Once in a lifetime, a performer comes along who redefines what’s possible with artistry and entertainment. Those who witnessed Barbra Streisand’s motion picture debut in Funny Girl encountered a talent who was instantly rewiring the expectations of American audiences. Her persona defied all existing templates available to young female actors of the period, leaving theater and cinemagoers alike dazzled by extraordinary vocals, remarkable physicality and truly unconventional comedic choices.
With a career spanning over six decades, the SAG Life Achievement Award honoree has transcended profession, genre and artistic medium in a way that can only be described as uniquely spectacular. And even as an established icon, Streisand continues to prove that there are no limits when it comes to the boundless creative spirit.
Eternally regarded as a singing sensation, when Streisand started out, she wanted to be an actor, not a singer, her professional longing only deepening when she saw The Diary of Anne Frank, the first Broadway play she attended. Just 14 years old at the time and inspired by Anne Frank actress Susan Strasberg, Streisand ventured to her local library to seek out biographies of famous female stage actors — Sarah Bernhardt, a particular favorite. Having a showstopping voice even as a teen, she decided that her singing ability would be the tool she’d leverage to pursue her primary goal — dramatic acting.
“Ever since I was a young girl sitting in the Loew’s Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, I dreamed of being one of those actresses I saw on the screen,” Streisand said. “The movies were a portal to a world I could only imagine. Even though I was an unlikely candidate, somehow my dream came true.”
At age 18, Streisand entered — and won — a talent contest at a Manhattan gay bar. With her unemployment insurance depleted, she’d entered with the hopes of winning enough money to pay rent, and in her memoir, My Name is Barbra, Streisand recounts how she used the techniques she learned in her acting classes while singing to make it interesting for her.
Nine years later, Streisand would go on to win her first Academy Award for her role in the film version of Funny Girl, an honor she — a newcomer — shared with cinema icon Katharine Hepburn, as both performers received exactly 3,030 votes.
Despite the success, Streisand felt the impact of her mother’s critical treatment. In many interviews, Streisand often remarked that her mother didn’t want her pursuing show business as a career, made demeaning remarks about her performances and appearance, and never told her that she loved her. “I just couldn’t please her,” Streisand said in a 2014 interview with Chrissy Iley for Weekend Magazine. “But I owe her my career. It was painful on the way up. I was always trying to prove to her that I was worthy of being somebody.”
Nonetheless, Streisand’s will endured even as such criticisms hacked away at her confidence. Whether it was being a debut Broadway performer at 19 and determined to have her character singing from a secretarial chair contrary to the director’s wishes or knowing stardom would be her future despite her mother’s negativity, Streisand always had a vision — specifically, a vision that demanded nothing short of excellence and unbridled ingenuity.
“[Streisand] doesn't actually sing a song at all; she acts it,” wrote Roger Ebert in his 1968 review of Funny Girl. Ebert noted that “Miss Streisand has been heard to claim William Wyler didn’t direct her, she directed herself.” Though Ebert expressed doubt about that assertion (his review is noticeably flavored with the casual misogyny of the era), he eventually admitted, “She does things with her hands and face that are simply individual; that’s the only way to describe them. They haven’t been done before.”
Taking her well-honed talent for deep interpretation to the helm of her first production in 1983, Streisand made history for being the first woman to write, produce, direct, sing and star in a major Hollywood film — Yentl — for which she won Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the first-ever Golden Globe for Best Director awarded to a female director.
In an interview with Gayle King for CBS This Morning, Streisand said what she likes about directing is “helping actors achieve a performance that I have in mind for them.”
Her dedication to extracting nuance and specificity from her cast has resulted in many of them delivering the best work of their lives. The legendary Lauren Bacall finally received her first Academy Award nomination of her more-than-50-year career after being directed by Streisand in The Mirror Has Two Faces. In her Golden Globe acceptance speech, Bacall praised Streisand’s filmmaking. “Had it not been for her,” Bacall said, “I wouldn’t be standing here now. It’s because of the way she directed this movie and my part in particular.”
