Entertainer. Born Fania Borach in New York City, New York, the daughter of saloon proprietors, she began entertaining at an early age, as she sang to patrons at her parents' establishment. Having a desire to have a career in show business, she took the last name of "Brice" of a family friend, left school prior to turning fourteen, and entered numerous amateur contests as a singer. She was talented enough to earn a steady income, averaging thirty dollars per week in prize money. Her career would take off after she caught the attention of entertainment producer Florenz Ziegfeld, who cast her in the stage productions of "Ziegfeld Follies" (1910). She would remain a member of his ensemble into the early 1920s, before launching her Hollywood career in the motion picture "My Man" (1928). At the height of her success, she balanced films, the stage, and radio, as she appeared in her then-husband playwright Billy Rose's "Sweet and Low" (1930) and "Crazy Quilt" (1931), also portraying herself in the film adaptation of "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and performances on the radio programs "The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air," (1932, 1936), "Good News," (1937 to 1940), "Maxwell House Coffee Time," (1940 to 1944) and "The Baby Snooks Show" (1944 to 1951). She died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 59. Her cremated remains were interred at the Chapel Mausoleum at the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California, and were removed to its present location Los Angeles' Westwood Village Memorial Park when her daughter passed away and was interred there in 1992. Fanny Brice was portrayed by actress and singer Barbra Streisand in both the theatre and motion picture adaptations of "Funny Girl," which opened as a stage musical in 1964, and was released as a film in 1968.
Entertainer. Born Fania Borach in New York City, New York, the daughter of saloon proprietors, she began entertaining at an early age, as she sang to patrons at her parents' establishment. Having a desire to have a career in show business, she took the last name of "Brice" of a family friend, left school prior to turning fourteen, and entered numerous amateur contests as a singer. She was talented enough to earn a steady income, averaging thirty dollars per week in prize money. Her career would take off after she caught the attention of entertainment producer Florenz Ziegfeld, who cast her in the stage productions of "Ziegfeld Follies" (1910). She would remain a member of his ensemble into the early 1920s, before launching her Hollywood career in the motion picture "My Man" (1928). At the height of her success, she balanced films, the stage, and radio, as she appeared in her then-husband playwright Billy Rose's "Sweet and Low" (1930) and "Crazy Quilt" (1931), also portraying herself in the film adaptation of "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) and performances on the radio programs "The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air," (1932, 1936), "Good News," (1937 to 1940), "Maxwell House Coffee Time," (1940 to 1944) and "The Baby Snooks Show" (1944 to 1951). She died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 59. Her cremated remains were interred at the Chapel Mausoleum at the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California, and were removed to its present location Los Angeles' Westwood Village Memorial Park when her daughter passed away and was interred there in 1992. Fanny Brice was portrayed by actress and singer Barbra Streisand in both the theatre and motion picture adaptations of "Funny Girl," which opened as a stage musical in 1964, and was released as a film in 1968.
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