Background

Ethnicity: Liza Minnelli is of Sicilian, French-Canadian, English, Irish and Scottish descent.

Liza Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, actress Judy Garland, was a famous performer and occasionally included Minnelli in her performances. Her father Vincente Minnelli was also well known in Hollywood for his work as a director. Her parents named her after Ira Gershwin's song "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)". Her parents divorced in 1951 and Minnelli divided her time between her parents. Her mother married producer Sid Luft in 1952, and Minnelli soon was a big sister to half-siblings Lorna (born in 1952) and Joey (born in 1955). In the 1950s, her father married again and had a daughter, Christiana Nina, with his second wife Georgette Magnani. Minnelli remained close to her father throughout the rest of his life. Minnelli's godparents were Kay Thompson and her husband William Spier.

Liza grew up in the shadow of the studios, visiting her parents on sound stages, absorbing the details of the film-making process. She was particularly interested in dancers such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, whom she watched rehearse for hours, and at an early age, she was given dance lessons by MGM choreographer Nico Charisse. By the time she was three, Liza had appeared in one of her mother’s films, In the Good Old Summertime, and at age eight she danced on stage in New York as a backup to her mother singing “Swanee.” Although Vincente Minnelli and Garland were divorced in 1951, both would play key roles in Minnelli’s artistic development, as she acknowledged in a New York Times interview, “I got my drive from my mother and my dreams from my father.” Minnelli idolized her father and was in return, by his own admission, spoiled by him "outrageously."

Minnelli had a difficult relationship with her mother over the years as Minnelli tried to care for Garland who suffered from an addiction to pills and from depression. If Minnelli’s upbringing was glamorous, it had a dark side as well. Judy Garland’s later years were marked by addictions to tranquilizers and alcohol, illnesses, and episodes of emotional instability resulting in a series of failed marriages and strained relationships with everyone close to her. As a child, Minnelli dealt with her mother's repeated suicide threats and attempts, as well as her increasing alcohol and drug problems. Almost from infancy, Minnelli was pressed into service as her mother’s confidante, and by the time she was a teenager she was managing her mother’s household, paying bills, hiring staff, and supporting Garland through her mental crises. For all that, a strong emotional bond linked the mother and daughter, and to this day Minnelli remembers Garland with a fondness for her supportiveness and her efforts to encourage Liza’s artistic development. Perhaps Garland’s greatest legacy to Minnelli was her voice. Liza inherited many of Garland’s mannerisms and vocal effects.

Education

Minnelli discovered her love for acting during her brief attendance at New York's High School of the Performing Arts, followed by a stint working in summer stock productions. Minnelli did not graduate from high school and never completed any kind of formal education; instead, she moved to New York City in early 1963 to make her way as a stage actress.

Career

Minnelli made her film debut as a toddler in the musical comedy In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which starred her mother and Van Johnson. While she made other appearances in her mother’s concert productions, Minnelli's career in entertainment did not start in earnest until later.

As a teenager, initially intending to become an ice-skater, Minnelli gave up on school and went to New York City to pursue a stage career. She landed a role in the off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward in 1963, which brought her strong reviews. Her success in that role brought her appearances on a number of television shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show, and brought her to the attention of a wider public. For her 1963 TV debut on The Jack Parr Show, Minnelli was introduced by the name “Yduj Dnalrag.” After her performance, it was revealed that she was Judy Garland’s daughter, and her on-screen name was merely “Judy Garland” spelled backwards. After a brief illness, Minnelli accepted a touring role with Carnival and several months later appeared in The Fantasticks. Around this time, Minnelli also appeared on her mother's short-lived television series, The Judy Garland Show.

Minnelli released her first album, Liza! Liza!, in 1964. The most prominent step in Minnelli’s developing career, however, was when she appeared on stage with Judy Garland at the London Palladium on November 8, 1964. Overwhelmed by the thought of having to sing alongside a living legend, who also happened to be her mother, Minnelli was at first terrified, but her talent quickly asserted itself and she proved more than equal to the occasion.

