Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-winning and Tony Award-winning American actress and singer. She is the daughter of legendary actress and singer Judy Garland and her second husband, film director Vincente Minnelli.

Biography

Childhood & early career

Minnelli is from a well-known artistic family; her maternal lineage had entertainers in the family going back six generations.[1] Her famous mother 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 a noted 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.

Minnelli started performing 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.

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."[2] 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.

Film appearances

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

She also appeared in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), as Pookie Adams, a needy, eccentric teenager. She played another eccentric character the following year in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.

In 1972, Minnelli appeared in perhaps her best-known film role, as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret. Minnelli's belting vocal style was featured in the song "Cabaret" from the film. Minnelli won a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award, and many other honors.

She finally got the chance to work with her father, legendary director Vincente Minnelli, in the 1976 fantasy-musical A Matter of Time, co-starring Ingrid Bergman. The film was neither a commercial nor a critical success.

Her appearance opposite Robert DeNiro in the 1977 film, New York, New York, gave Minnelli her 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.

Signature song

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

• 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;
• Michael Jackson's 30th Anniversary Concert;
• 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.

Awards and other recognition

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

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

Minnelli 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.

Minnelli 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.

Later career

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

• In 1989 she made a well-received pop album (Results) with English duo the Pet Shop Boys, which included a hit version of the Stephen Sondheim song "Losing My Mind".
• 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.
• 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, it was announced that Minnelli would be appearing on the long-running NBC drama Law & Order. The episode, written by Gina Gionfriddo, had a Halloween theme and was broadcast on Tuesday, October 31, 2006. [3]
• She provided 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.

Marriages and personal life

Minnelli has two half-siblings through her mother, sister Lorna Luft and brother Joe "Joey" Luft. Her half-siblings are a result of Garland's marriage to producer Sid Luft. She also has a half-sibling Tina Nina Minnelli through her father's second marriage.

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.

Minelli has no children. According to Lorna Luft's 1998 book, Me and My Shadows: Living with the Legacy of Judy Garland [4], and The Diaries of Andy Warhol, she had a miscarriage while five months pregnant during her marriage to Jack Haley, Jr. Rumors circulated after her marriage to Gest that she had adopted a child; the rumors stemmed in part from interviews in print, and on the Larry King Live television program, where she was quoted as saying she'd like to adopt a child and that she and Gest were "looking into it". However, no child was ever adopted. [5]

Legal challenges with David Gest

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. The divorce papers were filed in February 2007. Separation and subsequent divorce from Gest in 2003 has been fraught with controversy; the two had legal disputes, which were all settled in January 2007. Prior legal matters were either resolved or dismissed.

• Minnelli has accused Gest of trying to have sex with her in her sleep.
• Gest has claimed Ms. Minnelli did not make him aware she was not enjoying it, and that she had herpes simplex and sexually transmitted it to him. He also claims that she was violently abusive during alcoholic rages.[6]

In September 2006, a judge dismissed Gest's claims against Minnelli. [7]

Image

Minnelli's work in Cabaret molded her popular image, from the black helmet of hair and extravagant eyelashes that have remained her visual trademark to the perception among many that she shares Sally Bowles's combination of fragility and toughness, her hunger for affection, and her heedless detachment from the ordinary.

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 challenges numerous times. She nearly died from a bout of encephalitis in 2000 after one rehab visit. She entered rehab shortly before her marriage to Gest. [8] 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. [9]

Minnelli's performance style, fashion style, and connection with her mother's tragic legacy has brought her a large number of gay fans; she is often referred to as a gay icon.

