Ruth Gordon
pictured in 1919
Born	Ruth Gordon Jones (1896-10-30)October 30, 1896 Quincy, Massachusetts United States
Died	August 28, 1985(1985-08-28) (aged 88) Edgartown, Massachusetts United States
Occupation	Actress/Writer
Years active	1915–1985
Spouse	Gregory Kelly (1921-1927) Garson Kanin (1942-1985)

Ruth Gordon Jones (October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985), better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer.^[1] She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the Clint Eastwood film Every Which Way but Loose. In addition to her acting career, Gordon wrote numerous well-known plays, film scripts and books. Gordon won an Academy Award, an Emmy and two Golden Globe awards for her acting, as well as three Academy Award nominations for her writing.

Early life[link]

Gordon was born at 31 Marion Street in Quincy, Massachusetts.^[2] She was the only child of Annie Tapley (née Ziegler) and Clinton Jones, a factory foreman who had been a ship's captain. She was baptized an Episcopalian.^[3][4] Prior to graduating from Quincy High School, she wrote to several of her favorite actresses for an autographed picture. A personal reply she received from Hazel Dawn (whom she had seen in a stage production of The Pink Lady) inspired her to go into acting.^[2] Although her father was skeptical of her chances of success in a difficult profession, he took his daughter to New York in 1914, where he enrolled her in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Early career[link]

Ruth Gordon began her career early, posing as a picture baby for Mellin's food.^[5] In 1915, Gordon appeared as an extra in silent films that were shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey, including as a dancer in The Whirl of Life, a film based on the lives of Vernon and Irene Castle.^[6]

That same year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, in the role of Nibs (one of the Lost Boys), appearing onstage with Maude Adams and earning a favorable mention from the powerful critic Alexander Woollcott. Woollcott, who described her favorably as "ever so gay," would become her friend and mentor.^[2] In 1918, Gordon played Lola Pratt in the Broadway adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Seventeen opposite actor Gregory Kelly, who later acted with her in North American tours of Frank Craven's The First Year and Tarkington's Clarence and Tweedles. Kelly became her first husband in 1921, but died of heart disease in 1927, at the age of 36. Gordon in 1927 and 1928, had been enjoying a comeback, appearing on Broadway as Bobby in Maxwell Anderson's Saturday's Children, performing in a serious role after having been typecast for years as a "beautiful, but dumb" character.^[2]

In 1929, Gordon was starring in the title role of "Serena Blandish" when her only child, a son, Jones Harris, was born out of wedlock from a relationship with that Broadway show's producer, Jed Harris.

Gordon continued to act on the stage throughout the 1930s, including notable runs as Mattie in Ethan Frome, Margery Pinchwife in William Wycherley's Restoration comedy The Country Wife at London's Old Vic and on Broadway, and Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at Central City, Colorado, and on Broadway.

Career[link]

Gordon was signed to an MGM film contract for a brief period in the early 1930s but did not make a movie for the company until she acted opposite Greta Garbo in Two-Faced Woman in 1941. She had better luck at other studios in Hollywood, appearing in supporting roles in a string of films, including Abe Lincoln in Illinois (as Mary Todd Lincoln), Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (as Mrs. Ehrlich) and Action in the North Atlantic, in the early 1940s. Gordon's Broadway acting appearances in the 1940s included Iris in Paul Vincent Carroll's The Strings, My Lord, Are False and Natasha in Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic's revival of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, as well as leading roles in her own plays, Over Twenty-One and The Leading Lady.

Gordon married second husband, writer Garson Kanin, who was 16 years her junior, in 1942. Gordon and Kanin collaborated on the screenplays for the Katharine Hepburn – Spencer Tracy films Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952). Both films were directed by George Cukor. The couple were close friends of Hepburn and Tracy, and incorporated elements of their real personalities in the films. Gordon and Kanin received Academy Awards nominations for both of those screenplays, as well as for that of a prior film, A Double Life (1947), which was also directed by Cukor.

In 1953's The Actress, Gordon's film adaptation of her own autobiographical play, Years Ago, became a Hollywood production, with Jean Simmons portraying the girl from Quincy, Massachusetts, who convinced her sea captain father to let her go to New York to become an actress. Gordon would go on to write three volumes of memoirs in the 1970s: My Side, Myself Among Others and An Open Book.

Gordon continued her on-stage acting career in the 1950s, and was nominated for a 1956 Tony, for Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, for her portrayal of Dolly Levi in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, a role she also played in London, Edinburgh and Berlin.

