Actors - Barbra Streisand

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	Actors - Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand (born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, theatre and film actress, composer, and film producer and director. She is also an Academy Award winner for Best Actress and Best Original Song.

Early years

She was born Barbara Joan Streisand in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York then moved to another area in Brooklyn. Her father, Emanuel Streisand, died when she was only 15 months old, and she had a lifelong turbulent relationship with her stepfather, Louis Kind. Her well-intentioned mother, Diana Rosen Streisand Kind, did not encourage her daughter to pursue a show business career, opining that Barbara was not attractive enough. This criticism, many speculate, led to a lifelong insecurity about her appearance, despite enormous success in every facet of show business.

She was educated at the famed Erasmus Hall High School, where she graduated fourth in her class in 1959, and overlapped by a year future collaborator Neil Diamond. She never attended college.

Early singing, theater, and television career

Following a music competition, she became a nightclub singer in her teens. She originally had wanted to be an actress, and appeared in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including one with then-aspiring actress Joan Rivers, but when her boyfriend Barry Dennen helped her shape a club act — first performed in a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960 — she became a big success as a singer. It was also at this time that she shortened her first name to Barbra to make it more distinctive.

She signed her first recording contract with Columbia Records in 1962 and her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Her recording success continued, and at one time, Streisand's first three albums appeared simultaneously on Billboard's pop albums Top Ten - an amazing feat considering it was at a time when rock and roll and The Beatles dominated the charts.

Starting in 1962 Streisand also appeared on Broadway, first in a small but star-making role in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1962) when she was still a teenager, and then as lead role Fanny Brice in Jule Styne's and Bob Merrill's Funny Girl
(1964). After some notable television guest appearances, Streisand built on her success with a number of television specials for CBS. The first special, My Name Is Barbra (1965), is considered by many to be the best, and has been praised by critics and fans.

Singing career

Barbra Streisand has recorded more than 60 albums, almost all with the Columbia Records label. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theatre and nightclub standards, including her famously ironic version of "Happy Days Are Here Again". Beginning with My Name Is Barbra her albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials.

Starting in 1969, Streisand tackled contemporary songwriters; she foundered on attempts to tackle rock, but finally found success with the pop and ballad-oriented, Richard Perry-produced Stoney End in 1971, whose Laura Nyro-written title track was a big hit.

During the 1970s she was also highly prominent in the pop charts, with number-one records like "The Way We Were", "Evergreen", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" and "Woman In Love"; some of these came from soundtrack records to her films.

When the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S., with only Elvis Presley and The Beatles having sold more albums. In 1982, music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand was "The most influential mainstream American pop singer since Frank Sinatra."

Streisand returned to her musical theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album. This was an unexpected commercial success, holding the coveted #1 BillBoard position for 3 weeks straight, and being certified 3x Platinum. The album featured some songs reworked by Stephen Sondheim especially for this recording, was critically acclaimed, nominated as ALBUM OF THE YEAR and landed Streisand her 8th Grammy as Best Female Vocalist.

In 1991 she released a four-disc box set, entitled Just for the Record. A separate disc, entitled "Highlights from Just for the Record" featured two dozen tracks, including live material, greatest hits, and rarities, from her early recordings up to 1991. At the same time, Ms Streisand presented her 2nd film as a director, THE PRINCE OF TIDES. The movie was a box office hit, bringing in close to 100Million at the Box Office and was Nominated for 7 Academy Awards.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Barbra Streisand ]

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Actors - Barbra Streisand

Early years

Early singing, theater, and television career

Singing career

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