orn
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
(2002-2003) Parents
Vincente Minnelli
(1903-1986)
Judy Garland
(1922-1969)
iza 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 two of her records have been certified gold.
Biography
Minnelli is from a
well-known artistic family; her maternal lineage had
entertainers in the family going back six
generations.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 Mama ... 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.
She has also been
portrayed in the Australian musical
The Boy From Oz
starring
Hugh Jackman.
On Broadway, she was portrayed by Broadway star
Stephanie J. Block.
The show received four Tony nominations.
Public life
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.[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.
Marriages
Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times;
her husbands have been:
-
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.
-
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.
-
Mark Gero
(December
4,
1979–1992), a sculptor and stage manager
-
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.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.
Career
Theatre
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.
Film
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.
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.
Later
career
Minnelli's career has
been known to be filled with highs and lows, both
personal and professional, but 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[citation
needed]
record-breaking[citation
needed]
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"[citation
needed].
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.
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.
Masquerade, the Halloween-themed episode, was
written by Gina Gionfriddo and 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.
Signature
song
Minnelli had several notable public performances of
her signature song, "New York, New York", some of
them are:
