Over the course of his career, Barry Manilow has shown himself to be a charming and contagious performer who can write songs that almost everyone can’t stop singing.
Even though critics didn’t initially believe he was very skilled, he achieved international renown in the 1970s thanks to The Mandy and Copacabana.
As it turned out, Manilow kept a big secret for a significant portion of his life before coming out as gay at the age of 73. Today, however, he lives his finest life with his husband, Garry, and daughter, and is happier than ever.
Even though Manilow has been a global favorite, some people have also conjectured about whether or not he has had plastic surgery. The 78-year-old Brooklyn native, however, isn’t scared to speak the truth.
Here is everything you need to know about Barry Manilow, including his current appearance.
Barry Manilow was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 17, 1943. Barry’s father, Harold, is from Ireland, thus he is actually half Irish. His grandparents were Russian immigrants.
But he had been instructed from an early age not to discuss that.
“The family was unaware that Harold was an Irish truck driver,” Barry told the Irish Independent.
It was seen to be a horrible thing that my mother had done. I couldn’t even have Kelliher as my name. They made the change right away.
Early life of Barry Manilow
“My name was Barry Pincus when I was born,” he continued. To locate one Jewish relative, they had to sift through my father’s entire family. They discovered one uncle, a Jewish man named Pincus, when they traveled back in time to the 1800s. My father was forced to adopt the name Pincus by my mother.
After his parents split when he was still a baby, Manilow was reared by his mother, Edna, and his grandparents. He formally acquired the Manilow family name a few weeks before to his Bar Mitzvah.
Barry Manilow’s grandparents called his father a “monster,” but they preferred his mother’s next lover, who ended up serving as Barry’s musical muse. According to reports, Willie Murphy, an Irish truck driver, had a vast record collection and let Barry listen to it constantly.
Furthermore, it took them five years to pay off the $800 piano that Manilow purchased once his mother and stepfather finally decided to pool their funds. It demonstrated how much his mother and stepfather loved him; thankfully, we now know that he was able to repay them all.
Barry attended the City College of New York prior to enrolling at the New York College of Music. After studying musical theater at the Juilliard School, he went on to work for CBS as a log clerk.
Manilow also fell in love for the first time during this period. He married Susan Deixler, his high school sweetheart, in 1964 when he was 21 years old. They had just graduated, and Barry felt that it was far too soon to start a family.
Commercials for Dr. Pepper and McDonald’s
He declared, “I was in love with Susan,” calling her cute, petite, and endowed with “great legs and a voluptuous figure.”
Manilow continued, “I was out every night making music, sowing my wild oats, and I just wasn’t ready for marriage.” I wasn’t ready to settle down; I was too young.
It appeared that Barry had a completely different dream. He was determined to do whatever it took to fulfill his dream of working in the entertainment industry.
Manilow was prepared to risk everything for a chance to get into the entertainment business, even if it undoubtedly sounded ridiculous at the time. He wrote songs and got commercial writing jobs for years. He had the good fortune to appear in a Dr. Pepper commercial that, in his own words, “paid the rent for years.”
However, Manilow’s major hit was the dramatic hit song “You Deserve a Break Today,” which he performed for a McDonald’s commercial. In hindsight, pursuing a career in commercial writing was the wisest move he ever made.
“The only way to compete with other songwriters when you’re going for a commercial is to write the catchiest melody you can write in fifteen seconds,” Barry noted, adding that if you don’t write the best melody, another songwriter will get the commercial.
Additionally, I always produce catchy songs out of instinct. I simply enjoy doing it. My melodies were catchier than the other guys’, so when I started doing jingles, I won a lot of them.
Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” breakthrough
Hee continued: “But it was incredibly useful because pop music is all about catchy melodies, hooks, and choruses, so when I found myself in the pop music industry, I wrote pop songs, which, as I say, I never really thought about doing.Well, when I ended up composing pop songs, knowing how to do that while I was writing advertisements was really beneficial.
“Writing a catchy melody was the most important thing I learned during my jingle days,” Manilow remarked.
In 1973, Barry would finally be able to record his debut album. When no one wanted the tracks he provided to performers, he decided to distribute them himself. Although Barry Manilow’s self-titled debut album wasn’t a huge hit right away, the singer would become a huge star a year later.
He told the Independent, “I would send out my songs, but no one wanted them because they wanted to do their own songs.”
“I made my first album, and it was good, but I thought that was it. Then producer Clive Davis came in and he introduced me to Mandy.”
Arista Records head Clive Davis asserted that he had discovered a song that may work for Barry, Brandy. Since it was originally a rock ‘n’ roll song, Manilow, who was still relatively young, wasn’t sure what to do with it.
“I slowed it down and, just because I wanted to, I changed the chords and added a key change in order to learn Brandy,” Barry stated in his Emmy interview.
But after that, I put it out of my mind and started playing the rock and roll song “Clive.” Now, however, I went to the piano and used my key and chord adjustments to play him the ballad version of Brandy.
There are five albums on the charts of best sellers.