In 1965, at age 19, Minnelli starred as the title character in Flora, the Red Menace, the first musical by the songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. The show ran for only 87 performances, but Minnelli’s performance won her a Tony Award for best actress in a musical, and she remained the youngest winner of this award into the 21st century. Her association with Kander and Ebb had begun in 1964 when she was preparing to make her first recording, and the duo would supply Minnelli with all of her best-known arrangements and special material for the next 40 years.

Within two months of the closing of Flora, Minnelli began her first solo tour. Like her mother, she drew a strong audience response, and her own comfort with the concert stage was equally clear. She rejected initial overtures to act in movies but finally accepted a small role as Albert Finney’s secretary in Charlie Bubbles (1968). The following year, playing an offbeat misfit named Pookie, she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her work in the 1969 film The Sterile Cuckoo. During the production of her next film, Otto Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1969), Minnelli suffered a great loss. Her mother died from an accidental drug overdose on June 22, 1969.

Two years later, Minnelli landed her greatest film role, playing floundering nightclub singer Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret (1972), which was set in Germany in the 1930s. The film, directed by Bob Fosse, showcased her singing talents as well as her range as an actress. For her efforts, Minnelli won the Academy Award for Best Actress. As the “divinely decadent” Sally Bowles, Minnelli created a sensation. She became the first performer to appear on the covers of the newsmagazines Time and Newsweek in the same week. The film won eight awards in total, including a Best Supporting Actor award for Joel Grey and Best Director for Fosse. Minnelli’s hot streak continued with the television special, Liza with a Z, which was produced by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Program - Variety and Popular Music in 1973.

In early 1974, Minnelli returned to Broadway with the opening of her one-woman show, Liza at the Winter Garden. Although the show had only a three-week run, it was quite successful and won Minnelli her second Tony award. At this point in her career, Minnelli was deemed one of only two “bankable” female movie stars in Hollywood (the other being Barbra Streisand), but she returned to live concert work. When she did return to film acting, the projects did not prove to match her earlier success. The huge budget demands for Lucky Lady (1975) cut deeply into profits, and A Matter of Time (1976) - the last movie directed by her father - fell victim to studio tampering. The musical New York, New York (1977) gave her a chance to work with famed director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro. Despite the stellar cast and crew, the film bombed at the box office and received mostly negative reviews. Although it lost money at the box office, the film did provide Minnelli with two trademark songs, “Theme from New York, New York” and “But the World Goes ’Round.”

Again working with Scorsese, Minnelli returned to Broadway in The Act in 1977. She played a washed-up singer trying to revive her musical career. Giving an outstanding performance, Minnelli netted her third Tony Award. But when her yearlong contract was up, Minnelli returned to her concert schedule. Her tour was immensely successful, foreshadowing a critical and commercial hit at New York City's Carnegie Hall the following September, Liza in Concert. Her recording awards included three Gold Records (Results and the Cabaret and Liza with a ‘Z’ soundtracks). A few years later, she had another success on the big screen with the romantic comedy Arthur (1981). Minnelli co-starred with Dudley Moore as a waitress who falls in love with a wealthy, but often inebriated man. In 1984, she performed in the Broadway musical The Rink, a drama that garnered Minnelli another Tony nomination.

By the mid-1980s, Minnelli was ready to tackle her own problems with drugs and alcohol. She went to the Betty Ford Clinic for rehabilitation. After getting sober, Minnelli toured extensively and acted in several forgettable films. In 1986, Minnelli lost her father who died of heart failure. She participated in the critically acclaimed documentary, Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente, the following year, which received several Emmy Award nominations. Around this time, she teamed up Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. for a world tour called The Ultimate Event. In early 1987, Minnelli went to Rome to film another movie with Burt Reynolds, Rent a Cop. That May, she opened a three-week engagement at Carnegie Hall, the longest continuous engagement by a solo performer in the Carnegie's history. The performances were captured in an album, Liza at Carnegie Hall, released in September.

