Barbra Streisand, who also directed films and established herself as one of the most successful singers in the world, suffered criticism from her mother and her stepfather, who treated her as ugly.
Few know how hard it was for the successful actress and singer Barbra Streisand, who is turning 81, to become a Hollywood star. Not even her own family trusted her and her mother had given her a fierce premonition about her when she was still a teenager: “With that nose you will never be an actress,” she told her.
She was born on April 24, 1942 as Barbara Joan Streisand. Raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, Barbra had a very tough childhood. The death of her father, when she was barely 15 months old, plunged her mother into a situation of poverty and helplessness.
To make matters worse, some time later she married a man who was not the best stepfather for Streisand: “He made me feel the need to have my real father because of the way he treated me. One day he even denied me ice cream because she was ugly,” confessed the multifaceted artist.
Barbra Streisand's mother, her worst enemy
Barbra's mother was her main enemy when she was struggling to succeed as an actress and asked her to take her to auditions. “He told me that I was too strange and skinny. That she wasn't beautiful enough to be an actress. I better become a typist,” she reveals.
Stubborn like few others, Barbra ignored her mother and years later she was on the cover of thousands of magazines with images taken by established photographers Lawrence Schiller and Steve Shapiro, who had portrayed figures of the stature of Marilyn Monroe.
At the age of 17, when she graduated from high school, she decided to go to Manhattan with the dream of becoming an actress. Since she had no dollars or contacts, she slept on the couches of her cousins and friends, while she sought the success that even her own mother had predicted she would not achieve.
Her first achievement came not with acting, but with music, because she was hired by a gay bar called The Lion. She was paid enough to rent a small apartment and she also got free dinner after each show.
“With that nose you will never be an actress”: Barbra Streisand endured all kinds of criticism
Although she was aware of her enormous potential as a singer, she continued to dream of succeeding as an actress. Some producers recommended that she get a nose job, which she flatly refused. “She's part of my personality and I was never willing to negotiate it,” Streisand said later. “Talent is beauty,” was her motto.
Until she got the role that changed her life forever. Her opportunity came with Funny Girl, a musical comedy about the life of Fanny Brice, the famous star of the Ziegfield Follies (American cabaret shows in the style of the Folies Bergère).
The personality and origin of the protagonist were very similar to those of Barbra: both were working-class Jewish girls who had decided to succeed in the show despite not conforming to established beauty standards. The role of Fanny required an actress and singer who could make people laugh and cry and who had physical features typical of young Jewish women. That was Streisand.
That role allowed her to win an Oscar and from there, Barbra's career was meteoric and she triumphed as an actress and as a singer. She solidified her film career with the subsequent films Hello Dolly (inspired by Dolly Parson) and A Star is Born. The latter made her the winner of a second Oscar as a composer, being the first woman to do so.
She also ventured into directing, with two highly praised films: The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces. In music she is one of the best-selling artists in history and the most successful in the United States, where she sold almost 70 million records.
