Barbra
Streisand , born Barbara Joan
Streisand, April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, director and
songwriter. She has won two Academy Awards, nine Grammy Awards, four
Emmy Awards,a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, and a
Peabody Award.
She is one of the
most commercially and critically successful female entertainers in
modern entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped
in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the
best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of
America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list and the only female recording
artist in the top ten. Her achievement is all the more remarkable, as
she is the only artist who was not a part of the rock n roll genre.
Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, Jamie Foxx and Shirley Jones, she shares
the distinction of being awarded an acting Oscar and also recording a
#1 pop single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
According
to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most Top 10 albums of
any female recording artist; a total of 31 to her credit since 1963.
Streisand also has the widest span (46 years) between first and latest
Top 10 albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love
Is the Answer, she became the only artist to achieve number 1 albums in
five consecutive decades. Her RIAA tally sho
Early years
Streisand was born to a Jewish
family, Emmanuel and Diana (née Rosen), on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn,
New York. She was the second of two children. Fifteen months later,
Emmanuel died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the family went into
near-poverty. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. Soon
Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She originally
wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of
Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with the
then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she
played a lesbian with a crush on Barbra's character, but this was later
refuted by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks. When
her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act—first
performed in The Lion, a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in
1960—she achieved success as a singer. One early appearance outside of
New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San
Francisco. In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub
in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short;
audiences did not understand her revolutionary singing style.
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. Orson Bean,
who substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a
gay bar and booked her for the telecast. Streisand became a semi-regular
on PM East/PM West, a talk/variety series hosted by Mike Wallace, in
late 1961. Westinghouse Broadcasting, which aired PM East/PM West in a
select few cities (Boston, New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC,
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), has since wiped all
the videotapes because of the cost of videotape at the time. Audio
segments from some episodes are part of the compilation CD Just for the
Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes in
1991 that thirty years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean" to her on PM
East/PM West. He countered that she had been "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."
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. Topics covered in her
interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses
that she bought wholesale, to her “crazy” reputation at Erasmus Hall
High School, soon enough she got engaged.
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.
Singing career
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Streisand has recorded 35
studio albums, almost all with the Columbia Records label. 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 slow version of the normally uptempo Happy Days Are Here
Again. She performed this in a duet 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 (1975)
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 (US No. 1), No
More Tears (Enough Is Enough) (1979, with Donna Summer) (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. 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 #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
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 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
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. 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 #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 #2 spot). One of the
album's highlights was a medley of I Have A Love / One Hand, One Heart a
duet with the legendary Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said is one of her
favorite singers.
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."
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, earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, and 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 her acting and directing duties as well
as her burgeoning romance with actor James Brolin. In 1997, Streisand
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 #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, giving 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 #1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A
2-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 future 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 movie 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 previous 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 Television
November 21, 2006, and was released on DVD the same day. Streisand's
duet with Bennett opens 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 the featured stop in Ft. 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. On stage closing night, Streisand hinted
that six more concerts may follow on foreign soil. The show was known
as Streisand: The Tour.
Streisand's
20-concert tour set record box-office numbers. At the age of 64, well
past the prime of most performers, she grossed US$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 US$1,000.
A
collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour,
Live in Concert 2006, debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200, making it
Streisand's 29th Top 10 album. 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 GB£1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The
tour included a 58-piece orchestra.
In
February 2008, Forbes Magazine listed Streisand as the #2 top-earning
female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about
US$60 million. Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her
voice has become deeper over the years, her vocal prowess has remained
remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a
century.
On November 17, 2008,
Streisand returned to the studio to begin recording what will be her
sixty-third album and it was announced that Diana Krall was producing
the album.
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 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Streisand
is one of the recipients of the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors. On December
7, 2008, she visited the White House as part of the ceremonies.
On September 26, 2009, Streisand performed a one-night-only show at the Village Vanguard in New York City's Greenwich Village.
On
September 29, 2009, Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest
studio album titled Love is the Answer, produced by Diana Krall. On
October 2, 2009, Streisand made her British television performance debut
after her interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, promoting the
album. This album was a big success, debuting straight at #1 on the
Billboard 200 and registering her biggest weekly-sales since 1997. This
made Streisand the only artist in history to achieve #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.
Film career
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, for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress,
sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the first (and
only) time there was 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; this was the first time a
woman had received this award.
Along
with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, 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 only acted in five 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. Prince
of Tides received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture,
but the director was not nominated. Streisand is also the writer of
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 Co. and Sonny Murray
purchased the rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf. As of
December 2008, Streisand stated she is considering directing an
adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart — a project Ms.
Streisand has worked on since the mid-1990s Streisand has been seen
shooting scenes for sequel to 2004's Meet the Fockers Andrew Lloyd
Webber stated that Streisand is one of several actresses interested in
playing the role of Norma Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's
musical version of Sunset Boulevard (Meryl Streep and Glenn Close were
also interested), although Paramount Pictures has delayed the film.
Politics
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." Streisand has
personally raised $15 million for organizations through her live
performances. The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has
contributed over $16 million through its grants to "national
organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter
education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s
issues and nuclear disarmament." In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million
to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation in support of President Bill
Clinton’s climate change initiative.