In 1966, Gordon was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe award as Best Supporting Actress for Inside Daisy Clover opposite Natalie Wood. It was her first nomination for acting. Three years later, in 1969, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Rosemary's Baby, a film adaptation of Ira Levin's bestselling horror novel about a satanic cult residing in an Upper West Side apartment building in Manhattan. In accepting the award, Gordon thanked the Academy by saying, "I can't tell you how encouraging a thing like this is...And thank all of you who voted for me, and to everyone who didn't: please, excuse me", which drew laughs because at the time she had been in theater for fifty years and was seventy-two years old.

Gordon won another Golden Globe for Rosemary's Baby, and was nominated again, in 1971, for her role as Maude in the cult classic Harold and Maude (with Bud Cort as her love interest).

She went on to appear in twenty-two more films and at least that many television appearances through her seventies and eighties, including such successful sitcoms as Rhoda (as Carlton the invisible doorman's mother, which earned her another Emmy nomination) and Newhart. She also guest-starred on the episode Columbo: Try and Catch Me. She made countless talk show appearances, in addition to hosting Saturday Night Live in 1977.

Gordon won an Emmy Award for a guest appearance on the sitcom Taxi, for a 1978 episode called "Sugar Mama," in which her character tries to solicit the services of a taxi driver, played by series star Judd Hirsch, as a male escort.

Her last Broadway appearance was as Mrs. Warren in George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession, produced by Joseph Papp at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in 1976. In the summer of 1976, Gordon starred in the leading role of her own play, Ho! Ho! Ho! at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts. She had a minor but memorable role as Ma Boggs the mother of Orville Boggs (Geoffrey Lewis) in the Clint Eastwood films Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can.

In 1983, Gordon was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.^[7]

Harold and Maude and Adam's Rib have both been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.

Gordon died from a stroke in Edgartown, Massachusetts in 1985. A small theater in Westboro, Massachusetts and an outdoor amphitheater in Quincy, Massachusetts were named in her honor.^[8]

Body of work[link]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Writer[link]

Broadway appearances[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Ruth Gordon at the Internet Movie Database
• Ruth Gordon at the Internet Broadway Database

Hope Lange
in Peyton Place (1957)
Born	Hope Elise Ross Lange (1933-11-28)November 28, 1933 Redding, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	December 19, 2003(2003-12-19) (aged 70) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1942–1998
Spouse	Don Murray (1956–1961) Alan J. Pakula (1963–1971) Charles Hollerith, Jr. (1986–2003)

Hope Elise Ross Lange (November 28, 1933 – December 19, 2003)^[1] was an American film, stage and television actress.

Early life[link]

A 15-year-old Hope Lange modeling the "Man-from-Mars, Radio Hat", 1949

Lange was born into a theatrical family in Redding, Connecticut.^[2] Her father, John George Lange (1885–1942), was a cellist and the music arranger for Florenz Ziegfeld and conductor for Henry Cohen; her mother, Minette (née Buddecke) (1898–1970), was an actress.^[3] They had three daughters, Minelda (1922–2004), Joy, (1927–2007), and Hope, and a son, David.^[4][5][6] John worked in New York City and the family moved to Greenwich Village when Hope was a young child.

Hope sang with other children in the play Life, Laughter and Tears, which opened at the Booth Theatre in March 1942.^[7] At age 9, Lange had a speaking part in the award-winning Broadway play The Patriots, which opened in January 1943.^[8][9]

John Lange died in September 1942 but the family stayed in New York City.^[10] Minette ran a restaurant on Macdougal Street near Washington Square Park from 1944 to 1956.^[3] The name was "Minette's of Washington Square", although some sources confuse it with "Minetta Tavern", an Italian restaurant on Macdougal Street founded in 1937. The entire family worked in the restaurant; the oldest daughter, Minelda, ran the cash register while Joy and Hope waited on tables.^[11][12]

While attending high school; Lange studied dance, modeled, and worked in the family restaurant. She sometimes walked the dog of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had a nearby apartment.^[13] When her photo appeared in the newspaper, she received an offer to work as a New York City advertising model.^[14] She appeared on the June 1949 cover of Radio-Electronics magazine wearing the "Man from Mars" Radio Hat. This portable radio built into a pith helmet was a sensation in 1949.^[15]

Lange attended college for two years at Reed College in Oregon and at Barmore Junior College in New York. She met her future husband, Don Murray, at Barmore.^[16]

Career[link]

She began working in television in the 1950s with appearances on Kraft Television Theatre, which caught the eye of a Hollywood producer. Lange came to prominence in her first film role in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray, whom she married on April 14, 1956. Murray later said that Monroe grew jealous of another blonde being hired for the movie and asked the studio producers to dye Lange's blonde hair light brown.^[2]

Hope Lange in Death Wish (1974).

