The Stunning Transformation Of Barbra Streisand
When you hear the phrase "Legend of the stage and screen," a few names probably come to mind — Meryl Streep, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, and Judi Dench, for example. Another name that is bound to come up? Barbra Streisand. In fact, it's hard to think of anyone quite as legendary as her. A musical prodigy, an icon of Broadway, and a bona fide film star, it's no wonder.
Streisand first found fame onstage in the '60s starring as Fanny Brice in Jule Styne's "Funny Girl." After she reprised the role in the 1968 film opposite Omar Sharif, Streisand earned her first Oscar and quickly became a household name. After that, Streisand starred in dozens of acclaimed films — "Hello, Dolly!" in 1969, "What's Up, Doc?" in 1972, "The Way We Were" in 1973, "A Star Is Born" in 1976, and "Yentl" in 1983, to name a few.
In 2024, Streisand took home the SAG Life Achievement Award — in the audience, the likes of Anne Hathaway and Hannah Waddingham were spotted crying as the legend stepped onto the stage. It's easy to see why — Streisand's staggering talent and hugely impressive career have made her an inspiration to generations of performers. Here's how she went from humble beginnings in Brooklyn to global stardom.
Barbra Streisand grew up poor and singing in Brooklyn
From the beginning, Barbra Streisand showed signs of being born to perform. Her parents were Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father died when she was just over a year old, so Diana, a bookkeeper, raised Barbra and her brother with the help of her parents in Brooklyn.
The family struggled to make ends meet. Diana couldn't even afford to buy toys for her children — as Barbra once told Oprah, she used her imagination to turn a hot water bottle into a doll. Although Streisand may have found fame and riches, her humble beginnings have stuck with her. "When you grow up poor, you're always poor in a sense ... I always said this about success — it doesn't change you," she said. "It just makes you more of what you were, what you are."
Barbra Streisand was known as the local singer from when she was as young as 5 years old. "I was always the kid on the block who had no father but a good voice," she told The Guardian. "I loved singing in my hallway in Brooklyn because it had a high ceiling so when I would sing it would echo."
She was traumatized when her mother remarried
When Barbra Streisand was young, her life changed forever when her mother remarried — and failed to tell her about it. As Streisand explained to Entertainment Tonight, when she was 7 years old, she was at a summer camp but wanted to return home early. "I made my mother take me home, and so she took me to a car with a strange man." It turned out the man was Streisand's mother's new husband.
Everything changed for the young girl. Streisand suddenly found herself living in a new house with this stranger. "It was very traumatic to me," she confessed. "Because then my mother had a baby, I didn't even know she was pregnant." To make matters worse, Streisand's new stepfather didn't seem to like her. As she told Oprah, he actually rebuffed her attempts to fit into the family.
Living through her mother's secretive remarriage apparently gave Streisand a lifelong fear of being lied to. "I'm convinced this is why I cannot stand to be lied to. I can take any truth; just don't lie to me," she said.
Barbra Streisand went to her first acting class at 14
Even though Barbra Streisand grew up singing, her first love was acting. When she was young, she had big dreams of becoming a serious actor and appearing in classic plays. Her passion for the stage began when, at 14, she saw a production of "The Diary of Anne Frank." Streisand imagined herself playing the role and knew it was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. "Playing characters was my life, my ambition, my dream," she told The Guardian. In another interview with NPR she admitted, "I wanted to be on the stage and play, you know, Juliet and 'A Doll's House,' whatever. You know, Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare."
So, the young Streisand began taking acting classes in Manhattan and even acting in plays during the summer. The following year, she auditioned for the renowned Actors Studio in New York.
She started singing at The Bon Soir to make a living
Barbra Streisand wasn't immediately successful as an actor, so she found herself a side gig — singing in a nightclub. When she was 18, she landed a slot singing at The Bon Soir, a Greenwich Village nightclub. At the time, she had never been to a nightclub and had no idea how to dress so she wore "antique clothes" that dated back to the 1890s. "I remember walking to the club wearing an antique vest from the thrift shop and antique shoes from the 1920s that I still have in my closet today," she told The Guardian in 2022. "On the way, I remember thinking, 'This could be the beginning of a big change in my life.'"
Her performances were a huge hit — and the gig did prove to be life-changing, despite her ancient attire. In 1962, a live recording of one of her Bon Soir sessions was released, offering a glimpse into Steisand's rise to success and notoriety.
