Liza Minnelli

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Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli judges a pet contest in the West Village, New York City, June 24, 2006
Born March 12, 1946 (1946-03-12) (age 61)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation singer, actress
Years active 1949 - present
Spouse(s) Peter Allen (1967-1974)
Jack Haley, Jr. (1974-1979)
Mark Gero (1979-1992)
David Gest (2002-2006)
Parents Vincente Minnelli (1903-1986)
Judy Garland (1922-1969)

Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of legendary actress and singer Judy Garland and her second husband, film director Vincente Minnelli. In 1972, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Cabaret and had two of her records certified gold.

Contents

Minnelli is from a well-known artistic family; her maternal lineage had entertainers in the family going back six generations.[1] Her famous mother, Judy Garland, had success in film and in music, and her aunts had been part of a singing group, "The Gumm Sisters," with her mother. Her father, also from a theatrical family including circus performers, was an acclaimed film director. Minnelli's first film appearance was at the age of three in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring her mother and Van Johnson.

Although Minnelli and her mother shared a warm personal relationship, during the London Palladium performances Garland recognized Minnelli's talent and felt a sense of competition. Minnelli recalled a time where she was singing on stage: "I was onstage with my mother, but suddenly, she wasn't Mamma ... she was Judy Garland.".[1]

As a teenager with two younger siblings, Minnelli bore the brunt of Garland's substance abuse issues and instability, and often had to take responsibility for her mother and siblings. Minnelli’s half-siblings through her mother are sister Lorna Luft and brother Joe "Joey" Luft. Her half-siblings are a result of Garland's marriage to her manager Sid Luft. She also has a half-sibling Tina Nina Minnelli through her father's second marriage.

Her well-publicized struggles with substance abuse have made inevitable parallels and comparisons to her mother's personal and career challenges. Minnelli has been in rehab for her substance abuse numerous times. She entered rehab shortly before her marriage to David Gest.[2] Another visit occurred at their first anniversary; she recently visited rehab and a psychiatric center to deal with issues stemming from her contentious divorce from Gest.[3]

Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times; her husbands have been:

  1. Peter Allen (real name Peter Allen Woolnough) (March 3, 1967–1972). Australian-born Allen, who died of complications from AIDS in 1992. Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s.
  2. Jack Haley Jr., (September 15, 1974–1979), a producer and director. His father, Jack Haley, was Garland's co-star in The Wizard of Oz.
  3. Mark Gero (December 4, 1979–1992), a sculptor and stage manager
  4. David Gest (March 16, 2002–July 25, 2003), a concert promoter.

Minnelli's divorce from Gest was particularly acrimonious. Gest alleged that Minnelli infected him with herpes and did not disclose it until after the wedding, whereas Minnelli claimed Gest was a drug addict.[4]

The couple filed divorce papers in February 2007. Separation and subsequent divorce proceedings from Gest in 2003 had been fraught with controversy. Minnelli and Gest signed an agreement in January 2007 to end all pending lawsuits against each other, and to proceed with a no-fault divorce. Prior legal matters were either resolved or dismissed.

Minnelli started performing (professionally) at age 17, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices, and her first award -- The Theatre World Award. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. The audience loved her, launching her future concert career. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace.

Her first film role was as the love-interest in Albert Finney's only film as director and star, Charlie Bubbles (1967).

In 1969 she appeared in Alan J. Pakula’s first feature film, The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), as Pookie Adams, a needy, eccentric teenager. Her performance won her her first Academy Award nomination. She played another eccentric character the following year in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, directed by Otto Preminger.

Liza Minnelli, in 1993, visiting the tomb of Eva Perón. In the early 1980s, Minnelli was in the running for the role of Evita.
Liza Minnelli, in 1993, visiting the tomb of Eva Perón. In the early 1980s, Minnelli was in the running for the role of Evita.

In 1972, Minnelli appeared in perhaps her best-known film role, as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret. Minnelli won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award, and was featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek Magazines simultaneously.

Hot off the success of the movie, Fosse and Minnelli teamed up for what was to become a groundbreaking show in several departments. “Liza with a “Z””, a filmed concert later aired only two times on TV until the somewhat “accidental” recovery from the vaults and first public release on DVD in 2006. In the concert, filmed over two performances, Minnelli danced and sang in several daring and censor-challenging costumes designed by famed costume-designer Halston. Several awards were the reward for what is regarded by both critics and public as a piece of show business history.