All along her journey, Steisand has received pushback from naysayers. After proving her mother wrong by achieving stardom, she’s faced criticism that would have never been experienced by male performers.
In a 2017 conversation with director Robert Rodriguez at the Tribeca Film Festival, Streisand said she “directed because she couldn’t be heard.” In her memoir, Streisand details a key memory when she begged director Sydney Pollack to return two key moments that had been cut from The Way We Were. She said it was essential they be put back into the film to show the reasoning behind the shift in the characters’ relationship. “I felt absolutely powerless,” Streisand wrote. “My mind just flashed back to that moment as a young girl, standing in my mother’s bedroom doorway and being ignored. Once again, I felt unseen and unheard.”
That drive to actualize the yearnings of her voice and imagination ultimately led to her taking the reins of her own projects, resulting in undeniable commercial and critical success. Such self-determination has succeeded in making her one of the most powerful individuals in show business.
Though her reputation as a perfectionist is legendary, she believes sexism is why she’s been snubbed for a Best Director Oscar nomination, even though her directorial efforts Yentl and The Prince of Tides received nominations in other categories. Though she was heartened that being passed up helped to put more of a focus on the discrimination experienced by female directors, the pain did have a lasting effect. “I must have been more hurt than I thought,” Streisand told Rodriguez, “because I didn’t want to direct for years.”
When talking to Stephen Colbert in November 2023 about the rise in antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, Streisand asserted that her motivation to create beautiful art is related to the sadness she sees in the world. “We can create stories that are more palatable to the audience, in a sense, and teach the lessons. When you see Schindler’s List or The Grapes of Wrath … Art can teach, I think. People see the truth about things.”
When the SAG-AFTRA National Honors and Tributes Committee chooses an honoree, philanthropic work is also taken into consideration, and Streisand excels there as well. She established The Streisand Foundation in 1986, which provides funding for a number of impactful organizations, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for American Progress, Mother Jones, ProPublica, Friends of the Earth and ACLU Southern California, among others.
In 2021, Streisand endowed the Barbra Streisand Center at UCLA to examine the critical issues related to art, truth, gender equity and climate change.
After receiving an invitation from Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September 2022, Streisand became an ambassador for the UNITED24 platform and raised funds for medical care in the ongoing effort to support Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine war.
When named to Fortune magazine’s list of Most Powerful Women in 2016, Streisand emphasized her work as the co-founder of the Women’s Heart Alliance and her advocacy around women’s cardiovascular health issues, leading her to establish the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. “I found out heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women,” she told the magazine. “Not just in the United States, but around the world … It’s a women’s epidemic. One out of every two women will have some form of cardiovascular disease. But in the last 60 years, the research has primarily been done on men.”
In the professional sphere, Streisand’s numerous honors include two Academy Awards; 10 Grammys, including the Grammy Legend and Lifetime Achievement Awards; five Emmy Awards; three Peabody Awards; a Tony Award; and others.
“Barbra Streisand is an icon and unparalleled talent, a force of nature who has seamlessly woven her brilliance through the fabric of our industry,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. “From her earliest days captivating audiences on Broadway to her unforgettable roles in cinematic classics like Funny Girl, The Way We Were and A Star Is Born, Barbra’s ability to inhabit her characters with authenticity is nothing short of extraordinary. “Her enduring career is a testament to her genuine performances, connecting with audiences on a profound level. She is a colossal icon with a relentless work ethic, evolving with each stage of her remarkable journey. We celebrate Barbra Streisand not just for her achievements, but for the enduring legacy she has carved.”
On Feb. 24, Streisand will receive the 59th SAG Life Achievement Award at the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
“This award is especially meaningful to me,” she said, “because it comes from my fellow actors, whom I so admire.”
This item originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA magazine 2024 digital special issue.