One of the world's most gifted musical artists, who has inspired this Web site, The Barbra Streisand Music Guide, Barbra Streisand once referred to herself as an "actress who sings." The following biography, based on Ms. Streisand's official bio, fact-checked and continually updated, chronicles a remarkable career in music, film, and much more.

The career of Barbra Streisand has been paved with bold, creative achievements and highlighted by a series of firsts.

The Prince of Tides was the first motion picture directed by its female star ever to receive a Best Director nomination from the Directors Guild of America as well as seven Academy Award nominations. Barbra produced the heralded drama in addition to directing and starring in it.

For her very first Broadway appearance in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, she won the New York Drama Critics Award and received a Tony nomination.

For her very first record album, The Barbra Streisand Album, she won two 1963 Grammy Awards. One of these was Album of the Year; and she was then the youngest artist to have received that award.

For her motion picture debut in Funny Girl, she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress, the first of two Oscars. With Yentl in 1983, she became the first woman ever to produce, direct, write, and star in a major motion picture.

She was honored with an Emmy Award and the distinguished Peabody Award for her first television special, My Name Is Barbra, in 1965. The program earned a total of five Emmys. This achievement was repeated 30 years later by Barbra Streisand: The Concert, with two additional Emmy awards for Ms. Streisand among the five for the production, and then again in 2001 for Barbra Streisand: Timeless Live in Concert.

She is the first female composer ever to win an Academy Award, this for her song, "Evergreen," the love theme from her 1976 hit film, A Star Is Born. She was nominated again in 1997 as co-composer of "I Finally Found Someone," based on her love theme for her most recent film as director/producer/star, The Mirror Has Two Faces.

The "actress who sings," as Barbra once termed herself, has repeatedly been at the top of the record sales charts. Her recent Columbia Records albums, A Love Like Ours (1999), the double album, Timeless - Live In Concert (2000), and The Movie Album (2003) were quickly certified as gold and then platinum. Her prior Higher Ground (1997) and earlier Back To Broadway (1993) albums are among only a handful of recordings ever to become number one on the sales charts in their initial week of release and to go platinum through their first shipping orders. The double album, The Concert (1994), was another recent effort in her parade of hits. Higher Ground occasioned two additional Grammy nominations. Timeless - Live In Concert (2000), Christmas Memories (2001) and The Movie Album (2003), all earned a nomination too. At home in pop, show tunes, rock and ballads, she even made a classical album titled Classical Barbra (1976) which was nominated for a Grammy Award in the classical division. Of all her releases, 1980's Guilty, Barbra's collaboration with Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, achieved the greatest success worldwide, selling over 20 million units and spawning several smash hit singles. The pair teamed up again 25 years later to create Guilty Pleasures. The album was certified Gold a month later.

The statistics of her achievements as a recording sales leader are clearly drawn in platinum and gold. She has achieved sales unequaled by any other female recording artist. With 50 gold albums, she is second in the all-time charts, ahead of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, exceeded only by Elvis. Thus, she is the only artist among the top four all-time sellers who was not part of the rock & roll revolution, which has dominated the record business for four decades. Her 30 platinum albums, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, exceeds all other female singers. That organization also noted that she is the only female artist ever to have achieved 13 multi-platinum albums, which includes the soundtrack for her motion picture A Star Is Born, earning her eight Grammy Awards and Grammy's Lifetime Achievement and Legend Awards in the process.

Barbra Streisand continues to be the highest-selling female recording artist ever and has had number one albums in each of the last four decades. Her number one albums span a period of 33 years, the greatest longevity in that statistic for any solo artist. A recent poll by the Reuters news agency identified her as the favorite female singer of the 20th Century and Frank Sinatra as the favorite male singer.

Streisand's 57th album, Christmas Memories, was released in October 2001 and certified gold and platinum in December. It's her first full-length studio album since 1999's A Love Like Ours and her first new recording since her 1999-2000 New Year's Eve millennium performances captured on Timeless - Live In Concert. Christmas Memories is Streisand's first seasonal collection since A Christmas Album, which has been certified quintuple-platinum by the RIAA and has re-entered the charts each year since its 1967 release. An album of inspirational music for all seasons, Christmas Memories is "lovingly dedicated" by Barbra Streisand to Stephan Weiss, the husband of designer Donna Karan and a close friend of Streisand's, who passed away in June 2001.

Recipient in 1995 of an Honorary Doctorate in Arts and Humanities from Brandeis University, Barbra Streisand is a rare honoree - the only artist to earn Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, Peabody, and the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. The latter accolade, a tribute to her film work as director, performer, writer, producer and composer, was conferred in February 2001. She is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts' Medal of Arts (2000) and has been honored by France as a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2004 she accepted The Humanitarian Award from the Human Rights Campaign.

Her most recent motion picture directorial effort, the TriStar Pictures release, The Mirror Has Two Faces, continued the tradition of each Streisand-directed film being accorded Academy Award nominations. The romantic comedy, her third triple effort as director/producer/star, received two Oscar nominations in 1997, and led to Lauren Bacall winning the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress.

