Barbra Streisand Popular Books
Barbra Streisand Biography & Facts
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( STRY-sand; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being among the first performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Streisand's career began in the early 1960s performing in nightclubs and Broadway theaters. Following guest appearances on various television shows, she signed to Columbia Records—retaining full artistic control in exchange for accepting lower pay, an arrangement that continued throughout her career. Her studio debut The Barbra Streisand Album (1963) won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Throughout her recording career, Streisand has topped the US Billboard 200 chart with 11 albums (the record for a woman until 2023), including People (1964), The Way We Were (1974), Guilty (1980), and The Broadway Album (1985). She also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 with five singles: "The Way We Were", "Evergreen", "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)", and "Woman in Love". Following her established recording success, Streisand ventured into film by the end of the 1960s. She starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl (1968), winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. Additional fame on the big screen followed with the extravagant musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc? (1972), and the romantic drama The Way We Were (1973). Streisand won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for writing the love theme from A Star Is Born (1976), the first woman to be honored as a composer. With the release of Yentl (1983), Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical. Streisand also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the first (and for 37 years, the only) woman to win that award. Streisand later produced and directed The Prince of Tides (1991), and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). With sales exceeding 150 million records worldwide, Streisand is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the second-highest certified female artist in the United States, with 68.5 million certified album units. Billboard ranked Streisand as the greatest solo artist on the Billboard 200 chart and the top Adult Contemporary female artist of all time. Her accolades span ten Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Legend Award; nine Golden Globe Awards; five Emmy Awards; four Peabody Awards; two Academy Awards; the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Early life Family Streisand was born April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York City, to Diana Ida (née Rosen; 1908–2002) and Emanuel Streisand (1908–1943). Her mother had been a soprano in her youth and considered a career in music, but later became a school secretary. Her father was a high school teacher at the same school, where they first met. Streisand's family is Jewish. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Galicia (modern-day Poland and Ukraine) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and her maternal grandparents from the Russian Empire, where her grandfather had been a cantor. In August 1943, a few months after Streisand's first birthday, her father died at age 34 from complications from an epileptic seizure, possibly the result of a head injury years earlier.: 3 The family fell into near poverty, with her mother working as a low-paid bookkeeper. As an adult, Streisand remembered those early years as always feeling like an "outcast", explaining, "Everybody else's father came home from work at the end of the day. Mine didn't.": 3 Her mother tried to pay their bills but could not give her daughter the attention she craved: "When I wanted love from my mother, she gave me food," Streisand says.: 3 Streisand recalled that her mother had a "great voice" and sang semi-professionally on occasion. In a 2016 interview with Rosie O'Donnell, Streisand recounted that when she was 13, she and her mother recorded some songs on tape during a visit to the Catskills. That session was the first time Streisand ever asserted herself as an artist, which also became her "first moment of inspiration." She has an older brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister, singer Roslyn Kind, from her mother's remarriage to Louis Kind in 1950. Education Streisand began her education at the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn when she was five. She was considered bright and inquisitive; however, she lacked discipline, often shouting answers to questions out of turn.: 3 She next attended Public School 89 in Brooklyn, and during those early school years began watching television and going to movies. "I always wanted to be somebody, to be famous... You know, get out of Brooklyn.": 3 Streisand became known by others in the neighborhood for her voice. She remembers sitting on the stoop in front of their apartment building with the other kids and singing: "I was considered the girl on the block with the good voice.": 3 That talent became a way for her to gain attention. She would often practice her singing in the hallway of her apartment building, which gave her voice an echoing quality. She made her singing debut at a PTA assembly, where she became a hit to everyone but her mother, who was mostly critical of her daughter. Streisand was invited to sing at weddings and summer camp, along with having an unsuccessful audition at MGM records when she was nine. By the time she was 13, her mother began supporting her talent, helping her make a four-song demo tape, including "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and "You'll Never Know".: 4 Becoming an actress was her main objective. That desire was made stronger when she saw her first Broadway play, The Diary of Anne Frank, when she was 14. The star in the play was Susan Strasberg, whose acting she wanted to emulate.: 4 Streisand began spending her spare time in the library, studying the biographies of various stage actresses such as Eleanora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt. In addition, she began reading novels and plays and studying the acting theories of Konstantin Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov.: 4 In 1956, she attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where she became an honor student in modern history, English, and Spanish. She also joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club, where she sang with another choir member and classmate, Neil Diamond. Diamond recalls, "We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes." The school was near an art movie house, and he recalls that she was always aware of the films they were showing. She had a crush on 15-year-old US Chess Champion and fellow student Bob.... Discover the Barbra Streisand popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Barbra Streisand books.
Best Seller Barbra Streisand Books of 2024
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Jewhooing the Sixties
David E. KaufmanSandy Koufax, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand first came to public attention in the early 1960s, a period Kaufman identifies as historically ripe for American Jews to ...
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Tough Guys Do Dance
David WintersDavid Winters has produced and directed over 80 feature films and over 200 television shows and TV movies, and is recognized as nothing short of an icon in the enter...
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My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand Summary
Turbo-LearningMy Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand Summary "My Name Is Barbra" is a significant album in the career of Barbra Streisand, released in 1965 as a tiein for her debut television sp...
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The Art of Auditioning
Rob DecinaLearn how to ace your acting audition from a top casting director!Casting Director Rob Decina highlights the difference between the craft of acting and the business of auditioning,...
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The Way They Were
Robert HoflerCoinciding with its 50th anniversary, this intriguing and impeccably researched book is the first ever exploration of the movie that has earned an annual spot in the AFI’s Top 10 m...
