).
Streisand also starred in the screwball comedies What’s Up Doc? (1972) alongside Ryan O’Neal and For Pete’s Sake (1974). She also co-starred with Robert Redford in the 1973 film The Way We Were. Streisand won her second Academy Award for the Best Original Song, as composer of “Evergreen” from the 1976 film A Star is Born. In 1970, she starred on her first controversial movie, The Owl and the Pussycat.
Streisand has also produced some of her own movies under Barwood Films. She was the producer, director, writer, and star for the films Yentl (1983) and The Prince of Tides (1991).
After an eight-year acting hiatus, Streisand once again returned in the big screen in 2004, as Mrs. Focker in the hit comedy film Meet the Fockers.