Barbra Streisand Shares the Heartbreaking Advice Judy Garland Gave Her

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Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland might seem like they exist in distinct periods of entertainment history. After all, they each starred in versions of A Star Is Born , 22 years apart. But the two not only crossed paths, they also collaborated. In 1963, Streisand sang with the older star when she guested on The Judy Garland Show . They stayed in touch after that, and in her new memoir, My Name Is Barbra , Streisand opens up about their friendship. The singer reveals the truth behind their rumored rivalry and also shares the ominous advice Garland gave her that Streisand would only understand after the legendary performer’s death. Read on to find out more.

RELATED: Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room .

Streisand appeared on The Judy Garland Show in October 1963. At the time, she was 21 years old and her first two albums had just come out earlier that year. She had already made her Broadway debut in I Can Get It for You Wholesale but was yet to star in Funny Girl , which premiered in 1964.

Garland, who was 20 years older than Streisand, had been famous for her voice and her film roles since she was a child star in the 1930s. Her series, The Judy Garland Show , lasted for 26 episodes from 1963 and 1964.

On the show, Garland and Streisand sang “Happy Days Are Here Again” and “Get Happy” together and also sang “There’s No Business Like Show Business” along with Ethel Merman . Streisand was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for her appearance on the show.

Streisand writes in My Name Is Barbra about how she was often pitted against Garland.

“People were looking for some sort of rivalry between us. And when they couldn’t find anything, they made it up,” she writes ( via People ). “I found Judy to be completely generous. We sang a medley of songs, taking turns, and she wasn’t just focused on herself. She watched me and responded to me. She would reach out and brush back a strand of my hair, like a mother. And Judy’s own daughter, Liza Minnelli , says that her mother’s first reaction on hearing me sing was to say, ‘I’m never going to open my mouth again.’ She was like that, very self‑deprecating. And deeply vulnerable.”

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Streisand goes on to write that she and Garland became friends. “We spoke on the phone, and she came to one of the rare parties I gave at my New York apartment (four in thirty‑five years),” Streisand recalls. “I think she arrived late. And I remember her saying something I never quite understood: ‘Don’t let them do to you what they did to me.’ I should have asked her what she meant, but I didn’t want to appear too nosy.”

Streisand continues, “Six years after we did [ The Judy Garland Show ], she was dead at the age of forty‑seven. What a tragedy … and such a loss. She was an extraordinary talent.”

Garland died of an accidental drug overdose in 1969. Her history with pills intertwined with her experience in the entertainment industry. She had been given stimulant pills as a child star so that she could work long hours, and her addiction grew from there.

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In 2012, Streisand told NPR how her view of Garland changed as she got older herself.

“I can remember it distinctly,” she said of filming The Judy Garland Show . “She was holding my hand and I thought, ‘Gee, she seems nervous.’ At that time, I wasn’t nervous. I was still very young, I think, about to do Funny Girl , and now, when I think back on it, I think, ‘Oh, my God, I know exactly what she’s feeling.’ Or, you know, the fears.”

She explained, “It’s like, as you get older and people are kind of looking for you to fail more, I think—not people, not the audience— but, you know, critics or producers or whatever. And I just felt her. I felt her anxiety … Part of me is much more relaxed than I’ve ever been, less frightened, less anxious. On the other hand, it’s a coming-of-age-thing, and she was much younger than I am, but there are things with careers. … I just understand the anxiety even though in a sense I’m calmer. It’s a dichotomy. It’s hard to explain … You wonder, ‘Well, do I give it up? Do I retire? Or do I get more in before my time is up?’”

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Barbra Streisand receives The Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award in July 2023 - 4

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Streisand told USA Today in 2021 that performing with Garland was a “wonderful experience.”

“I was a late Judy Garland fan. I didn’t know of her when I was very young,” Streisand said. “And then I happened to walk by a recording session she was doing in New York somewhere and I thought, ‘Oh my God, this woman is fantastic.’ But doing that with Judy was a wonderful experience. We fell in love with each other and we became good friends afterwards. She was just a wonderful, vulnerable creature with this glorious voice. I’m so happy that [performance] is still around somehow.”

Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room

Barbra Streisand in 1967; Marlon Brando in 1967 - 5

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If her upcoming memoir clocking in at 992 pages is any indication, Barbra Streisand has a lot of stories to tell. One particularly scandalous one involves late actor Marlon Brando , who became a friend of the star. According to Streisand’s book, Brando once propositioned her while his wife was in the very next room. The Oscar-winner turned him down, but it wasn’t the end of their relationship. It also wasn’t the last time that he hit on her.

Read on to find out more about Streisand and Brando’s relationship, which traces back to her crush on him before they ever met.

RELATED: Ali MacGraw “Knew” She’d Have Affair With Co-Star Steve McQueen: “I Was Obsessed.”

Marlon Brando waiting to board a plane in 1966 - 6

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Streisand was interviewed by Vanity Fair ahead of the Nov. 7 release of her memoir, My Name Is Barbra . The profile recaps a chapter of the book titled “Brando,” in which Streisand writes that the actor asked her to have sex with him while they were at a party in 1966. At the time, she would have been 24 while Brando was 42.

According to the book, Brando told Streisand, “I’d like to [expletive] you” while his wife was in an adjoining room. (The article does not state which wife was present, however. Brando had overlapping marriages with Movita Castaneda and Tarita Teriipaia , though the Castaneda marriage was later annulled.)

RELATED: Elizabeth Taylor’s Affair With This Actor Was So Scandalous, the Vatican Got Involved .

Barbra Streisand at the 1969 Academy Awards - 7

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According to her book, Streisand and Brando became friends and stayed that way until his death in 2004. The now-81-year-old also writes that after Brando saw the 1968 film adaptation of Funny Girl , he called her and said, “You were really good, but you run funny.” Vanity Fair ‘s Radhika Jones told Streisand that “Brando” is “one of the wilder chapters [she’s] ever encountered in literature.” The author responded, “Well, he’s Marlon Brando!”

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During a 2012 appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight , Streisand told another story about spending time with Brando. This one was about a road trip they took together in the ’70s.

“[Brando] wanted to take me to the desert, to see the wildflowers,” she said, adding that he said he wanted to “sleep over in a ghost town.”

Streisand said that she rejected his advances. “I was such a nice Jewish girl that I just said, ‘Marlon, I can’t stay overnight with you. I’ll go with you for the day.’” Again, she added that they remained friends and would talk on the phone “for hours and hours.”

Evidence of Streisand and Brando’s friendship was shared by John Travolta in on Instagram in 2020 . In a “flashback Friday” post, Travolta shared a photo of himself, his late wife Kelly Preston , Streisand, her husband James Brolin , Brando, and others. In the picture, Streisand sits on Brando’s lap. Travolta wrote in the caption, “A special party for Marlon Brando at Barbra Streisand’s house #FBF.” He did not specify what year the photo was taken.

Long before they ever met, Brando became Streisand’s celebrity crush after she saw him in 1955’s Guys and Dolls .

“Since I was 13, Marlon Brando was my favorite. I saw him in Guys and Dolls —and that was it,” she told W magazine in 2016. “Interestingly, there was a period of 27 years when I didn’t sing in public, because of stage fright, and when I finally did, I created a scenario in which I sang ‘I’ll Know’ with Marlon Brando in Guys and Dolls . I put myself in his movie! I invited Brando to my house to see the piece, and he made me take him through my entire show. We then watched a movie together. It was wonderful: He was my idol, my biggest crush.”

“I’ll Know” is a song from the Guys and Dolls . When Streisand performed the song at Madison Square Garden for her 1994 live album The Concert , she spoke about Brando and the film before singing it.

“This friend of mine named Barbara Sankell , who knew that I wanted to be an actress told me about this actor named Marlon Brando, who was in a movie called Guys and Dolls , which I also didn’t know was from a Broadway play. And so I went to see it, and it was truly a life-altering experience seeing Marlon Brando for the first time. It was the only movie that I ever sat through twice—just to get to see him again and to have another Mello Roll. Anyway, I’ll never forget this song.”

Barbra Streisand Shares the Heartbreaking Advice Judy Garland Gave Her#

Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room#

Barbra Streisand Shares the Heartbreaking Advice Judy Garland Gave Her

Barbra Streisand Says Marlon Brando Propositioned Her With His Wife in the Next Room