Lawsuit
Streisand sued aerial
photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying a photograph of her Malibu,
California home, along with other photos of the entire California
coastline, on the website of the California Coastal Records Project. Her
suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP provisions of California
law.Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com coined the term "Streisand Effect" in
January 2005 after the publicity generated by Streisand's efforts to
suppress the publication of the photograph.
Awards
In 2000, Barbra Streisand was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Music awards
Streisand's
works have been nominated for over 56 Grammy Awards; she won 10 of
these, including two special awards. She has been inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame three times.
Year Award Category Work Result
1963 Grammy Awards Album of the Year The Barbra Streisand Album Won
Best Female Vocal Performance Won
Record of the Year Happy Days Are Here Again Nominated
1964 Best Female Vocal Performance People Won
Album of the Year Nominated
Record of the Year Nominated
1965 Best Female Vocal Performance My Name Is Barbra Won
Album of the Year Nominated
1966 Best Female Vocal Performance Color Me Barbra Nominated
Album of the Year Nominated
1968 Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance Funny Girl Soundtrack Nominated
1970 AGVA Georgie Award Entertainer of the Year — Won
1972 Grammy Awards Best Pop Female Vocal Performance Sweet Inspiration / Where You Lead Nominated
AGVA Georgie Award Singing Star of the Year — Won
1975 People's Choice Awards Favorite Female Singer of the Year Won
1976 Grammy Awards Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance Classical Barbra Nominated
1977 Best Pop Female Vocal Performance Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born) Won
Song of the Year Won
Record of the Year Nominated
Best Original Score – Motion Picture or Television Special Nominated
AGVA Georgie Award Singing Star of the Year — Won
1978 Grammy Awards Best Pop Female Vocal Performance You Don't Bring Me Flowers (with Neil Diamond) Nominated
1979 Record of the Year Nominated
Best Pop Vocal Performance – Duo, Group, or Chorus Nominated
1980 Guilty (with Barry Gibb) Won
Album of the Year Nominated
Record of the Year Woman In Love Nominated
Best Pop Vocal Female Performance Nominated
AGVA Georgie Awards Singing Star of the Year — Won
1985 People's Choice Awards Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer Won
1986 Grammy Awards Best Pop Vocal Female Performance The Broadway Album Won
Album of the Year Nominated
Best Instrumental Arrangement Acompanying Vocal Being Alive Nominated
1987 Best Pop Vocal Female Performance One Voice Nominated
Best Music Video Performance Nominated
1988 People's Choice Awards Favorite All-Time Musical Performer — Won
1991 Grammy Awards Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Warm All Over Nominated
1992 Grammy Legend Award — Special award
1993 Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Back to Broadway Nominated
1994 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award — Special award
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance Barbra: The Concert Nominated
Best Pop Female Vocal Performance Ordinary Miracles Nominated
1997 Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals Tell Him (with Céline Dion) Nominated
I Finally Found Someone (with Bryan Adams) Nominated
2000 Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Timeless – Live In Concert Nominated
2002 Christmas Memories Nominated
2003 The Movie Album Nominated
2004 Grammy Hall of Fame Funny Girl (Barbra Streisand and Sydney Chaplin) Inducted
2006 The Barbra Streisand Album
2007 Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Live in Concert 2006 Nominated
2008 Grammy Hall of Fame The Way We Were Inducted
Film awards
Year Award Category Work Result
1969 Academy Awards Best Actress Funny Girl Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) Won
1970 Hello, Dolly! Nominated
Henrietta World Film Favorite — Special award
1971 Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) The Owl and the Pussycat Nominated
Henrietta World Film Favorite — Special award
1974 Academy Awards Best Actress The Way We Were Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama) Nominated
1975 Henrietta World Film Favorite — Special award
1976 Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) Funny Lady Nominated
1977 Academy Awards Best Original Song Evergreen (from A Star Is Born) Won
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) Won
Best Original Song Won
1978 Henrietta World Film Favorite — Special award
1984 Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) Yentl Nominated
Best Director (Motion Picture) Won
1988 Best Actress in Motion Picture (Drama) Nuts Nominated
1992 Academy Awards Best Picture The Prince of Tides Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Director (Motion Picture) Nominated
1997 Academy Awards Best Original Song I Finally Found Someone (from The Mirror Has Two Faces) Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) The Mirror Has Two Faces Nominated
Best Original Song I Finally Found Someone (from The Mirror Has Two Faces) Nominated
2000 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement — Special award
Personal life
Streisand has been married twice.
Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to whom she was married from
1963 to 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who would go on to star
as her on-screen son in Prince of Tides. Her second husband is 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 horror
thriller Capricorn One.
Jon Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters, are her goddaughters.
Streisand shares a birthday with Shirley MacLaine, and they celebrate together every year.
Streisand's
philanthropic organization, The Streisand Foundation, gives grants to
"national organizations working on preservation of the environment,
voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights,
women’s issues and nuclear disarmament" and has given large donations to
programs related to women's health.
In
September 2008, 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". Streisand was named 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 toward 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.
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