Barry Manilow has charmed the world with his infectious and lovable voice throughout his career, creating songs that almost everyone knows and loves to sing. Hits like “Mandy” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)” catapulted him to global fame in the 1970s, even though critics were skeptical of his talent at first.
But behind his success, Manilow was hiding a big secret. He came out as gay at the age of 73. Now, he’s living his best life with his husband, Garry, and his daughter, happier than ever.
Even though Barry became a heartthrob to fans around the world, there has been speculation about whether he’s had plastic surgery. The 78-year-old Brooklyn native isn’t afraid to set the record straight. Here’s everything you need to know about Barry Manilow — and how he looks today.
Early Life
Barry Manilow was born on June 17, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York. His grandparents were Russian immigrants, and Barry is also half-Irish. His father, Harold, was Irish, but Barry was taught not to talk about that side of his heritage.
“The fact that Harold was an Irish truck driver was hidden from the family,” Barry revealed to the Irish Independent. “It was considered a terrible thing for my mother to have done. They wouldn’t even allow my name to be Kelliher. They changed it immediately.”
He continued, “When I was born, I was called Barry Pincus. They had to dig deep into my father’s family to find one Jewish relative. They went back to the 1800s and they found one uncle, a Jewish guy called Pincus. My mother made my father change his name to Pincus.”
Barry was raised by his mother, Edna, and his grandparents. His parents divorced when he was just a baby. Just weeks before his Bar Mitzvah, he legally adopted the Manilow family name.
Barry’s father was called a “monster” by his grandparents, but they liked his mother’s new partner, an Irish truck driver named Willie Murphy. Willie had a huge record collection and allowed Barry to listen to music all the time, inspiring his love for it. Barry’s mother and stepfather even saved for years to buy him a piano for $800 — a sign of their deep love for him. Fortunately, Barry was able to repay them many times over.
Before entering the New York College of Music, Barry studied at City College of New York and then attended the Juilliard School, focusing on musical theater. During this time, he worked as a log clerk at CBS and met his first love.
First Marriage and the Road to Success
In 1964, Barry, then 21, married his high school sweetheart, Susan Deixler, shortly after their graduation. But he quickly realized he wasn’t ready for marriage. “I was in love with Susan,” he said, describing her as “adorable, small with great legs and a voluptuous figure.”
However, he added, “I just was not ready for marriage, I was out making music every night, sowing my wild oats. I was too young, I wasn’t ready to settle down.”
Barry had a different dream — he wanted a career in the entertainment industry. Determined to succeed, he wrote songs and landed gigs as a jingle writer for commercials. One of his first big breaks came when he sang for a Dr. Pepper commercial, which “paid the rent for years.”
His next big step was singing the famous jingle “You Deserve a Break Today” for a McDonald’s commercial. “Going into the business of writing commercials was the best decision I ever took,” Barry explained.
“When I lucked into writing commercials, the only way you can go up against other songwriters when you’re going for a commercial is to write the catchiest melody you can write in fifteen seconds, and if you don’t write the best one, then another songwriter will get the commercial.”
Barry added, “My instinct is always to write catchy melodies. I just like doing it. And so when I started to do jingles, I won a lot of them because my melodies were catchier than the other guys’ melodies.”
Breakthrough with “Mandy”
Barry’s skills in crafting catchy melodies paid off when he got his first album out in 1973. He had sent his songs to various artists, but no one wanted them, so he released them himself. The self-titled debut album, “Barry Manilow,” wasn’t an instant hit, but a year later, his career would skyrocket.
“I would send my songs out, but nobody wanted them because they wanted to do their own songs,” Barry told the Independent. “I made my first album and it was good, but I thought that was the end of that. But then Clive Davis [the producer] came in and he found ‘Mandy’ for me.”
Clive Davis, the president of Arista Records, suggested Barry try a song originally titled “Brandy,” a rock ‘n’ roll song. Barry slowed it down, changed the chords, and added a key change.
“In order to learn ‘Brandy,’ I had slowed it down and — just because I wanted to — I’d changed the chords around and put in a key change,” Barry recalled in an Emmy interview. “But then I forgot about it and played Clive the rock-and-roll song. But now, I went to the piano and played him the ballad version of ‘Brandy’ with my key and chord changes.”