As a result of favorable reviews, Lange landed a major role in the then-risqué 1957 film Peyton Place. Her strong performance earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award and another for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She would become a rather well-recognized supporting actress of ingénue roles. Lange later said that she became somewhat typecast in her ingénue film appearances and this is why her movie career was short-lived. ^[17]

She went on to appear in Nicholas Ray's 1957 film, The True Story of Jesse James as James' wife, opposite Robert Wagner. She appeared in The Young Lions alongside Montgomery Clift. She starred as the wife of Jeffrey Hunter's character in Anton Myrer's wartime drama In Love and War in 1958. These roles eventually lead to Lange earning top billing in 1959's The Best of Everything, with Suzy Parker and Joan Crawford.^[2]

Lange appeared as Elvis Presley's older psychologist love interest in Wild in the Country in 1961, despite being only 26 at the time. She then appeared in Frank Capra's final movie, A Pocketful of Miracles, alongside Glenn Ford. The next year, she appeared with Ford again in the romantic comedy Love Is a Ball.^[2]

Lange returned to television for a 1966 role in the series The Fugitive (1963). She starred from 1968 to 1970 in the popular television series, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir for which she earned two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award nomination. This success was followed by three seasons on The New Dick Van Dyke Show as Dick Van Dyke's wife, Jenny Preston, from 1971 to 1974, declining to return for a fourth season of the show.^[2] She also appeared in twelve television movies. In 1977, she returned to the Broadway stage where her acting career had originally begun. She also played the wife of Charles Bronson in the original Death Wish. In 1985, she appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge and in 1986, she took a role as Laura Dern's mother in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. She took a Broadway role in Same Time, Next Year and then made appearances in the television movie based on Danielle Steel's Message from Nam and in 1994's Clear and Present Danger.

Lange made appearances in the Maine town in which Peyton Place had been filmed during the film's 40th anniversary celebrations in 1998.^[2]

Personal life[link]

Date of birth[link]

Lange's year of birth is often reported as 1931, but the correct year is 1933. A possible source of this error is the Reader's Digest Almanac and Yearbook.^[18] It has shown the 1931 date from as early as 1980 to the 2009 issue. The 1976 and earlier editions give the year of birth as 1933.^[19] Other references such as Chase's Annual Events have always shown 1933,^[1] as does her Social Security Death Index entry.

The 1933 year also matches the ages given in newspaper accounts of Lange in her youth. The New York Times covered the annual "Young People's Concert" awards given at Carnegie Hall. In April 1945, Lange was awarded ^[20] and again in April 1946, when her age was given as 12.^[21] Lange's age of 12 in April 1946 would correspond to a birthdate in November 1933, not 1931.

Also, a short feature story was published in February 1951 about Hope Lange's culinary skills. The first paragraph gives the biography of a seventeen-year-old Hope Lange of Greenwich Village, New York. Her late father was "director of music for Florenz Ziegfield" and her mother had a catering business. In addition to modeling, acting, and dancing; Hope could make "terrific" sandwiches. The article gives her recipes for "Sardine Strips" and "Cheese Ribbon" sandwiches.^[22] Born in 1933, Lange would have been 17 years old in February 1951.

Relationships[link]

Lange's first marriage was to actor, Don Murray, in 1956; they had two children,^[2] actor, Christopher Murray, and photographer, Patricia Murray. Lange left Don Murray in 1961 for actor Glenn Ford, associate producer and co-star of A Pocketful of Miracles. She and Ford never married.^[2] She then left acting for three years after her October 19, 1963, marriage to producer-director, Alan J. Pakula, whom she divorced in 1971.

In 1972 she also dated Frank Sinatra and began a relationship with married novelist, John Cheever.^[23] In 1986 she married theatrical producer, Charles Hollerith, with whom she remained the rest of her life.^[2]

Politics[link]

Lange was a lifelong Democrat and in 1960 she was in attendance at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles, California^[24].

