Born Aril 24, 1942, Barbra Streisand is one of the best-selling music artists of all time with more than 72 million albums in the United States and 245 million records sold worldwide. She is the best-selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) Top Selling Album Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten and the only artist outside of the rock genre. This profile, however, is about her film career.

Streisand was already making a name for herself as a singer when she was cast in Broadway’s I Can Get It for You Wholesale for which she received a 1962 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress. She married the show’s star, Elliott Gould, in March, 1963 with whom she would have her only child, son Jason, born December 1966.

Streisand would be nominated for Best Actress for legendary performance in 1964’s Funny Girl, losing to Carol Channing in Hello, Dolly!. She would win her first Oscar for reprising the role in the 1968 film, her film debut, in atie with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter.

Streisand’s next two roles were also in musical adaptations of famed Broadway musicals. The twenty-seven year old star was badly miscast in Channing’s legendary Broadway role as the advanced middle-aged matchmaker in the 1969 film version of Hello, Dolly! . She was better suited to Barbara Harris’ stage role in the 1970 film version of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever but the film was not the major hit it was meant to be. Streisand turned to straight comedy roles beginning with The Owl and the Pussycat the same year. She divorced Elliott Gould in July, 1971.

Streisand reached her zenith as a comic actress with 1972’s What’s Up Doc? and proved herself a strong dramatic actress in 1973’s The Way We Were, a box office phenomenon for which she received a second nomination for Best Actress. The 1975 sequel to Funny Girl, called Funny Lady, was a critical and commercial failure, but the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born was a major box-office success despite terrible reviews. It brought her a second Oscar, her first for Best Song, “Evergreen”.

Streisand made her directorial bow with 1983’s Yentl, fulfilling a fifteen year dream. It would be four years before she would appear on screen again in 1987’s Nuts and another four years before she would direct as well as act again in 1991’s The Prince of Tides for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture as co-producer of the film. It would take another five years before she would act and direct again as the director and star of 1996’s The Mirror Has Two Faces for which she would receive an Oscar nomination for Best Song, “I’ve Finally Found Someone”.

Married to actor James Brolin since 1998, Streisand has made only three films since – in supporting roles in 2004’s Meet the Fockers and 2010’s Little Fockers and in the lead as Seth Rogen’s mother in 2012’s The Guilt Trip.

Stresiand remains an international superstar at 71.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

FUNNY GIRL (1968), directed by William Wyler

Ray Stark, Fanny Brice’s son-in-law spared no expense in bringing the Broadway musical about his late mother-in-law to the screen including obtaining the services of Oscar’s favorite director, twelve-time nominee, three-time winner William Wyler to direct. Herbert Ross directed the musical sequences which were the film’s highlight. Wyler’s experience directing perfectionist Streisand in her film debut as Brice was said to hasten his retirement. He directed only one more film before throwing in the towel.

Streisand is, of course, perfection in the role for which she won an Oscar, but it’s basically a one-woman show. Co-star Omar Sharif and all the supporting players, including Oscar nominated Kay Medford as her mother, are given short shrift. Medford’s extensive stage role was cut to ribbons leaving critics to assume that Oscar voters confused her practically non-existent screen performance with her delightful stage performance.

THE WAY WE WERE (1973), directed by Sydney Pollack

Streisand is at her career peak as a film actress here, igniting the screen opposite her suddenly hot co-star, Robert Redford. Their romance is played out so charmingly that you can’t help but root for their unlikely marriage and feel more than a bit sad when it breaks up. Their bittersweet chance meeting after years apart is one of the screen’s most romantic endings ever.

Stresiand was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, losing to Glenda Jackson in A Touch of Class. Redford was nominated for the year’s Best Picture winner, The Sting, losing to Jack Lemmon in Save the Tiger.

YENTL (1983), directed by Barbra Streisand

Streisand had wanted to make this film based on Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Yentl, the Yashiva Boy ever since her film debut fifteen years earlier. She found the perfect collaborators in Jack Rosenthal with whom she co-wrote the screenplay, David Watkin who photographed it, Michel Legrand who wrote the score and Alan and Marilyn Bergman who co-wrote the songs with Legrand. She also found the perfect co-stars in Mandy Patinkin and Oscar nominated Amy Irving.

Although the film did well enough at the box-office, critics thought it came a bit late in the cycle of gender-bending star outings mined the year before by Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie and Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria.

THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991), directed by Barbra Streisand

Based on Pat Conroy’s acclaimed 1986 novel, Streisand’s film was nominated for seven Oscars including one for Streisand as the film’s co-producer for Best Picture. Nick Nolte starred as the professional football player who seeks out his suicidal sister’s (Melinda Dillon) psychiatrist to help unravel his dysfunctional family’s history. Streisand played the shrink. Nolte and Kate Nelligan as his mother were Oscar nominated for their performances. Critics had a field day castigating director Streisand for dwelling on star Streisand’s meticulously groomed fingernails and her shapely legs.

THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (1996), directed by Barbra Streisand

Streisand’s third and last to date directorial effort was a critically lambasted film about two college professors, played by Streisand and Jeff Bridges, who agree to a marriage of convenience. Streisand’s character is supposed to be an ugly duckling who transforms into the proverbial swan. The problem is that she looks exactly the same after the transformation as she did before. Neither Stresiand nor Bridges are at their best here. Supporting players Mimi Rogers, Brenda Vaccaro and Pierce Brosnan come off better, but the film’s only really decent performance comes from Oscar nominated Lauren Bacall as Streisand’s acerbic mother.

BARBRA STREISAND AND OSCAR

• Funny Girl (1968) – Oscar – Best Actress
• The Way We Were (1973) – nominated – Best Actress
• A Star Is Born (1976) – Oscar – Best Song, “Evergreen”
• The Prince of Tides (1991) – nominated – Best Picture
• The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) – nominated – Best Song, “I’ve Finally Found Someone”