Barbra Streisand won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Fanny Brice in 1968's Funny Girl, which was also her film debut. Streisand also played Brice in the Broadway version of Funny Girl, which opened in 1964. The film tells the heavily fictionalized tale of the rise of Broadway entertainer Brice.

Barbra Streisand plays Fanny Brice, a young New Yorker determined to be a star. She lands a role as a singer, then manages to steal the routine with a comedy performance of her own. As Fanny's professional star rises, her personal one stumbles as her husband, played by Omar Sharif, becomes more and more resentful of her success.http://www.allmovie.com/work/funny-girl-18959

• Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice

• Omar Sharif as Nick Arnstein

• Kay Medford as Rose Brice

• Anne Francis as Georgia James

• Walter Pidgeon as Florenz Ziegfeld

• Lee Allen as Eddie Ryan

"The trouble with "Funny Girl" is almost everything except Barbra Streisand. She is magnificent."—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Timeshttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19681018/REVIEWS/810180301/1023

"Barbra Streisand in her Hollywood debut makes a marked impact. The saga of the tragi-comedienne Fanny Brice of the ungainly mien and manner, charmed by the suave card-sharp Nick Arnstein, is perhaps of familiar pattern, but it is to the credit of all concerned that it plays so convincingly."—Varietyhttp://www.variety.com/review/VE1117791165.html?categoryid=31&cs=1