In 1995 Ms. Streisand added to her Emmy Awards, winning two more for her performance in and work as producer of Barbra Streisand: The Concert. The HBO program earned a total of five Emmy Awards, matching the Emmy achievements of her first TV special, the one-woman show, My Name Is Barbra, exactly 30 years before. Each of the shows won the coveted Peabody Award as well. Serving In Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story, the first television dramatic production for her Barwood Films, earned an additional three Emmy trophies, a total of eight Emmys for Ms. Streisand's company in the same year. Barwood Films has followed Serving in Silence with a continuing slate of television dramas, each of which addresses important issues.

Ms. Streisand's Millennium New Year's Eve concert, Timeless, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, December 31, 1999, set an all-time TicketMaster record for one- day sales of a single event, virtually selling out in the first few hours of sale eight months before the performance. The two-night Madison Square Garden conclusion of her storied live concert performance career, preceded by her two Los Angeles farewell live appearances at Staples Center, was similarly a record-setting success. One of the most talked about and well- reviewed concert productions of all time, Timeless was captured for a Valentine's Day 2001 television special, co-directed by its star, which won four Emmys including one for Streisand's performance. The home video/DVD was certified gold and platinum. Her two-night Madison Square Garden engagement in October 2000 and two preceding Los Angeles live appearances at Staples Center were similarly record-setting successes.

Virtually every aspect of Barbra Streisand's 1994 concert tour was record setting. Those 26 appearances were her first paid concerts in nearly three decades, all intervening concerts since 1966 having been fundraisers for various social and political causes. Barbra also performed some Las Vegas multi-week engagements between 1969 and 1972. The tour initiated with the celebrated 1994 New Year's performances at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas and continued to set attendance and box office records with immediate sellouts in London, Washington, D.C., Southern California, Detroit, San Jose, and New York's Madison Square Garden. Over 5 million phone requests were recorded in the first hour when tickets for the first American leg of the tour went on sale. The tour also generated over $10.25 million for charities the artist supports, channeling money to significant causes in each locale. Reflecting her social concerns, over $3 million went to AIDS organizations, with other gifts addressing such urgencies as women and children in jeopardy, Jewish/Arab relations, and agencies working to ameliorate relations between African-Americans and Jews.

Barbra Streisand: The Concert, the critically lauded film version of the concerts, became the highest-rated musical event in HBO history, as well as an equally successful quadruple-platinum home video and triple-platinum double album (exceptionally rare for a multi-disc set). In addition to its five Emmy Awards and Peabody Award, it earned three Cable Ace Awards. Six other home videos have been certified gold.  In 2004, Barbra Streisand - Live at the MGM Grand was released on DVD and was quickly certified Platinum. In November 2005, Barbra Streisand - The Television Specials was released as a five-DVD box set, quickly going quintuple (5x) platinum six weeks later.

The filmmaker/entertainer was born April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn to Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Her father, who passed away when Barbra was 15 months old, was a highly respected teacher and scholar.

An honor student at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, the teenage Barbara Streisand plunged, unassisted and without encouragement, into show business by winning a singing contest at The Lion, a small Manhattan club, at which time she dropped the second "A" in her name, becoming Barbra. She developed a devout and growing following at the clubs which began hiring her, and soon she was attracting music industry attention at such spots as the Bon Soir and the Blue Angel. Streisand signed her first Columbia Records contract in 1962, and her debut album quickly became the nation's top-selling record by a female vocalist.

Following her award-winning 1962 Broadway stage debut performance as Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, she was signed to play the great comedienne and singer Fanny Brice in the Broadway production of Funny Girl. When the curtain came down at the Winter Garden Theatre on March 26, 1964, the star and the show were major hits. Her distinctly original musical comedy performance won her a second Tony nomination.

Her star on the ascent, Ms. Streisand signed a 10-year contract with CBS Television to produce and star in TV specials. The contract gave her complete artistic control, an unheard of concession to an artist so young and inexperienced. The first special, My Name Is Barbra, earned five Emmy Awards, and the following four shows, including the memorable Color Me Barbra, earned the highest critical praise and audience ratings. The two aforementioned specials were released 20 years later and became instant home video top-sellers.

In 1966 Streisand repeated her Funny Girl triumph in London at the Prince of Wales Theatre. London critics voted her the best female lead in a musical for that season.

A recounting of Barbra Streisand's movie achievements, alone, is awesome. She was already an exceptionally young Broadway, television, and recording star when she went to Hollywood in 1967-- a trip she made completely on her own terms. She first starred in Funny Girl, opposite Omar Sharif, reprising the role that had made her the toast of Broadway. Rarely has a screen debut been as auspicious. She was honored with the 1968 Academy Award, as well as the Golden Globe and Star of the Year honor from the National Association of Theatre Owners. 

