Barbra Streisand has an illustrious career of six decades. he other day she was honored to receive the SAG life achievement award. Streisand performed her first major concert in 1963. It was on the same stage in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium where the SAG Awards were held.
Jennifer Aniston presented her with the esteemed honor. She called Streisand “once-in-a-lifetime” talent and a “mensch”. Jennifer reminded the audience that the award was just one of Streisand’s many groundbreaking achievements which included her debut as Fanny Brice in the musical “Funny Girl”. She went on to play on screen and won an Oscar. Jennifer Aniston also mentioned Streisand’s record-breaking moment as the first woman to “write, produce, direct and star” in 1983’s “Yentl,” a film. She became the first woman to win a best director Golden Globe.
Bradley Cooper also took the stage to honor the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony)-winner. Bradley Cooper starred in and was also director of the 2018 update of “A Star is Born”-the 1976 version in which Streisand starred in and won her second Oscar for.
Streisand received a standing ovation once she took the stage to receive the award. She talked about her memories of “dreaming of being an actress as a teenager, sitting in my bed in Brooklyn with a pint of coffee ice cream and a movie magazine.”
“I wanted to be in the movies even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen,” she recalled. “My mother said, ‘you better learn how to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, I was very lucky.”
She continued, “It’s really a privilege to be part of this profession. For a couple of hours, people can sit in a theater and escape their own troubles.” She also mentioned about the Jewish key players of old Hollywood fled Eastern Europe to escape persecution.
“Now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past,” she said. She also alluded to current instances of bigotry all over the country. She received plenty of applause from the audience.
Streisand has been an actor, singer, director and writer, a source of joy for audiences for decades around the world. She is the winner of two Oscars, eight Grammys, five Emmys and one Tony awards. It makes her one of the most legendary EGOT winners to date.
In 1969, she performed as Fanny Brice in the cinematic adaptation of the musical “Funny Girl,” in which she also starred. She won her first Oscar for that performance.
Eight years later, in 1977, Streisand became the first woman to win an original song Oscar and made history. She composed, for “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)” from “A Star is Born”. She also starred in the film. Source: CNN Sat, February, 2024
The 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards took over the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 24. The awards celebrated stars of both television and film with winners chosen by their peers in the guild.