Following a string of less successful feature movies and ventures into television, she finally got the chance to work with her father, director Vincente Minnelli, in the 1976 fantasy-musical A Matter of Time, co-starring Ingrid Bergman. After severe editing and cutting, done at the request of the producers, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical success.

Her appearance opposite Robert De Niro in the 1977 film, New York, New York however, gave Minnelli her best known signature song, "Theme from New York, New York". Frank Sinatra released a successful cover version (for his Trilogy: Past Present Future album) two years later and used it as his signature song as well, sometimes even duetting with Liza live on stage.

After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's Arthur, Minnelli made fewer film appearances.

Minnelli’s career has been known to be filled with highs and lows, both personal and professional, however she has never stopped recording albums, even though in her later career these were mostly live recordings of her concerts, several of them highly acclaimed record-breaking stints at the Radio City Music Hall among others. In the beginnings however she recorded several studio albums, for A&M and Capitol Records. The Capitol albums "Liza! Liza!", "It Amazes Me" and "There Is A Time" have recently been reissued on a 2CD compilation, for the first time in their entirety. Her perhaps biggest success in the music department might be the 1989 pop album Results, recorded with English duo Pet Shop Boys, which included a hit version of the Stephen Sondheim song "Losing My Mind". The album spawned 4 singles ("Don't Drop Bombs", "Losing My Mind", "Love Pains" and "So Sorry, I Said") and gave her a chance to film promotional videos for them and enjoy another long-overdue comeback in the music business. Initially released on a VHS tape titled "Visible Results", the clips were later issued on a bonus DVD included in the 2005 remastered and expanded edition of the album. Later that year she performed "Losing My Mind" live at the Grammys ceremony before receiving a Grammy Legend Award, making her one of only 12 other entertainers, in a list that includes Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, and Mel Brooks among others, to win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Academy Award, even though she is sometimes discounted since her Grammy was a special award and was not won in a competitive category.

Liza Minnelli at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival premiere of Elizabethtown, photo by Tony Shek
Liza Minnelli at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival premiere of Elizabethtown, photo by Tony Shek

She returned to Broadway in 1997, taking over the title role in the musical Victor/Victoria, replacing Julie Andrews. In his review, New York Times critic Ben Brantley commented, "her every stage appearance is perceived as a victory of show-business stamina over psychic frailty... She asks for love so nakedly and earnestly, it seems downright vicious not to respond." However, rumors of ill will between her and co-star Tony Roberts gained momentum when he deliberately skipped performances.

After a serious case of viral encephalitis in 2000, Minnelli was in very bad shape, her family and friends were seriously worried, and even a feud with half-sister Lorna was buried. Doctors predicted the rest of her life in a wheelchair. She however refused to accept this and thanks to her dance lessons, which she still takes daily, managed to achieve yet another comeback, with her then-husband who produced her big show "Liza's Back" in 2002.

After this success, the world was again made aware of Minnelli's entertainment capabilities and she kept on touring the world and had offers coming from several fields in the business. She had once again all doors open to her, the only thing that seems to escape her is another big movie role, with her last big mark on the silver screen being in 1981 in the comedy Arthur.

In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring character on the critically acclaimed TV sitcom Arrested Development as Lucille Austero, the lover of sexually and socially awkward Buster Bluth and also the lover of Buster's brother GOB Bluth.

In September 2006, she made a guest appearance on the long-running NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The episode, written by Gina Gionfriddo, had a Halloween theme and was broadcast on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.[5] She also completed guest vocals on My Chemical Romance's 2006 concept album The Black Parade, portraying "Mother War," a dark conception of the main character's mother, in the song "Mama".

Her latest project is the imminent release of a collection of songs that her godmother Kay Thompson originated. In 2007 she has added the songs to her latest tour to introduce them to audiences.

It has recently been announced that once she has completed the collection of songs that Kay Thompson originated and also her tour, she will begin filming Katie's Blues, which she is in negotiations with the writers of the movie musical Chicago in writing the script. Liza will write, produce and star in the film.