Clive told him, “Do that. And we can’t use ‘Brandy.’ Sing ‘Mandy.’ There had been a hit record called ‘Brandy’ out two years earlier: ‘Brandy, you’re a fine girl….’ So we changed the name. I played the slow version, we put a small band behind it, and added ‘Mandy’ to that second album. And my life changed.”
And indeed it did. “Mandy” became an instant No.1 hit. Barry quickly followed it up with other hits like “I Write the Songs,” “Could It Be Magic,” and the iconic “Copacabana (At the Copa).” By 1978, just five years after his first album release, Barry had five albums on the best-selling charts simultaneously and ten No. 1 singles.
He had won several awards, including Grammy and Tony Awards, and become a heartthrob for an entire generation, whose fans were lovingly called “Fanilows.”
Embracing Fame and Personal Growth
Despite his sudden fame, Barry remained grounded. “I’ve learned over the years that at the beginning of your life it’s all about me, me, me. ‘Look at me, look what I can do, look how great I am,’” he reflected. “Then somewhere in the middle, mid-30s or maybe later for me, you realize that now it’s gotta go the other way.
The arrows have to stop pointing towards yourself. They have to flip around and point out — and that’s not just for a performer, that’s for everybody. If you wind up being 40 years of age still showing everybody how great you are, it’s very unbecoming.”
Coming Out and Finding Happiness
Barry’s personal life also saw significant changes. After just two years of marriage, he divorced Susan to pursue his “wondrous musical adventure.” His career continued to soar, but for years he kept a secret that weighed heavily on him.
In 2017, at the age of 73, Barry came out as gay. He admitted that he had kept his sexuality a secret for a long time, fearing it would affect his career and disappoint his fans, especially his female ones. “Well if I had done it much earlier, I think it would have affected my career a lot. But by the time Garry and I decided to do it, being gay and being alive was accepted, so nothing changed,” he said.
He added, “People just wanted me to be happy, and when I said I had someone in my life, they were happy for me. There was no negativity at all. I kind of expected that and these people are great, it’s great.”
Barry had found love with Garry Kief, whom he married in 2014 at their Palm Springs estate. “I knew that this was it,” Barry recalled of meeting Garry. “I was one of the lucky ones, I was pretty lonely before that.” Garry became Barry’s manager and president of Barry Manilow Productions. The two have shared a strong relationship built on mutual respect for over 40 years.
Barry and Garry also raised Garry’s biological daughter, Kristen, together. Despite the potential challenges of having his partner as his manager, Barry stated, “That’s the miracle of this relationship. It’s a relationship built on respect, and we’ve never bumped heads about anything. Garry’s the smartest guy I’ve ever met.
He’s a great manager. He takes care of my career on the business level, and I take care of the music, and we plan out what we want to do together. It’s about two guys who made it through 40 years.”
Facing Plastic Surgery Rumors
Over the years, Barry has faced rumors about plastic surgery. In an interview with the Irish Independent, he confirmed that he had procedures done. He admitted he tried Botox and had a procedure to get rid of his jowls, but he wasn’t satisfied with the results. “But they came right back. That kind of stuff doesn’t last,” he explained.
“Then many years ago, all of LA was running for Botox, and I did too. I gave it a try, but I just didn’t like it. It didn’t look right for me.”
Some critics, like plastic surgeon Said Youn, even suggested he had “too much
Botox, eyelid surgery, and a facelift.” But Barry doesn’t pay much attention to the rumors. Instead, he focuses on his happiness and career.
Life Today
Today, Barry continues to be an iconic music figure, and his Las Vegas residency remains a hit. Despite the ups and downs, Barry Manilow has stayed true to himself, living a life filled with music, love, and genuine happiness. At 78, he is still performing, singing, and spreading joy to audiences around the world.
And though the debate about whether he’s had plastic surgery might linger, there’s no denying Barry Manilow’s enduring charm, talent, and resilience. He’s living proof that it’s never too late to be yourself and to find true happiness.