Death[link]

Lange died on December 19, 2003, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, as a result of an ischemic colitis infection at the age of 70.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hope Lange

• Hope Lange at the Internet Broadway Database
• Hope Lange at the Internet Movie Database
• Hope Lange at the TCM Movie Database
• Hope Lange at AllRovi

Garson Kanin
Spencer Tracy (left) and Garson Kanin (right) at the Long Island Studios of the Army Signal Corps for the recording of Tracy's narration of the "Ring of Steel" on February 19, 1942.
Born	(1912-11-24)November 24, 1912 Rochester, New York, USA
Died	March 13, 1999(1999-03-13) (aged 86) New York City, New York, USA
Spouse	Ruth Gordon (1942-1985) Marian Seldes (1990-1999)

Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was a prolific American writer and director of plays and films.

Stage Career[link]

Garson Kanin began his show business career as a jazz musician, burlesque comedian, and actor. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and made his Broadway debut in 1933's "Little Ol' Boy". In 1935, Kanin was cast in a George Abbott play and soon became Mr. Abbott's assitant. Kanin made his Broadway debut as a director in 1936, at the age of twenty-four, with "Hitch Your Wagon".

His 1946 play Born Yesterday, which he also directed, ran for 1,642 performances. Kanin worked, uncredited, on the screenplay of the 1950 film adaptation.^[1]

His other stage work includes directing The Diary of Anne Frank (1955), which ran for 717 performances, and the musical Funny Girl (1964), which ran for 1,348 performances.

Mr. Kanin wrote and directed his last play, "Peccadillo", in 1985, the year he was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Film career[link]

His first film as a director was A Man to Remember (1938), which The New York Times considered one of the ten best films of 1938. Kanin was twenty-six at the time. Other directing credits include "The Great Man Votes " (1939),"My Favorite Wife" (1940), "They Knew What they Wanted" (1940) and "Tom Dick and Harry" (1941).

Mr. Kanin's Hollywood career was interrupted by the draft. He served in the United States Army from 1941-1945. During this time Kanin, with Carol Reed, co-directed General Dwight D. Eisenhower's official record of the Allied Invasion, the Academy-award-winning documentary "The True Glory". (It was also during this time he began writing what would become his greatest play, "Born Yesterday").

Kanin's best-remembered screenplays, however, were written in collaboration with his wife, actress Ruth Gordon, whom he married in 1942. Together, they wrote the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn film comedies Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952), as well as A Double Life (1947), starring Ronald Colman, all directed by George Cukor.

Television Career[link]

In the 1950's through the 1980's, Mr. Kanin adapted several of his stories and plays for television, most notably "Mr. Broadway" (1964), and "Moviola" (1980).

Kanin's best-selling novel "Smash", about the pre-Broadway tryout of a musical comedy, has recently been adapted into a successful television series.

Personal Life[link]

Mr. Kanin was married to his frequent collaborator, Academy-award winning actress Ruth Gordon from 1942 to her death in 1985.

In 1990, Kanin, married the celebrated stage actress Marian Seldes, who survives him.

In 1999, Kanin died at age 86 in New York City of undisclosed causes.

Acquaintances and memorable sayings[link]

He was a colleague of Thornton Wilder, who mentored him, and an admirer of the work of Frank Capra. Kanin said "I'd rather be Capra than God, if there is a Capra." Kanin and Katharine Hepburn were the only witnesses to Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh's wedding in California on August 31, 1940. In 1941, he and Katharine Hepburn worked with his brother Michael Kanin and Ring Lardner, Jr., on the early drafts of what would become Woman of the Year, right before Garson enlisted in the Army. He is also quoted as saying, "When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."

His most famous quote, from his hit play "Born Yesterday", is on a New York City Public Library plaque on a 41st Street sidewalk: "I want everyone to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in."

Selected publications[link]

• Remembering Mr. Maugham; with an introduction by Noël Coward, 1966
• Hollywood..Stars and Starlets, Tycoons, Moviemakers, Frauds, Hopefuls, Great Lovers; New York, Viking Press, 1967
• Moviola, New York, Simon & Shuster, 1979
• Smash. New York: Viking, 1980
• Tracy and Hepburn - an intimate memoir, Viking Press, New York, 1971

Novels

• Blow Up a Storm
• Do Re Mi
• The Rat Race
• Where It's At

Plays

• Born Yesterday
• The Smile of the World
• The Rat Race
• The Live Wire
• Come on Strong

