Barry Manilow

 Throughout his career, Barry Manilow has made media headlines on various subjects from his health to crashing his Range Rover.

In an April 1979 Ladies Home Journal interview, Manilow admitted to experimenting with marijuana, stating he lost the taste for it quickly. Manilow became ill in Paris earlier that week after completing a month-long United Kingdom tour.

Manilow sprained his ankle October 6, 1983 on the stage at London's Royal Festival Hall while performing at a sold-out benefit concert before the Prince and Princess of Wales, who hosted the show. Manilow was treated and released from a London hospital.

On May 13, 1989 Manilow was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital during intermission at Broadway's Gershwin Theater canceling the second half of his show. Dubow also added that Manilow was ready to return to the stage to complete the run of his concert show, which was then extended one week to June 3. Manilow added to Carson that he can't watch his friend doing that. It turned out to be a publicity stunt by Byrd who used Manilow to gain greater fame.

In another headline story, Manilow, on February 8, 1994, sued Los Angeles radio station KBIG (104.3 FM), seeking $13 million in damages and $15 million in punitive damages because their ad was causing irreparable damage to his professional reputation.

In March 1996, Manilow had photorefractive keratectomy eye surgery done on one of his eyes.People Weekly, in their June 26, 2000 issue, reported that Manilow had eye surgery done by Los Angeles doctor Robert K. Maloney, but incorrectly stated it was LASIK. Manilow is quoted saying he now connects with the audience instead of "seeing a blur." Manilow defended his doctor against comedian Kathy Griffin, who claims Maloney botched her LASIK eye surgery.

The nearby Hotel Bel-Air supposedly regularly provided Manilow with room service. Manilow was back on the road that July 8 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dubow said this is only the second time in Manilow's career that illness forced him to postpone a performance. The suit also names Manilow's production company, an Arizona concert promoter and the city of Tucson, which runs the convention center where the concert was held.

In July 1997, to settle the suit it was reported that Manilow donated $5,000 to American Tinnitus Association, an ear-disorder association.

On May 22, 1999, Manilow was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after suffering an adverse reaction to dental surgery. According to Manilow's spokesperson Susan Dubow, he spent two days in the hospital with an infected mouth and then was "resting comfortably at home." It was following such a procedure that Manilow's mouth became infected, Dubow explained.

In October 2001, Manilow visited Ground Zero in New York City.

On January 31, 2004, Manilow was treated for stress related chest pains during a 24 hour stay at Desert Regional Medical Center.

Manilow's foundation is offering to help people triple the impact of donations by every dollar contributed to the Manilow Fund for Health and Hope, the Fund will match it. In addition to dollar-for-dollar, Manilow himself would match the original donation. 

On August 29, 2006, Manilow had hip surgery at a Southern California Hospital.

Barry Manilow was born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Harold and Edna Pincus (who died in 1993 and 1994 respectively), were of Russian Jewish ancestry.

His parents divorced when he was two years old, after which he was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents, Joseph and Esther Manilow, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. His grandparents, who died in 1973 and 1975, had a strong influence on his life. It was they who encouraged him to take up his first musical instrument, the accordion, which was popular in his Jewish and Italian neighborhood.

In 1948, Manilow recorded "Happy Birthday" with his grandfather in a coin-operated recording booth as a present for his cousin Dennis. Twenty five years later, a sample of this recording, known as "Sing It", served as the opening track on his first album.

When his mother remarried, his stepfather, Willie Murphy, brought an extensive collection of jazz and swing records into the house. As a teenager he listened to these records constantly, coming to idolize such conductors and composers as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and Nelson Riddle. It was Murphy who gave him a piano for his 13th birthday, at the time of his bar mitzvah. Manilow then dropped the accordion and began practicing in style on his new piano.

At this point, Edna Pincus legally changed her surname, as well as her son's, to her maiden name, "Manilow". Over the next few years, Manilow started to perform locally for small businesses and parties. He graduated from Eastern District High School in New York in 1961