Barbra Streisand
April 24, 1942 — Brooklyn, New York
Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, songwriter, and filmmaker whose career spanning more than six decades has produced Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, making her one of only a handful of EGOT winners in entertainment history and one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Brooklyn to Broadway
Barbara Joan Streisand was born April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family. Her father, a high school teacher, died when she was 15 months old — a loss she described as shaping her entire emotional landscape. She grew up in relative poverty, spending summers in the Catskills and channelling her ambition into performing from a young age. Dropping her first name's "a" to make it more distinctive, she won a talent contest at a Manhattan nightclub at 18 and had landed a role in the Broadway musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale by 1962. Her performance was so electrifying she received a standing ovation at each performance, and her career was effectively launched before she had recorded a single.
The Voice and the Screen
Her debut album, The Barbra Streisand Album (1963), won two Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. She became a Broadway sensation in Funny Girl (1964), and when she reprised the role in the 1968 film adaptation, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress — tying with Katharine Hepburn for the first time two performers had ever shared the honour. Like Adele, Streisand's voice was from the beginning her most instantly recognizable instrument: enormous in range, precise in its emotional register, and unmistakably individual. Across the 1970s she became the dominant force in American popular music, and her recording of Evergreen from A Star Is Born (1976) won both Academy and Grammy Awards.
Did You Know?
Barbra Streisand is one of very few EGOT recipients — someone who has won competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. She achieved this status in 2001 when she received a special Tony Award, and is also the only person to have received an Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Tony, Golden Globe, Cable Ace Award, National Medal of Arts, and a Peabody Award.
Director, Activist, Legacy
With Yentl in 1983, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major Hollywood film. She directed The Prince of Tides (1991), which received seven Oscar nominations. She has also been a prominent Democratic activist for decades, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for causes including women's heart health research, the environment, and civil rights. Her total album sales exceed 150 million worldwide, placing her among the best-selling music artists in history. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. A life dedicated to artistic perfection on her own uncompromising terms, from Brooklyn to the White House, is a story that continues to resonate.