Minnelli had several notable public performances of her signature song, "New York, New York", some of them are:

  • At the 1978 Studio 54 party honoring New York City's revival, at which a guest was Mayor Ed Koch;
  • The reopening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 1986;
  • As a duet with Luciano Pavarotti at the 1996 "Pavarotti & Friends" concert in Modena, Italy.
  • At a 2001 New York Mets baseball game that was the metro area's first major sporting event after the September 11 attacks;
  • At the age of 60, for the "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular" televised live, and nationally on NBC on July 4, 2006, she performed the song and received an ovation.

Minnelli's appearance in The Sterile Cuckoo garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination.

In 1973, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the movie released in 1972, Cabaret.

She also won an Emmy Award for the 1972 TV special Liza with a 'Z', a 1989 Grammy Legend Award, and Golden Globe Awards for both Cabaret and the 1985 TV movie A Time to Live.

She has received three Tony Awards to date: a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical in 1965 for "Flora the Red Menace" (and for it still holds the record as the youngest person to receive a Tony for lead in a musical), a special Tony in 1974 for her concert engagement at NY's Winter Garden, and a second Tony, for The Act in 1978. She was nominated in 1984 for The Rink but lost to her costar, Chita Rivera.

Minnelli has one Oscar and Emmy, three Tony Awards, along with a special Grammy. She has the distinction of being one of the few Academy Award winners whose parents were both Academy Award nominees, and she is the only winner of that award whose parents were both winners of it as well.

Minnelli and Joel Grey in the 1972 film Cabaret.
Minnelli and Joel Grey in the 1972 film Cabaret.

Minnelli's work in Cabaret molded her popular image; the black helmet of hair, huge eyes and extravagant eyelashes have remained her visual trademarks. The perception among many is that she embodies the same characteristics she portrayed as Sally Bowles's that is a combination of fragility, determination, detachment from reality and hunger for affection. During the Eighties she softened her image and has kept it ever since. Today, still looking youthful[citation needed], albeit with fluctuating weight and in spite of suffering severe health problems including having had both hips replaced and other surgeries and stints in rehab, her energetic performing style has not altered over 40 years[citation needed]. She stated herself she will keep on doing what she does best as long as her body allows her to. Her exuberance[citation needed] remains evident in her public appearances[citation needed], most recently displayed in her interview session filmed for “Inside the Actor’s Studio” in which she provided insight into her career and style. Her later image is notable for big eyebrows, which has become something of a signature look for her, as much as the black helmet hair was in the 1970s.

Year Film Role Other notes
1949 In the Good Old Summertime Baby uncredited
1954 The Long, Long Trailer scenes deleted
1967 Charlie Bubbles Eliza
1969 The Sterile Cuckoo 'Pookie' (Mary Ann) Adams Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress;
Nominated - BAFTA Award; Nominated - Golden Globe
1970 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Junie Moon
1972 Cabaret Sally Bowles Academy Award for Best Actress; BAFTA Award; Golden Globe
1974 Just One More Time Herself uncredited (short subject)
That's Entertainment! Herself (narrator)
Journey Back to Oz Dorothy voice
1975 Lucky Lady Claire Nominated - Golden Globe
1976 Silent Movie Herself
A Matter of Time Nina
1977 New York, New York Francine Evans Nominated - Golden Globe
1981 Arthur Linda Marolla Nominated - Golden Globe
1983 The King of Comedy Herself appears in gag cardboard cutout
1984 The Muppets Take Manhattan Herself
1985 That's Dancing! Herself - Host
1987 Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night voice
Rent-A-Cop Della Roberts
1988 Arthur 2: On the Rocks Linda Marolla Bach
1991 Stepping Out Mavis Turner
1994 A Century of Cinema Herself documentary
1995 Unzipped Herself - uncredited documentary
2006 The OH in Ohio Alyssa Donahue
Upcoming: 2008 Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age Herself documentary
Katie's Blues