Ms. Streisand's next two big pictures were also inspired by hit Broadway musicals. 1969's Hello, Dolly! and 1970's On A Clear Day You Can See Forever teamed Barbra with legends Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli, respectively, as her directors.

She next co-starred with George Segal in The Owl And The Pussycat (1970), a non-musical, uproarious adult comedy, which had also run on Broadway.

In 1972 Barbra Streisand starred in another resounding comedy hit, What's Up, Doc?, which teamed her with Ryan O'Neal and was filmed in San Francisco by director Peter Bogdanovich. Later that year, Up The Sandbox, the first picture for Streisand's Barwood Films production company and made in association with First Artists, a major production company in which she was a partner, became one of the first American films to deal with the growing women's movement. 

Currently in the works is a Showtime film supporting the Middle East peace process. Two Hands That Shook The World parallels the lives of Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat up to their historic handshake at The White House. 

And like the true Renaissance woman she is, Barbra Streisand's life and art are dedicated to the humanities, as reflected by The Streisand Foundation, which is committed to gaining women's equality, the protection of both human rights and civil rights and liberties, the needs of children at risk in society, and the preservation of the environment. Through The Streisand Foundation, she directly funded the United States Environmental Defense Fund's research for and participation in the recent Global Warming world summit conference in Kyoto. Her environmental dedication is reflected also in her donation to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy of the five-home, 24-acre Malibu estate on which her One Voice concert had been performed. The site has been dedicated as a center for ecological studies. 

Ms. Streisand is a leading spokesperson and fundraiser for social causes close to her heart, including AIDS. During the 22 years which preceded her limited 1994 tour and the Las Vegas New Year's appearances, she had devoted her live concert performances exclusively to the benefit of those causes she supports. Her concern with social issues is reflected not only in the dedications of her personal life, but in the subject matter of the films she has initiated, each of which has addressed some social consideration.

Recent honors reflecting the range of her involvement in charitable and social causes include the 1992 Commitment to Life Award from AIDS Project Los Angeles for her dedication to help people living with that disease, and the ACLU Bill of Rights Award for her ongoing defense of constitutional rights. 

Ms. Streisand's feelings about the rights and obligations of artists to participate in the political process were brought into sharp focus by her February 1995 speech at Harvard University under the sponsorship of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. The address won unprecedented reportage and reproduction in such print media as The New York Times and The Washington Post. It was carried a record number of times on C-SPAN and is included in Senator Robert Torricelli's book, In Our Words: The American Century, a collection of important speeches of the 20th century.

Prior to the 1986 elections, Barbra Streisand performed her first full-length concert in 20 years (other than those in Las Vegas hotels), raising money for the Hollywood Women's Political Committee to disburse to liberal candidates. Taped on September 6, 1986, before 500 invited guests at her California home, the concert was called One Voice and aired on HBO on December 27, 1986 to enormous acclaim. The money raised that night helped elect five Democratic Senators, which restored a Democratic majority to the U.S. Senate. To date, over $10 million, including $7 million in profits from this evening, have been channeled to charities through The Streisand Foundation, which continues to occupy much of Barbra's energy and resources. 

Additionally, she headlined concerts which raised millions of dollars for each of the successful presidential campaigns of Bill Clinton. A concert at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, headlined by Ms. Streisand in support of the Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign, raised over $5 million, the Democratic Party's largest "hard money" intake ever. Her celebrated speech in support of the Gore candidacy later was played in substantial excerpts on several national television broadcasts. 

Her passionate political activism continues. Convinced that the 1998 national general election was one of the most crucial in recent history, she applied herself to the election of candidates and issues she felt essential. She was one of the first and most outspoken critics of the Republican Congress's use of the impeachment issue as a means of blocking or undoing the social achievements of the Clinton administration. Ms. Streisand contributed financially to support the campaigns of 35 candidates in the general election, 27 of whom won. Similarly, she also supported specified candidates by endorsing 194 of them on her web site and then recommending consideration of this list when she did her AOL get-out-the-vote Internet chat on election eve. Of the candidates she endorsed, 155 were elected and 39 were not. In both instances, that is a won/lost ratio of nearly 80%.

Today, Barbra Streisand moves from movie, television, and recording facilities, through halls of political power, philanthropy, and academia. Though she has earned the label, "legend" many times over, she continues to seek new challenges for her vast talents. And, amazingly, she still brings rare fresh focus, passion and vision to each new endeavor. Barbra has one of the most devoted legion of fans in the world, who regularly network together online and off to share news and the fruits of her extraordinary talents. She and actor-director James Brolin married on July 1, 1998.

As she suggested in 1992, her career, while already amazing, is still a "work in progress" for as long as she creates new projects, even if they are predominantly musical recordings. Barbra has recently observed that there's nothing more to prove in her career and that she values her private time over the ever-consuming work. An autobiography should be forthcoming someday, according to Streisand, who desires to set the record straight on her life story, while reflecting on over 40 years in show business.