Barbra Streisand is known as one of the most lucrative successful singers of her generation, and she won her success without following the trends of her day. She has become famous as an actress, a singer, a producer and a songwriter. She was born Barbara Joan Streisand on the 24th of April, 1942 in New York, and eventually changed the spelling of her name to Barbra. Her parents were Emanuel and Diana Streisand. She lost her father before she was two years old and her mother remarried later in that decade. She graduated from high school early on, at the age of 16, and moved to Manhattan where she sang at nightclubs and worked on some small plays.Her first role on Broadway was in the musical show I Can Get It for You Wholesale, in 1962. By 1963 she was signed to Columbia Records and released her first album The Barbra Streisand Album. It did fantastically well as a debut - becoming a top gold selling record and earning Barbra a title as one of the best-selling recording artists of the early ‘60s.Following three successful albums early in '64, Streisand could have had a very lucrative career as a concert singer, but she chose instead to pursue the stage. Her next show was Funny Girl, which was immortalized in film in 1967 after more than two years on Broadway. The film won her an Academy Award, earned her acclaim as the Star of the Year by National Association of Theatre Owners and a Golden Globe.Barbra Streisand's career suffered only one set-back at the beginning of the ‘70s, as many people turned their interests to Rock ‘n Roll. Though for a time she seemed to be headed for a career confined to the stages of Las Vegas, she rose again to become one of the greatest achievers among female performers of her generation. Even today, she is considered one of the female greats of the stage and screen.