Finding Her Voice

Barbra Streisand’s career has taken her from ‘Funny Girl’ to SAG Life Achievement honoree

Barbra Streisand never thought she’d make a career out of singing.

It’s funny, considering this year’s SAG Life Achievement Award honoree received her first Grammy Award in 1964 for her debut album, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” when she was barely old enough to legally drink and then became an EGOT recipient in less than 10 years (she crossed off the Tony portion with an honorary award, Star of the Decade, in 1970).

Streisand says in her memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” which was released in November 2023, that she’d studied to be an actress. In fact, the Brooklyn-born artist notes with her renowned dry wit that she barely made it through one proper voice lesson, and, to this day, she still can’t read music. In high school English class, she wrote papers on Konstantin Stanislavski’s “My Life in Art” and “An Actor Prepares.” In one of her early play productions, she learned to feign interest in a scene partner she found unattractive by placing a piece of chocolate cake just off stage.

According to her memoir, when a 19-year-old Streisand met Martin Erlichman backstage after her performance at Greenwich Village night club Bon Soir, she told her eventual manager, “I’m not a singer; really. I’m an actress. I’m only doing this because no one will hire me to act.” With the help of Erlichman and others, Streisand would go on to star in the Broadway musical “Funny Girl” and its film adaptation (the first garnered her a Tony nomination for lead actress in a musical; the second an Oscar win for lead actress).

Her film credits also include the screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?” and the 1976 version of the Hollywood-skewering-hollywood story “A Star Is Born.” With 1983’s “Yentl,” a story of a Jewish girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to receive religious training, Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct and star in a major studio film (it grossed $40 million domestically.)

Even as a child studying in Yeshiva, Streisand was (and is) outspoken and nonconformist. She refused multiple suggestions that she undergo rhinoplasty, ensuring that her elongated schnoz would become one of her most defining features, even if critics would describe her face as an “amiable anteater” or having a “look in repose.” Although her parents did name her “Barbara” with the conventional spelling, she eliminated an “a” for her stage name as a rebellious compromise to the idea that she change her last name to “Sands.” (How else