Barbra Streisand was honored for her illustrious six-decade career as an entertainer during Saturday’s SAG Awards when she received the SAG life achievement award.
Self-professed longtime fan Jennifer Aniston presented her with the esteemed honor, calling Streisand a “once-in-a-lifetime” talent and a “mensch,” and reminded the audience that the icon performed her first major concert in 1963, on the same stage in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium where the SAG Awards were held.
Aniston went on to summarize just some of Streisand’s groundbreaking achievements, including when she made her debut as Fanny Brice in the musical “Funny Girl,” a role she went on to play on screen and won an Oscar for. She also mentioned Streisand’s record-breaking moment as the first woman to “write, produce, direct and star” in 1983’s “Yentl,” a film for which she became the first woman to win a best director Golden Globe.
Bradley Cooper, who directed and starred in the 2018 update of “A Star is Born” – the 1976 version of which Streisand starred in and won her second Oscar for – also took the stage to honor the EGOT-winner.
To a raucous standing ovation, Streisand strode on stage to accept her honor and spoke about how she remembers “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.”
Barbra Streisand poses for a portrait in 1966.
Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Barbra Streisand’s iconic career, in pictures
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“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 went on to mention key players of old Hollywood who were Jewish and who fled eastern Europe to escape persecution.
“Now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past,” she said, alluding to current instances of bigotry throughout the country, as the audience applauded.
As an actor, singer, director and writer, Streisand has brought joy to audiences around the world for decades. She has won two Oscars, eight Grammys, five Emmys and one Tony award throughout her career, making her one of the most legendary EGOT winners to date.
She won her first Oscar in 1969 for her performance as Fanny Brice in the cinematic adaptation of the musical “Funny Girl,” in which she also starred (earning a Tony nod along the way).
In 1977, Streisand made history when she became the first woman to win an original song Oscar for a song she composed, for “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)” from “A Star is Born,” in which she also starred.