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Acting
Terry Schreiber, Mary Beth Barber & Edward NortonHoned by the author's 35 years of teaching, this advanced book offers different warmup exercises concentrating on the actor's sense of smell, sound, sight, and touch; sensory tools...
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Barbra Streisand - What Matters Most
Barbra StreisandTen songs from Barbra's Grammynominated tribute album to her close friends, songwriters Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Contains: Alone in the World I'll Never Say Goodbye Nice 'n' Eas...
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From Under the Truck
Josh BrolinFrom Josh Brolin, a unique and decidedly uncelebrity memoir, by turns affecting, funny, uncanny, and unforgettable.Weaving a latticework of different strands, moving back and forth...
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Vegas Gold
David WillsAn evocative, glamorous look at the golden years of Las Vegas, captured in more than 125 lush color and blackandwhite photographs."I love that town. No clocks. No locks. No restric...
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My Name Is Barbra
Barbra StreisandThe longawaited memoir by the superstar of stage, screen, recordings, and televisionPLEASE NOTE The Ebook edition features additional photographs that are exclusive to the Ebook. B...
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Barbra Streisand Biography Book
Tracey MediaTracey Media is back, and this time we're bringing you the story of an incomparable legend. In the world of entertainment, there are those whose brilliance shines like a guiding s...
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The Art of Auditioning
Rob DecinaA network daytime casting director highlights the difference between the craft of acting and the business of auditioning, and how those two worlds meet in television. Inc...
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A Dancer in Wartime
Gillian LynneLondon during the Blitz was a time of hardship, heroism and hope.For Gillian Lynne – a budding ballerina – it was also a time of great change as she was evacuated from wartorn Lond...
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Remembering Ronnie Barker
Richard WebberRonnie Barker was one of our most respected and bestloved comedy actors and here, in this fascinating biography, Richard Webber delves deep in to the heart of Barker's life and ca...
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Pat Conroy
Bernie Schein“Bernie Schein is the funniest man alive, or so he has dogmatically maintained during the burdensome decades I have known him. . . . [He is] by turns hysterically funny, wildly neu...
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Teenage Revolution
Alan DaviesWhen Alan Davies was growing up he seemed to drive his family mad. 'What are we going to do with you?' they would ask as if he might know the answer.Perhaps it was because he came...
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Howling at the Moon
Walter Yetnikoff & David RitzShow biz memoir at its namedropping, bridgeburning, profane best: the music industry’s most outspoken, outrageous, and phenomenally successful executive delivers a rollicking memoi...
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Barbra Streisand
Alma H. BondBarbra Streisand has been a show business staple for decades, from Funny Girl and Hello, Dolly! to The Way We Were and, more recently, the Fockers franchise. Whether gracing a stag...
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Summary and analysis of My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Felix D. fordDisclaimer: This summary is not a substitute for the main book but serves as a valuable companion to provide insight and understanding. Get your copy now and delve into the world c...
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My Passion for Design
Barbra StreisandFor nearly six decades Barbra Streisand has been one of the singular figures in American entertainment. From the cabaret to the Broadway stage, from television and film stardom to ...
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Hitman
David FosterAfter almost four decades in the music business, David Foster producer, arranger, songwriter, performer is finally ready to talk. In this compelling and outspoken memoir, Foster ...
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Hunting with Barracudas
Chris SnyderHollywood’s famous child star agent Iris Burton launched the careers of the world’s current movie stars and celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Tori Spelling, River and Joaquin P...
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Making It on Broadway
David Wienir, Jodie Langel & Jason AlexanderCountering the misperceptions about Broadway performers leading glamorous lives, the words of more than 150 Broadway stars provide unprecedented insight into their struggle for sta...
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Stormy Weather
James GavinAt long last, the first serious biography of entertainment legend Lena Horne the celebrated star of film, stage, and music who became one of the first AfricanAmerican icons. A...
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Barbra Streisand Biography
Real FactsReal Facts is back with another blockbuster, "Barbra Streisand: The Real Facts Guide to Barbra Streisand's Biography." Dive into the world of the legendary icon, Barbra Streisand, ...
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Chasing the Panther
Carolyn Pfeiffer & Gregory CollinsA cinematic and vibrant comingofage memoir, Chasing the Panther captures the thrilling and, at times, heartbreaking early years of Carolyn Pfeiffer, a pioneering film producer and ...
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Ronnie
Ronnie DrewThe late great Dubliner, Ronnie Drew, was six months into writing his biography when he was diagnosed with cancer. He had produced warm, witty and insightful material that made it ...
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Barbra Streisand Biography
Tina EvansEmbark on a thrilling journey into the extraordinary life of Barbra Streisand with "Barbra Streisand Biography: A Journey Through Music, Cinema, and Beyond." This groundbreaki...
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Summary of My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Willie M. JosephDISCLAIMERThis book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.Summary of My Name Is Barbra by Barbra StreisandI...
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Barbra Streisand
Neal GablerBarbra Streisand has been called the “most successful...talented performer of her generation” by Vanity Fair, and her voice, said pianist Glenn Gould, is “one of the natural wonder...
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The Importance of Being Barbra
Tom SantopietroControversial, a global icon, a diva among divasBarbra Streisand, the last genuinely unique show business personality of the twentieth century is the most honored entertainer in th...
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Dropping the Mask
Noni HazlehurstOne of the most iconic Australians one who has graced our screen and theatres for over forty years Noni Hazlehurst is finally telling her story.Noni Hazlehurst is an icon. A hous...
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Barbra Streisand Biography
Emily WhitemanWith raw honesty and vulnerability, Streisand shares the challenges she faced as a young girl growing up without a father and feeling disconnected from her mother. Through the...