She was born Barbara Joan Streisand on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. Her father died when she was 15 months old. Her childhood was a distinctly unhappy one. She once said her only toy was a hot-water bottle she dressed in doll's clothes.
After her mother remarried, she experienced conflicts with her stepfather. He once told her she could not have any ice cream because she was too ugly. She was not popular with other children, either. But she was an excellent student, consistently ranking to the top 10 of her class. When she was 13, she recorded two songs. She once worked as a cashier in a Chinese restaurant and as a receptionist in an ad agency.
She changed the spelling of her first name – from Barbara to Barbra – for her nightclub debut. She gained initial public notice with her performance as Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. On opening night she received a standing ovation. She released her debut recording the following year. It proved immensely popular and was awarded the Grammy for Album of the Year. She was 21.
Around the same time she appeared in the stage version of Funny girl, which quickly became a huge success. She was 25 when she appeared in the film version, which was also a box-office triumph. The salary and contractual agreements she received for her next movie, Hello, Dolly, made her the highest-paid performer in films at the time.
She was famously self-absorbed, "Barbra's favorite subject is Barbra," an intimate has observed. According to Streisand, her aloofness and reserve stem from a basic shyness, "Around people I don't know, I'm totally at a loss," she once said. Her perfectionism has alienated some co-workers. Her well-known disinclination for live performances began when she forgot the words to several songs during a concert appearance.
She was the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a mainstream Hollywood film: Yentl. She has won two Academy Awards, one in 1976 as the composer of the Best Original Song (“Evergreen”). The other was in a rare tie for the Best Actress (1968), along with Katharine Hepburn. She won for Funny Girl. She has also won a Tony, several Grammys, and handful of Emmys and Golden Globes, one of the very few performers to do so.
1942年4月24日,Barbara Joan Streisand出生于纽约布鲁克林。她父亲在她15个月大的时候就去世了。她的童年毫无乐趣可言。Barbra曾说,她小时候唯一的玩具就是被她套上洋娃娃衣服的一个热水瓶。她母亲再婚后,她和继父之间经常发生冲突,有一次她的继父告诉她,她不能吃冰淇淋,因为她长的太丑了。她在其他孩子中间也不受欢迎。不过,她却是一个优秀的学生,在班上的成绩总是名列前茅。Barbra13岁的时候,灌制了两首歌曲,她曾在一家中国餐馆当过收银员,也在广告代理公司当过接待员。