Musicals

• Fledermaus
• Do Re Mi

Filmography[link]

• A Man to Remember (1938) - director
• Next Time I Marry (1938) - director
• The Great Man Votes (1939) - director
• Bachelor Mother (1939) - director
• They Knew What They Wanted (1940) - director
• My Favorite Wife (1940) - director
• Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) - director
• The More the Merrier (1942) - writer
• The True Glory (1945) - director
• From This Day Forward (1946) - writer
• A Double Life (1947) - writer
• Adam's Rib (1949) - writer
• Pat and Mike (1952) - writer
• The Marrying Kind (1952) - writer
• It Should Happen to You (1954) - writer
• The Girl Can't Help It (1956) - original story
• High Time (1960) - original story
• The Rat Race (1960) - writer
• Some Kind of Nut (1968) - writer, director
• Where It's At (1969) - writer, director

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Garson Kanin at the Internet Movie Database
• Garson Kanin at the Internet Broadway Database

• Garson Kanin Official Website

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Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand in concert, O2 Arena, London 2007
Background information
Birth name	Barbara Joan Streisand
Born	(1942-04-24) April 24, 1942 (age 70) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Broadway, traditional pop, adult contemporary
Occupations	singer-songwriter, actress, film producer, director
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Columbia
Website	barbrastreisand.com

Barbra Joan Streisand (/ˈstraɪsænd/; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, writer, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards,^[1] eight Grammy Awards,^[2] five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy,^[3] a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award,^[4] a Peabody Award,^[4] and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

She is one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide.^[5][6] She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the only artist outside of the rock and roll genre.^[7] Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963.^[8] Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.^[9] According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.^[2]

Early life[link]

Barbara Joan Streisand (see name change) was born on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Emanuel and Diana (née Rosen) Streisand, both of Austrian descent. She is the second of two siblings sired by Emanuel (her older brother is Sheldon), who was a respected high school teacher. Fifteen months after Streisand's birth, her father died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the family went into near-poverty.^[10] Streisand first attended the Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn, giving a solo performance at the age of 7.^[11] She later attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club.^[12][13]. Streisand recollects, "I'm so glad I came from Brooklyn--it's down to earth."^[14]

Diana Rosen Streisand remarried Louis Kind in 1949^[10] and gave Streisand a half-sister, the singer Roslyn Kind^[10][15][16] Kind is 9 years younger than Barbra.^[17]

Barbra Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Streisand's character, but this was later denied by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks.^[18] When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act — first performed at The Lion, a popular gay nightclub in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960 — she achieved success as a singer. While singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name from Barbara to Barbra.^[19][20] Afterward she appeared at other New York nightclubs, including the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco.^{[citation needed]} In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her singing style.^[21] Streisand appeared at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in 1961.^[22]

Portrait photograph, 1962

Streisand's first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Jack Paar, in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee".^[23] Orson Bean, who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay bar and booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades later the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing on a website.)^[24] Later in 1961, Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series. PM East was hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson.^[25] PM West was hosted by Terrence O'Flaherty. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired the television show in a select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), wiped all the videotapes soon after broadcasting them.^[26] Audio segments from some episodes, which were saved by Streisand's fans, are part of the compilation CD Just for the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in 1991 that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean, very mean" to her on PM East/PM West.^[27] He countered that she had been "totally self-absorbed." 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to him in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke me."^[28]

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962 and 1963. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale and her "crazy" reputation at Erasmus Hall High School.^[29] As is the case with Mike Wallace, only audio survives from small portions of her telecast conversations with Carson. It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and successful professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her publicists with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).

Streisand returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced two of her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My Parade." Because of the play's overnight success, she appeared on the cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in London's West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared in her first four solo television specials.

Career[link]

Singing[link]

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her early works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second Barbra Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her pensive version of the normally uptempo "Happy Days Are Here Again". She performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang "There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

Barbra Streisand, 1973

During the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10 recordings such as "The Way We Were" (US No. 1), "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (US No. 1), "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly still the most commercially successful duet, (US No. 1), "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and "The Main Event" (US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films. As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S. — only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums.^[30] In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits "Woman in Love" (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), "Guilty", and "What Kind of Fool".

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including "On My Own" (from Les Misérables), a medley of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "Heather on the Hill" (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), "All I Ask of You" (from The Phantom of the Opera), "Warm All Over" (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of "Make Our Garden Grow" (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only "Warm All Over" and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of "All I Ask of You" were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You. At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand started focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in the recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record, was released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it featured over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and previously unreleased material.