Barbra Streisand began her career with a run of Broadway hits
After getting her start singing in nightclubs, Barbra Streisand landed her Broadway debut in 1964, playing Miss Marmelstein in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale." It was her first Broadway audition ever. And yet, Harold Rome, the show's composer, later told The New York Times, the team was blown away by her voice in the audition. "We had her come back three times because it was such a pleasure to listen to her," said Rome.
As Streisand told W Magazine in 2016, she had initially auditioned to play the ingénue role but wasn't "right for it." Instead, they rewrote the part of an old secretary for the 19-year-old. The role was so small that she only sang one song. However, as CBS News reported, she got a three-minute standing ovation on opening night. "My salary was $175, and the next day it went up to $350!" she recalled.
After the wild success of "I Can Get It for You Wholesale," Barbra Streisand landed the leading role of Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" on Broadway. "It meant the world to me," she later told CBS of the show. "It was everything I imagined wanting a play to be for me." Although she loved the role, she found she hated the repetition and rigidity of Broadway's eight-show-per-week structure and therefore found herself more interested in films.
She starred in the movie adaption of Funny Girl in 1968
Soon, Barbra Streisand got her wish. In 1968, she was cast in the film adaption of "Funny Girl" opposite Omar Sharif. Although it was only her first movie, Streisand earned her first Oscar for the role. "The film 'Funny Girl' is near and dear to my heart!" she later wrote on her website. "Not only am I proud of the finished product, it was the best experience I ever had making a film! It was a brilliant musical, combining a dramatic story with music."
However, Streisand nearly lost the role of Fanny Brice due to concerns about her nose. The film's producers sought a Jewish actor who had undergone a nose job, in order to mirror real-life actor Fanny Brice's own experience and to match their stereotypical beauty ideals. However, Barbra Streisand refused to change her appearance. Even though she was confident about her countenance, some of the comments about her nose in the press still hurt. "I guess when you become famous, you become public property," she wrote in her memoir, "My Name Is Barbra."
Her first marriage came to an end in 1971
Barbra Streisand married fellow actor Elliott Gould in 1963 shortly after appearing alongside him in her first Broadway show, "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." In fact, the pair had their first date after her audition. "After her last audition, they say, 'Thank you,'" Gould recalled to CBS. "She then was very flummoxed as to being right there and not knowing what's going to happen next, and so she announced her phone number and she said, 'Would somebody call me?' And I remembered her number and I called her."
For Streisand, Gould was a comfortable match who understood her Brooklyn upbringing. He was also her first serious boyfriend. "I loved Elliott. He was familiar to me," she wrote in her memoir, "My Name Is Barbra."
The pair had a son, Jason Gould, in 1966. However, by 1971, their marriage had come to an end. As Elliott explained, the main reason for their divorce was Streisand's burgeoning career. Elliott was also busy with numerous roles in acclaimed films. "We didn't grow together and the reason for that was because she became more important than us," he confessed.
Throughout the '70s, Barbra Streisand's film career took off
After her breakout role in "Funny Girl," Barbra Streisand's career was launched into the stratosphere. She starred in numerous big films in the years that followed, establishing herself not only as a great musical theater performer but also as a wonderful comedian. In 1969, she played the titular role in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "Hello, Dolly!" In 1972, she was cast in Peter Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?" — a screwball comedy starring Ryan O'Neal and Madeline Kahn. As O'Neal later told The Hollywood Reporter, "I learned more about comedy from Barbra than anyone."
In 1973, Streisand flexed her dramatic chops in Sydney Pollack's "The Way We Were" opposite Robert Redford, the tragic story of ill-fated lovers whose political differences make their relationship impossible. The film also earned her a second Oscar nomination. "I loved the script, I loved the story. It's a wonderful story," she told Larry King of the film. In fact, she loved it so much that she later pushed to make a sequel.
In 1976, she also starred in "A Star Is Born," a remake of the famous 1937 film starring Janet Gaynor (the film was also remade in 1954 starring Judy Garland and later in 2018 starring Lady Gaga).
She made her directorial debut with Yentl in 1983
Barbra Streisand starred in "Yentl" in 1883 — a project that she also wrote, directed, and produced. Streisand starred as Yentl, a Jewish girl from Poland who dresses as a boy to study religion. Although she initially pitched the film to director Milos Forman, she ended up directing it herself. "Milos Forman, when I was discussing it and sharing my vision of it, he said to me, 'Why don't you direct it yourself? You have it all in your head.' And I thought 'Oh my gosh, really?' I was afraid. I was afraid to do that," she recalled during a Q&A in Los Angeles in 2019 (via The Hollywood Reporter).
