Barbra Streisand

The most honored entertainer of our era, Barbra Streisand has made an indelible mark on our culture as a singer, actress, film producer, director, writer and champion of social causes. A high school honor student from Brooklyn, New York, she threw herself into show business right out of high school and rocketed to fame with a Grammy-winning record album and a starring role in the Broadway show Funny Girl. She reprised the role on screen, winning a Best Actress Oscar for her very first film. She won a second Oscar for composing the song Evergreen for her 1976 hit film A Star is Born. Her soaring voice, crystalline diction and passionate phrasing have made her a premier interpreter of American song. With number one albums in five consecutive decades, she has survived the ever-changing fashions of popular music, winning eight Grammy Awards and selling more records than other female artist in history. With her 1983 film Yentl, she became the first woman to produce, direct, write and star in a major motion picture, winning Golden Globe Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. She has acted on her outspoken social convictions through The Streisand Foundation, directing millions of dollars to causes of women's equality, civil rights, women's health, the needs of children at risk and the preservation of the environment. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor the United States bestows on its artists. In this podcast, recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1992 Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, Barbra Streisand advises the Academy's student delegates to follow their own paths in life and measure success by their own standards. She urges them to embrace negative experiences along with positive ones as an essential part of their life's journey.