The following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel former President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office.^[31] Streisand later introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music career, however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as well as the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was becoming more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested, though Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known stage fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand finally returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June 1993. The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did debut at No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age, especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2 spot). One of the album's highlights was a medley of "I Have A Love" / "One Hand, One Heart", a duet with Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her favorite singers (this is stated in the CD's liner notes).^{[citation needed]}

In 1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand "enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer, Frank Sinatra, has achieved in the last half century."^[32] In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century." The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand the highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history. Following the tour's conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead focusing her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin.

In 1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher Ground, a collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also featured a duet with Céline Dion. The album received generally favorable reviews and, remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts. Following her marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs entitled A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many critics carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush arrangements; however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the country-tinged "If You Ever Leave Me", a duet with Vince Gill.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at least two No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live album of the concert entitled Timeless: Live in Concert was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the Timeless concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, in early 2000. In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from paying public concerts. Her performance of the song "People" was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely —albeit unintentionally— appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous film themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

In February 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" alongside Tony Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony Bennett's 80th birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live performance of the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett: An American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opened the special. In 2006, Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise money and awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV special), and concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006. Special guests Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. The show was known as Streisand: The Tour.

Streisand's 20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed $92,457,062 and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999, show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of $1,000.^{[citation needed]}

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album.^[33] In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich (June 18), then Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4, canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14), followed by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European city where Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and £1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about $60 million.^[34] Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto or possibly a mezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two octaves from "low E to a high G and probably a bit more that [sic?] in either direction."^[35] On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what would be her sixty-third album^[36] and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing the album.^[37] Streisand is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors.^[38] On December 7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies.^[36]

On April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, Streisand: Live in Concert, highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006 North American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On September 26, 2009, Streisand performed a one-night-only show at the Village Vanguard in New York City's Greenwich Village.^[39] This performance was later released on DVD as One Night Only Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard. On September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall.^[40] On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the only artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.

In 2011, she sang with Jackie Evancho in a song called "Somewhere" on Jackie Evancho' album Dream With Me.

Streisand was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two days prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Streisand is one of many singers who use teleprompters during their live performances. Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display lyrics and, sometimes, banter.^[41]

Acting[link]

in Hello, Dolly! (1969)

Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler. Streisand won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the only time there has been a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976.

Along with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

From a period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the annual motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total of 10 times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased considerably. She has acted in only six films since.

Streisand produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972. For Yentl (1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she repeated for The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There was controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but none for the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director.^[42] The Prince of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the director was not nominated. Streisand also scripted Yentl, something she is not always given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor Andrew Rosenthal in an interview (story begins at minute 16) with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having written Yentl."

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

In 2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf.^[43] In December 2008, she stated that she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s^[44] In 2009, Andrew Lloyd Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside Meryl Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset Boulevard.^[45]

In December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film from the Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside Dustin Hoffman.

On January 4, 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in negotiations to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an interview with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that he would not write the screenplay.^[46][47] The following day, the New York Times reported that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand would not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy."^[47][48] Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been conversations".^[49] After Laurents' subsequent death there was no official word on the status of the film for months, until it was announced on March 13, 2012 that Gypsy was moving forward, with Julian Fellowes writing the screenplay for the project.

On January 28, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paramount Pictures has given the road-trip comedy My Mother's Curse the green light to begin shooting, with Streisand and Seth Rogen playing mother and son. Anne Fletcher is slated to direct the project with a script by Dan Fogelman. Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn will produce it with Evan Goldberg. Executive producers include Streisand, Rogen, Fogelman, and David Ellison, whose Skydance will co-finance the pic.^[50] Shooting began in spring of 2011 and wrapped in July. In August the Internet Movie Database began listing the film with the new title Guilt Trip. The film is set for a November 2012 release (originally it was slated to release in March 2012).

Personal life[link]

Marriages and family[link]

Streisand has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second husband is actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have no children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage, including Academy Award-nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his second marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi thriller Capricorn One.

Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters are her goddaughters.^{[citation needed]}

Name[link]

Streisand changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the name, but I refused to change it."^[51] Streisand further explained, "Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change my name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could be Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I said, 'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's unique."^[52] A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised to change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first instead."^[53]

Politics[link]

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities."^[54]

In 1971, Streisand was one of the celebrities listed on President Richard Nixon's infamous Enemies List.

