I think we can all agree that Barbra Streisand has had a long and highly successful career.
The 80-year-old Brooklyn native has demonstrated her talent as an actor, producer, and singer over the years. She has become the most successful female recording artist of all time as a result, and she has also received some of the most prestigious honors in the process.
Diana Rosen and Emanuel Streisand were Barbra Streisand’s parents when she was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on April 24, 1942. When Barbra was only 15 months old, tragedy hit her early life when her father passed away as a result of consequences from an epileptic seizure.
Diana Streisand would later get remarried. Barbra thought the new man didn’t like her, though. The now-praised singer and actress made the decision to forge her own path as a young girl, and it was immediately apparent that she possessed potential.
Barbra discovered she had a good voice at age six. She recalls being “known as the kid who had a good voice and no father.”
“I was kind of a wild child, like an animal, I could never sit still at a table – not that my family ever sat down and ate a meal together,” Barbra told Oprah.
“I used to stand over the stove and eat out of a pot. There was no mealtime. I have no idea when my brother and sister ate because I came in whenever I wanted. I also taught my mother how to smoke when I was 10.”
Suffice to say that Streisand had a tough childhood. Not only did her mother have problems making ends meet, but at school she was often rejected and taunted by other children.
Her mother thought that pursuing a career in show business was a bad idea as Barbra wasn’t attractive enough. Streisand, though, never gave up.
She participated in the school chorus at Bais Yakov School, where she later met Neil Diamond, a future coworker.
When Streisand met Anita and Alan Miller at the age of 15, her life was forever altered. She worked as a set mover and scenery painter at the Cherry Lane Theater in Greenwich Village. Alan instructed actors. Barbra looked after their kids for them for a while, and in exchange, Alan awarded her a scholarship to his acting academy.
Streisand attended both institutions concurrently and earned her diploma from Erasmus Hall High School in 1959. While many teenagers had their sights set on attending college, Barbra did not.
Instead, she decided to move to New York City to pursue a career in acting. She had no plans for becoming a singer, but that soon changed.
Streisand moved to Manhattan from Brooklyn, and planned on living by herself. She took a job as a clerk at a business firm, and took acting and drama lessons by night.
“I used to hum and my boss would say, ‘Stop humming around here, what do you think you’re in, a show?’ Now when I see him, he asks me if I remember when he used to bawl me out for humming,” she told Seventeen Magazine in 1963.
By then it was clear that the Brooklyn native would be forever remembered as one of the biggest American theatre and film stars – yet even more would follow.
Barbra Streisand – awards, net worth