Although it took Streisand 15 years to get "Yentl" made, it was a big success, making over $40 million at the box office and earning five Oscar nominations. Streisand also became the first woman to win a Golden Globe for directing after the project.
Barbra Streisand married her second husband James Brolin in 1998
In 1998, Barbra Streisand tied the knot for a second time, marrying actor James Brolin who's best known for "Traffic" and the original "Westworld" film. The pair had met two years earlier on a blind date during a dinner party.
"We were set up as a blind date, and I was so shy that I came into the house and I went downstairs to be with the children, play with them until I had to sit down at the table," Streisand told Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show" in 2021.
Since then, Brolin and Streisand have been the perfect picture of a happy Hollywood couple. In 2020, Streisand wrote on Instagram, "There's no one I'd rather be locked up with than you honey — can't believe it's been 24 years together! Happy anniversary." Brolin even confessed in an interview on The Talk that their relationship had only gotten stronger during the pandemic. "We've literally fallen in love over this period of time, just being stuck together every day and making it work," he gushed.
She continued directing and acting in the '90s and 2000s
After making "Yentl" in 1983, Barbra Streisand went on to direct two more films, "The Prince of Tides" in 1991 and "The Mirror Has Two Faces" in 1996. Although she had been nervous about directing her first film, it's clear she found that being behind the camera gave her some of the authority she craved. "When I wanted more artistic control, I started directing," she told the Harvard Business Review. "It allows me to complete my own vision."
Streisand's acting career also continued but as time went on, she began to appear in more comedic cameos. After starring in her two directorial projects in the '90s, she didn't appear in another film for almost a decade until 2004 when she played Roz in "Meet the Fockers." Speaking to Time magazine in 2004 about her decision to return to acting, she said, "I'm just lazy. It's work when you go do a movie. You've got to get up early in the morning and put on makeup and have costume fittings. It's a pain in the neck" (via Barbra Archives). She went on to appear in "Little Fockers" in 2010, "The Guilt Trip" in 2012, and an episode of "Modern Family" in 2016.
Barbra Streisand spent much of her life as a philanthropist
Throughout her career, Barbra Streisand often gave to causes close to her heart. This began in the '80s with her donations to universities. "Whenever I made money, I wanted to give it away," she told Zane Lowe (via Apple Music). "I keep some for myself but do something like my father intended ... about education." Over the years, she expanded her philanthropy, donating to causes related to gender equality and climate change. "I love to have a purpose that's bigger than myself. It's not about financially making myself richer," the actor said.
In 1986, Streisand launched the Barbra Streisand Foundation, which has raised over $25 million in support of organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund, the William J. Clinton Foundation, the Women's Media Center, Friends of the Earth, and many more. In 2020, after the death of George Floyd, she also gave his daughter, Gianna Floyd, shares in Disney.
She published a memoir in 2023
In 2023, Barbra Streisand published a groundbreaking 900-page memoir called "My Name Is Barbra." It was, as she told the BBC, her attempt at having "some control over [her] life." However, she also wanted her fans to enjoy it. "When I finished the book, I thought, 'God, I hope people like this book,'" she told Variety when it was published. "It was a long time, and I forgot what I wrote 10 years ago, when I started the book. It's been a long journey."
Not only were fans thrilled by the book but they were also blown away by the 48-hour-long audiobook, which Streisand recorded herself. She also added extra stories and music to it. "Listening to her read it, it's a real performance," said Rick Kot, who handled the book's production.
For Streisand, writing the memoir gave her a chance to reveal certain things she had never been brave enough to say before. "The thought of saying some of these words out loud, I don't know — it's too personal," she said.
Barbra Streisand likes to live a quiet life
These days, Barbra Streisand's main aim is to live a private, quiet life. "I like doing private things — not public things," she explained to Zane Lowe for Apple Music in 2021. Streisand has continued to crave a life out of the spotlight. "It was more exciting to dream about being famous than the reality," she told the BBC in 2023. "I'm a very private person. I don't enjoy stardom."
Streisand even hinted that she would probably never appear in another movie. Instead, she plans to simply enjoy life with her husband and her three dogs — and hopefully, have some fun. "I want to live life. I want to get in my husband's truck and just wander, hopefully with the children somewhere near us. ... I haven't had much fun in my life, to tell you the truth. And I want to have more fun."