Streisand is a supporter of gay rights, and in 2008 helped raise funds to defeat Proposition 8 in California.^[55]

Philanthropy[link]

Streisand has personally raised $25 million^[56] for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation,^[57] established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through nearly 1,000 grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues^[58] and nuclear disarmament."^[59]

In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation in support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.^[60]

In 2008, Streisand gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Women's Heart Center.^[61] In September that year, Parade magazine included Streisand on their Giving Back Fund's second annual Giving Back 30 survey, "a ranking of the celebrities who have made the largest donations to charity in 2007 according to public records",^[62] as the third most generous celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million, which The Streisand Foundation distributed.

At Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of art and furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her foundation. Items included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet purchased by the performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting by Kees van Dongen.^[63] In December 2011 she agreed to sing at a fundraising gala for Israel Defence Forces charities.^[64]

References in popular culture[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2007)

In television[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

One memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where character Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to, among other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an unannounced guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and Roseanne Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage with Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994 Streisand tour shows.^[65]

Streisand is mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the character Jack McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.

At least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to Streisand. Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert and noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand concert in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In "Fear of Flying", after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying "Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides, even though Marge's therapist is named Zweig. Another reference comes in "Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing Streisand", in reference to Nelson Muntz singing "Papa Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl earlier in the episode. In "Simple Simpson", a patriotic country singer says that Streisand is unpatriotic and could be pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.

Another enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most notably in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing voice about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of The Cure. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners of the screen. At the end of the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the episode "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.

In the Family Guy episode "Mind Over Murder", Lois sings a cabaret act with "Don't Rain on My Parade" — originally sung by Streisand in Funny Girl — only slowed down and jazzier, as an act of defiance to Peter. In "Stewie Kills Lois", Peter receives life insurance after Lois' apparent death, and claims that he has more money than Streisand. This was followed by a cut scene showing Streisand blowing money out of her nose. In "Wasted Talent", Streisand and husband James Brolin are shown sitting together at the dinner table, with Streisand remarking "I'm glad I married a regular person and not a celebrity".

Streisand is referenced frequently on the Fox TV musical series Glee. The character Rachel (Lea Michele) mentions that Streisand refused to alter her nose in order to become famous in the show's third episode "Acafellas". Also, in the mid-season finale of Glee, Rachel sings the Streisand anthem "Don't Rain on My Parade". In the episode "Hell-O", she says that she will be heartbroken for life, "Like Barbra in The Way We Were." In the same episode, Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) criticizes Rachel's performance of "Don't Rain on My Parade" by saying that she "lacked Barbra's emotional depth."

In the episode "Theatricality", Rachel is spying on the opposing team's dance rehearsal when the director, Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel), expresses dissatisfaction at the team's routine. She demonstrates how it's done with the title song from Funny Girl, and Rachel, sitting in the audience, whispers to her friend, "Exactly what I would have done — Barbra. I could do it in my sleep." In the episode "Grilled Cheesus" Rachel sings Barbra's infamous song from the movie Yentl, Papa, Can You Hear Me?,to help support Kurt's dad Burt after undergoing a heart attack. Rachel sang it in a park with Finn sitting at her side/in Burt Hummel's hospital room. She told Finn that she "wanted nothing to come between her and God, and Yentl sang it outside in the movie." ^[66] On the episode Born This Way Barbara is mentioned when Rachel is debating whether or not to get a nose job, Kurt Hummel and the rest of the glee club set up a "Barbra-vention" of a flashmob to the popular hit "Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.

The characters of Kurt and Rachel also sang the "Get Happy/Happy Days are Here Again" duet originally heard during Streisand's 1963 appearance with Judy Garland on Garland's weekly TV series. In the season three episode "I Am Unicorn," Kurt sings Barbra Streisand's "I'm the Greatest Star" from the musical Funny Girl, stating "[He] has permission from the woman herself," actually meaning Rachel Berry. When Glee won the prize for "Best TV Series-Comedy Or Musical" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, creator Ryan Murphy quipped on stage, "Thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press and Miss Barbra Streisand."

In the sitcom The Nanny, Streisand is viewed as a divine figure by Fran Fine throughout the show. When asked by her boss who she would save if her mother and Streisand were drowning, Fran replies "I'd save ma, Barbra can walk on water," Another example is in "The Passed-Over Story," when Fran hears that Barbra Streisand and James Brolin will be arriving at the airport, Fran runs towards the door yelling "It's the miracle of Passover, the Messiah is coming".

