Barbra Streisand's life - real name, tragic childhood loss and Friends star romance

dailystar.co.uk:

Hollywood icons come no greater than singing sensation and A Star Is Born actress Barbra Streisand.Since bursting onto our stereos in the 1960s, she has become one of the world's biggest selling artists of all time - as well as one of the most decorated composers, actresses and singers.Hailed as a recording legend, she has also led a very interesting life away from our screens and stereos - including her philanthropy and political work, as well as a number of high profile romances and revealing a secret about her 'real' name.To celebrate Barbra's 80th birthday, Daily Star looks back on the life of one of the greatest entertainers of all time.Global music megastar and Hollywood actress Barbra Streisand was born on April 4, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York to parents Diane and Emanuel Streisand.However at the age of just 15 months old, Barbra's father Emanuel Streisand died after suffering a seizure at the age of 34.Speaking at a Q&A session at ArcLight Hollywood, the actress and singer revealed that she wrote the 1983 film Yentl, as a way to explore the father and daughter relationship she never had."It just meant a lot to me to be able to make a story where I could create a father, a father I never had because he died when I was 15 months old. "I was so intrigued by that relationship and also the great tradition in Judaism is knowledge, learning and my father was a teacher."She also has an older brother, Sheldon, and a half-sister, the singer Roslyn Kind, from her mother's remarriage to Louis Kind in 1949.Barbra Streisand is the star's real name - but not the way that you know it.Her real name is in fact spelt Barbara Joan Streisand, but the actress revealed that she despised the name that has now made her a global sensation..