“Do that,” he said. We are also unable to use Brandy. Sing, Mandy. Two years prior, the popular song “Brandy, you’re a fine girl…” had been released. Thus, we renamed it. We added a little band and added “Mandy” to that second album, and I played the slow version. My life also changed.
His life was profoundly altered by Marilyn, as Barry stated. It immediately shot to the top of the charts, and Manilow followed it up with hits like “Copacabana” (At the Copa), “Could It Be Magic,” and “I Write the Songs.”
Barry had ten No. 1 singles and five albums on the best-selling charts at the same time in 1978, just five years after his debut album. Along the way, he became the idol of a whole generation and received numerous honors, including Grammy and Tony Awards. His admirers were referred to as “Fanilows.”
It should go without saying that throughout history, there have been several instances of unexpected celebrity turning toxic. However, it was crucial for Barry to accept his popularity in a way that prevented it from getting out of hand. It required him to look beyond himself.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that when you first start out in life, everything revolves around you. He exclaims, “Look at me, look what I can do, look how great I am.” “Then you realize that it’s gotta go the other way somewhere in the middle, mid-30s, or maybe later for me,” he said.
“You must cease to be the target of the darts. They must turn around and make the point, and that applies to everyone, not just performers. It’s really unworthy of you to continue displaying your greatness to everyone when you’re forty years old.
Barry Manilow’s wealth, spouse, and kids
Barry and his wife, Susan Diexen, got divorced years before Barry’s big break. He left what he claimed was “the perfect wife” after just two years of marriage in order to follow “this wondrous musical adventure.”
Manilow had a decades-long career and continues to perform now. According to Celebrity Net Worth, his estimated net worth is $100 million.
He did not, however, walk burden-free. As it happened, Barry spent a significant portion of his adult life hiding a significant secret. Manilow finally came out as gay in 2017 at the age of 73. Considering his advanced age, this was clearly a brave choice. He already had Garry Kief as a partner at the time.
The couple was married at their Palm Springs home in 2014. The Sun claims that even the guests were unaware that they were to attend their wedding because it was such a great secret.
It has been reported that Barry and Garry initially crossed paths in 1978. He currently serves as both Barry’s manager and president of Barry Manilow Productions.
When Barry first met Garry, he recalls, “I knew that this was it.” “I was fortunate; prior to that, I felt quite alone.”
Barry, coming out as gay wasn’t a simple choice. He was afraid that coming out sooner would have hurt his career and “disappoint” his supporters, particularly the women.
“People only wanted me to be content.”
But it ended up being the exact reverse.
“Well, I believe it would have had a significant impact on my career if I had done it much sooner. However, nothing changed by the time Garry and I made the decision since being gay and alive was accepted, Barry explained.
“Not much has changed. “The only difference is that people are really happy for me,” he continued.
When I mentioned that I had someone in my life, everybody were glad for me and there was no negative at all. They only wanted me to be happy. I kind of anticipated it, and these folks are fantastic.
Manilow had the luxury of raising his husband’s biological daughter, Kristen, in addition to living with his beloved Garry.
Regarding their personal lives, some would contend that managing your partner could be detrimental to your relationship. However, Barry and Garry manage to make it work.
That is the relationship’s miracle. We have a respectful connection and have never had disagreements,” Manilow remarked.
“I’ve never met a smarter guy than Garry.” He is an excellent manager. I handle the music, he handles the business side of my career, and we decide what we want to accomplish together. It concerns two men who survived for forty years.
Perhaps folks will feel better about coming out. Perhaps it will show some young people that they are capable of doing it as well. It’s been a pretty happy love tale for us. We continue to communicate with one another!
Barry has also garnered recognition over the years for something completely unrelated to his music or personal life.
Barry Manilow: Botox and plastic surgery
Manilow has reportedly undergone eye surgery, facelifts, and Botox injections to firm up his face, according to countless rumors and reports. That was true, he said in an interview with the Irish Independent.
According to Barry, he had surgery to remove his jowls, but they returned immediately. Things like that don’t last. Then, many years ago, I joined the rush for Botox that was going on around Los Angeles. I tried it, but I simply didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t think it looked proper.
Said Youn, a plastic surgeon, stated in 2011 that he believed Manilow’s face had “too much work.” Barry, however, claims that the idea that he is the “Joan Rivers of the guys” is “ridiculous.” He claims that having multiple operations that have impacted his face is one cause.
He stated, “I’ve had this nasty hip problem for the last ten years.” The most recent of my three procedures was performed four months ago. Steroid injections directly into my hips were the only thing that let me from limping out on stage at the Grammys. However, your face suddenly becomes strange.
Only a few days ago, Barry was hardly recognizable when he made an appearance on the British morning show This Morning. However, how can he appear so young?
Barry chuckled and remarked, “It’s luck, it’s just blind luck.”
I’m pretty elderly, so please don’t bring it up. I find it quite distressing.
A living classic, Barry Manilow deserves recognition for his bravery in coming out as gay at such a late age. Please commemorate him by telling your friends and family about this story on Facebook!