On film[link]

In movies, Streisand is remembered as the favorite of the character Howard Brackett, played by Kevin Kline, who finally admits to being gay while standing at the altar in the 1997 romantic comedy In & Out. His unfortunate bride-to-be, played by Joan Cusack, cries out in frustration to family and friends present, "Does anybody here KNOW how many times I've had to sit through Funny Lady?" In an earlier scene, Howard is taunted by a friend during an argument at a bar with a jeering, "The studio thought that Barbra was too ol-l-ld to play Yentl." The film also mentions the album Color Me Barbra. Barbra's signature tune, "People", is played by a school orchestra in honor of teacher Howard as the story wraps at the end of the credits. This and similar references refer to her popularity among gay men.

In the 1996 comedy "The Associate", Whoopi Goldberg plays a business woman, Laurel Ayers, who creates a business associate, Robert S. Cutty, who is said to have known and dated Streisand. In addition to having an autographed picture of Streisand in her office, Ayers also has a cross-dressing friend who dresses up to resemble Streisand throughout the film.

The characters Carla and Connie, as aspiring song-and-dance acts in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla, include four Streisand references. They sing "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" and "Memory" at an airport lounge and "Don't Rain on My Parade" onstage in a gay bar, and talk about the plot of Yentl at the climax of the film after they ask how many in their audience have seen the movie (everyone raised their hands).

In music[link]

Sound clips of Streisand's heated exchange with a supporter of former U.S. president George W. Bush were sampled in the 2009 Lucian Piane dance song "Bale Out", making it sound as if she were arguing with actor Christian Bale (whose recorded outbursts during the filming of Terminator Salvation were the centerpiece of the song).^[67]

"Barbra Streisand" is a disco house song by American-Canadian DJ duo Duck Sauce. It was released on September 10, 2010. The song peaked at number one in Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Austria. It became a top ten hit in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the UK.

On stage[link]

Daniel Stern's 2003 Off-Broadway play Barbra's Wedding was set against the backdrop of Streisand's 1998 wedding to James Brolin.

"Streisand effect"[link]

In 2003, Streisand sued aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying a photograph of her Malibu, California, home, along with other photos of the California coastline. Her suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP provisions of California law.^[68][69][70] Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term "Streisand effect" in January 2005 to describe the publicity generated by Streisand's efforts to suppress the publication of the photograph.

Awards[link]

In 1984, Streisand was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.^[71] She also received the National Medal of Arts^[72] in 2000 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2008. She was inducted as an officer of France's Legion of Honour in 2007.

Streisand is the only women to have an album reach #1 on the US charts and win the Academy Award for Best Actress.^{[citation needed]}

Music awards[link]

Streisand's works have been nominated for over 57 Grammy Awards; she won 15 of these, including two special awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times. In 2011, she was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year by the Grammy Foundation.

Film awards[link]

Streisand has won 2 Academy Awards (Oscar) against 5 nominations, 2 for acting, 2 for song writing and 1 for Best Picture,

1984 nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Male actor for her (male) performance in Yentl.

Appearances[link]

Broadway performances[link]

West End performances[link]

Television specials[link]

Tours and live performances[link]

Discography[link]

• 1963: The Barbra Streisand Album
• 1963: The Second Barbra Streisand Album
• 1964: The Third Album
• 1964: People
• 1965: My Name Is Barbra
• 1965: My Name Is Barbra, Two...
• 1966: Color Me Barbra
• 1966: Je m'appelle Barbra
• 1967: Simply Streisand
• 1967: A Christmas Album
• 1969: What About Today?
• 1971: Stoney End
• 1971: Barbra Joan Streisand
• 1973: Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments
• 1974: The Way We Were
• 1974: ButterFly
• 1975: Lazy Afternoon
• 1976: Classical Barbra
• 1976: A Star is Born
• 1977: Streisand Superman
• 1978: Songbird
• 1979: Wet
• 1980: Guilty
• 1981: Memories
• 1984: Emotion
• 1985: The Broadway Album
• 1988: Till I Loved You
• 1993: Back to Broadway
• 1997: Higher Ground
• 1999: A Love Like Ours
• 2001: Christmas Memories
• 2003: The Movie Album
• 2005: Guilty Pleasures
• 2009: Love Is the Answer
• 2011: What Matters Most

Filmography[link]

References[link]