Her parents had both been born in 1907 her mother was the daughter of a cantor (who also worked in the garment district) and a housewife. Barbara’s brother, Sheldon, was then seven years old. She was born off-off-off Broadway, in Brooklyn, the second child of Emmanuel and Diana (Rosen) Streisand, on April 24, 1942. From the moment she burst on the Hollywood scene in Funny Girl, winking as she uttered the immortal “Hello, gorgeous” to her mirror image, until the release of her 1996 film, The Mirror Has Two Faces, there was and has been no one quite like Barbra Streisand.