  • Best Foot Forward (1963) (Original Cast Recording)
  • Liza! Liza! (1964) US #115
  • Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli Live at the London Palladium (1965) US #41
  • Flora the Red Menace (1965) (Original Cast Recording) US #111
  • It Amazes Me (1965)
  • There Is a Time (1966)
  • The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1966) (soundtrack)
  • Liza Minnelli (1968)
  • Come Saturday Morning (1969)
  • New Feelin' (1970) US #158
  • Liza Minnelli: Live at the Olympia in Paris (1972, recorded in December 1969)
  • Cabaret (1972) (soundtrack) US #25 UK #13
  • Liza with a 'Z' (1972) (soundtrack) US #19 UK #9
  • The Singer (1973) US #38 UK #45
  • Liza Minnelli: Live at the Winter Garden (1974) US #150
  • Lucky Lady (1975) (soundtrack)
  • A Matter of Time (1976) (soundtrack)
  • New York, New York (1977) (soundtrack) US #50
  • Tropical Nights (1977)
  • The Act (1978) (Original Cast Recording)
  • Live at Carnegie Hall (1981)
  • The Rink (1984) (Original Cast Recording)
  • Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall (1987) US #156
  • Results (1989) US #128 UK #6, produced by Pet Shop Boys
  • Larlo My Love ([1990]) US
  • Stepping Out (1991) (soundtrack)
  • Liza: Live from Radio City Music Hall (1992)
  • Aznavour Minnelli: Paris, Palais des Congrès (1995)
  • Music from The Life: A New Musical (1995) (concept cast album, is featured on "Use What You Got", "We Had a Dream", and "People Magazine")
  • Gently (1996) US #156 UK #58
  • Minnelli on Minnelli: Live at the Palace (1999)
  • Liza's Back (2002)
  • The God-Mother and The God-Daughter (TBC, 2007)
  • Liza Minnelli was featured on the album The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. She played the part of Mother War in the song "Mama".

  • "You Are For Loving" (1963, has reportedly sold 500 000 copies, but never charted)
  • "(Theme From) New York, New York" (US #104, 1977, became a worldwide classic and signature song)
  • "Losing My Mind" (UK #6, August 1989) (#11 on US Dance chart)
  • "Don't Drop Bombs" (UK #46, October 1989)
  • "So Sorry, I Said" (UK #62, November 1989)
  • "Love Pains" (UK #41, March 1990) (#40 on US dance chart)

During the early days of Television in the 1950s Liza appeared as a child guest on Art Linkletter's show and in 1959 sang and danced with Gene Kelly on his first television special. She was a guest star in one episode of the popular Ben Casey television series starring Vince Edwards and was a frequent guest on chat shows of the day including numerous appearances on shows hosted by Jack Parr, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Joe Franklin, Dinah Shore and Johnny Carson. During the 1960s she made several guest appearances on Laugh In as well as other variety shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, as well as The Judy Garland Show. Recently, Minnelli has made guest appearances on such shows as Arrested Development and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the UK she has appeared on the Ruby Wax, Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross shows and in October 2006 participated in a comedy skit on the Charlotte Church Show and was featured on the Michael Parkinson Show.

  • Judy and Liza at the Palladium (1964)
  • The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)
  • The Carol Burnett Show" 1967 & 1968
  • Liza with a 'Z' (1972)
  • The Muppet Show 1979
  • Goldie and Liza Together (1980)
  • Baryshnikov on Broadway (1980)
  • Faerie Tale Theater: The Princess And The Pea (1983)
  • A Time to Live (1985)

Preceded by
Johnny Carson
54th Academy Awards		 Oscars host
55th Academy Awards (with Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor, and Walter Matthau)		 Succeeded by
Johnny Carson
56th Academy Awards
Awards
Preceded by
Jane Fonda
for Klute		 Academy Award for Best Actress
1972
for Cabaret		 Succeeded by
Glenda Jackson
for A Touch of Class
Preceded by
Carol Channing
in Hello, Dolly!		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1965
for Flora the Red Menace		 Succeeded by
Angela Lansbury
in Mame
Preceded by
Dorothy Loudon
in Annie		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1978
for The Act		 Succeeded by
Angela Lansbury
in Sweeney Todd

  1. ^ a b A Star is Reborn 14 June 2003
  2. ^ Top Story: Minnelli Visits Rehab Again March 21, 2003
  3. ^ Liza Minnelli: The fully story of Hollywood's dirtiest divorce 8 September 2006
  4. ^ Deal, Stephen. Gest: Liza Minnelli 'had herpes' . thisislondon.co.uk. 5 September 2006.
  5. ^ Minnelli to guest star on 'Law & Order' October 1, 2006
  • Schechter, Scott. The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook. Citadel Press / Kensington Publishing Corp. 2004.

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