Trivia

• Minnelli is named after the Gershwin song Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away), a song her mother frequently sang in concert.
• She has had 2 hip replacement surgeries and 3 knee surgeries.
• When Minnelli received the Grammy Legend Award she became part of a select group who have won entertainment's top four awards—the Academy Award, the Tony, the Emmy and the Grammy.
• Was briefly managed by KISS bassist Gene Simmons in the late 1980s.
• On September 30, 1991, Minnelli received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was honored for her career in theater. (Her star is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.)
• One of only three actresses, along with Faye Dunaway and Halle Berry, to win both the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Razzie Award for Worst Actress (Dunaway shared her award with Bo Derek).
• Her mother was pregnant with her while filming her guest starring role as dancer Marilyn Miller in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) (Garland's scenes were directed by none other than Vincente Minnelli). In order to hide her pregnant abdomen she was hidden behind stacks of dishes while singing "Look For The Silver Lining" (However, a small bump on Garland's stomach is visible while she is singing "Who (Stole My Heart Away)?"). She joked with Liza's godmother Kay Thompson, "What a song to sing in my present condition".
• In 2003–2004, she was a spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics, who even created a line of make-up colors 'inspired' by her.
• Minnelli was very close friends with her favorite fashion designer, the late Halston, who not only designed her outfits for her award-winning special Liza with a 'Z' but for other shows and events as well.
• In April 1992, she performed "We Are The Champions" with the surviving members of Queen as the last number of The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Mercury had admitted that Minnelli was a big influence on him.
• Liza Minnelli is featured in a song on My Chemical Romance's album The Black Parade. The song is called "Mama", and she represents the mother of the album's protagonist.
• She convinced Ed Bradley to get his ear pierced following an interview.
• Liza Minnelli is briefly referred to in a Daffyd sketch in Series One of Little Britain.
• Her godparents were Ira Gershwin and Kay Thompson.

Filmography

• In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
• The Long, Long Trailer (1954) (scenes deleted)
• Charlie Bubbles (1967)
• The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
• Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
• Cabaret (1972)
• Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
• That's Entertainment! (1974) (narrator)
• Journey Back to Oz (1974) (filmed in 1964)
• Lucky Lady (1975)
• Silent Movie (1976) (Cameo)
• A Matter of Time (1976)
• New York, New York (1977)
• Arthur (1981)
• The King of Comedy (1983) (appears in gag cardboard cutout)
• The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) (Cameo)
• That's Dancing! (1985) (narrator)
• Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) (voice)
• Rent-A-Cop (1987)
• Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988)
• Stepping Out (1991)
• The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1991)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
• The OH in Ohio (2006)
• "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" (2006)

Upcoming:

• Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age (2007) (documentary)

Music

Albums

• 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 ÙK #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 Black Parade (2006) (featured on the track "Mama")
• The God-Mother and The God-Daughter (ca. 2007)

Hit Singles

• "You Are For Loving" (1963, has reportedly sold 500 000 copies, but never charted)
• "(Theme From) New York, New York" (US #104, 1977)
• "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)

Television work

During the early days of Television in the 1950s Liza appeared as a child guest on the Art Linkletter Show and in 1958 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 : Jack Parr, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Joe Franklin and Johnny Carson shows. During the mid-60s she made several guest appearances on the popular comedy show Laugh In as well as other variety shows including Ed Sullivan.

• The Judy Garland Show 1963 (guest on 2 episodes)
• 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 Theatre The Princess and the Pea episode (1982)
• A Time to Live (1985)
• Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988)
• Frank, Liza, and Sammy: The Ultimate Event (1989)
• Liza Minnelli: Live from Radio City Music Hall (1993)
• Parallel Lives (1994)
• The West Side Waltz (1995)
• Jackie's Back! (1999) (Cameo)
• Arrested Development (2004)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006)

Stage productions

• Best Foot Forward (1963) (Off-Broadway)
• The Fantasticks (1964) (Tour)
• Carnival (1964) (Tour)
• Flora the Red Menace (1965) (Broadway)
• Liza, starring Liza Minnelli (1974) (one woman show, Broadway)
• Chicago (1975) (replacement for Gwen Verdon from Aug-Sep. 1975, Broadway)
• The Act (1977) (Broadway)
• Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? (1978) (Off Broadway} as Lillian Hellman
• The Owl and the Pussycat (1979) Martha Graham Ballet, London West End & Lincoln Centre , New york
• By Myself (1983) one woman show, Los Angeles and London
• The Rink (1984) (Broadway)
• Victor/Victoria (1997) (vacation replacement for Julie Andrews) (Broadway)
• Minnelli on Minnelli (1999) Broadway
• Liza's Back! (2002) Broadway

See also

• List of people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award

External link

• The Official Liza Minnelli website

References

Template:Commons

• Liza Minnelli at the Internet Movie Database
• Liza Minnelli at Yahoo! Movies
• The Liza Minnelli Rules Website
• Genealogy
• Liza Online (UK fan site)
• Liza Minnelli (Official site)
• Liza May Minnelli (European fanclub)
• Liza Minnelli at the Notable Names Database
• The Muppet Show - Liza Minnelli episode
• Biography (Career study) : "The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook" by Scott Schechter, 2004, Citadel Press / Kensington Publishing Corp.

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