Streisand Barbra

American singer, actress, and filmmaker. She began rising steadily upwards from 1961 by doing TV, records, Broadway, magazine covers and film. Recipient in 1995 of an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University, Barbra Streisand is a rare honoree, perhaps the only artist to earn Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace and Peabody Awards. Her father, who passed away when Barbra was 15 months old, was a highly respected teacher and scholar. The second child in the family, she often remarked upon her childhood as being unhappy. When her mom remarried, she had conflicts with her step-dad, who verbally abused and denigrated her. An honor student at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, she consistently ranked in the top 10% of her class but was not popular with her peers and was given cruel nicknames. The teenager plunged, unassisted and without encouragement, into show business by winning a singing contest at a small Manhattan club. She developed a devout and growing following at the clubs which began hiring her, and soon she was attracting music industry attention at such spots as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. In a Broadway musical, "I Can Get It for You Wholesale," 1962, she won the New York Drama Critics Award and received a Tony nomination. She also met and fell in love with Elliot Gould; they were married the following year and their son, Jason Emmanuel, was born on 12/26/1966. She and Gould announced their separation in 1968. Streisand’s career has been highlighted by a series of "firsts." Her first album, "The Barbra Streisand Album," 1963, became one of the most successful debut albums in history, winning two Grammys. It was Album of the Year and she was the youngest artist to have won that, at that time. The following year she did "Funny Girl" on Broadway, followed by a film version for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress, the first of two Oscars. Her film hits continued with "Hello Dolly," 1969, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," 1970 and "The Way We Were," 1973. She starred in and produced "A Star is Born" in 1976. "The Prince of Tides" was the first motion picture directed by its female star ever to receive a Best Director nomination from the Directors Guild of America as well as seven Academy Award nominations. With "Yentl," which took 14 years of development and persistence, she became the first woman ever to produce, direct, write and star in a major motion picture. She was honored with an Emmy Award and the distinguished Peabody Award for her first television special, "My Name Is Barbra," in 1965. The program earned a total of five Emmys. This achievement was repeated 30 years later by her most recent musical production on television, "Barbra Streisand: The Concert," with two additional Emmy awards for Ms. Streisand among the five for the production itself. For her song "Evergreen," the love theme from her hit film, "A Star Is Born," Streisand is the first female composer ever to win an Academy Award. She was nominated again in 1997 as co-composer of "I Finally Found Someone," based on her love theme for her most recent film as director-producer-star, "The Mirror Has Two Faces." Streisand has repeatedly been at the top of the record sales charts. Her most recent Columbia Records album, "A Love Like Ours," was quickly certified as gold and then platinum. Her prior "Higher Ground" and earlier "Back To Broadway" albums are among only a handful of recordings ever Read less