Rent a Cop was released to disappointing reviews in January 1988; Minnelli, however, found success in the spring with a television drama called Sam Found Out: A Triple Play. A sequel to Arthur opened in the summer 1988 to mixed reviews. That fall, Minnelli set out on the road with Sammy Davis, Jr., and Frank Sinatra, in what was dubbed the Rat Pack Tour. While the tour was visiting London in April 1989, Minnelli met with the pop group the Pet Shop Boys and recorded a dance version of Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind." This unlikely pairing made for a hit record, Minnelli's first pop success, charting on the Billboard dance charts.

Minnelli continued a steady stream of work, entertaining audiences across America, and in 1990 she received the Grammy Legend Award; completing her collection of major entertainment honors. By the end of the year, however, Minnelli's marriage had again faltered. She and Gero again separated, this time for good. In April 1991, Minnelli debuted a new show at Radio City Music Hall that was so successful that she took it on an extensive American tour. Toward the end of 1991, Minnelli premiered a new film, Stepping Out, which received very little attention and was shown in only a few theaters.

Throughout the 1990s Minnelli continued to appear on stage and screen. Minnelli filled in for Julie Andrews in the 1997 revival of musical Victor/Victoria, as well as appearing in many television specials including Broadway revival The West Side Waltz. In 1999, Minnelli developed a one-woman Broadway tribute to her father, Minnelli on Minnelli, a great success. Otherwise, however, during the late 1990s, Minnelli was primarily out of the limelight battling health problems. In 1997, Minnelli had hip replacement surgery; she would undergo the surgery again in 2001. She additionally had a knee replacement and a dangerous bout with viral encephalitis in 2000.

In 2000, doctors thought Minnelli would never walk or speak again after she contracts a serious case of viral encephalitis. Miraculously - and after an intense dance and vocal therapy - she made a full recovery by 2001. She made her return at Michael Jackson’s 30th-anniversary special, where she sang “Never Never Land” and declared “I am as stable as a table.”

In March 2002, Minnelli returned to the spotlight with her marriage to producer David Gest. Later that year, Gest helped orchestrate Minnelli's stage comeback and a follow-up album, Liza's Back! However, the remarkably rocky union served as tabloid fodder and ended in separation after only 16 months. After their separation, Gest famously claimed Minnelli had beaten him, although the charges were later dropped. In 2003, Minnelli began a recurring guest role on critically acclaimed comedy series Arrested Development, her most public role in several years.

In September 2006, Minnelli made a guest appearance on the long-running drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent in "Masquerade", a Halloween-themed episode, broadcast on October 31, 2006. Minnelli 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". Minnelli returned to Broadway in a new solo concert at the Palace Theatre titled Liza's at The Palace...!, which ran from December 3, 2008, through January 4, 2009. In her second act, she performed a series of numbers created by Kay Thompson. The reviews noted that, while her voice was ragged at times, and her movements no longer elastic, the old magic was still very much present. The show then was staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas from September 30 to October 1, 2009, at which time it was filmed for broadcast on public television and a February 2010 DVD and Blu-ray release. On January 10, 2009, Minnelli made a rare live TV appearance in a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, playing the best friend of Penelope (Kristen Wiig). On January 26, 2009, she made an appearance on The View, singing "I Would Never Leave You" (written by Johnny Rodgers, Billy Stritch, and Brian Lane Green) from her CD Liza's at The Palace...!. She also was interviewed by the cast of The View.

Minnelli was a character in the Australian musical The Boy from Oz (a biography of her first husband) starring Hugh Jackman. In the show's Broadway production, she was portrayed by Stephanie J. Block. In October 2009, Minnelli toured Australia and appeared on Australian Idol as a mentor and guest judge. In February 2010, Minnelli appeared in a Snickers commercial along with Aretha Franklin and Betty White. Minnelli made a cameo appearance in the May 2010 release of Sex and the City 2, in which she covered Beyoncé's hit Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) and Cole Porter's Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye. She made a starring appearance in December 2010 in The Apprentice. Also in 2010, Minnelli released an album of a number of American standards "unplugged" with longtime collaborator Billy Stritch, showing a sultrier and softer, more interpretive side to her artistry. The songs are said to have been recorded several years prior and later released as the album Confessions.

On June 14, 2012, Minnelli headlined at Hampton Court Palace Festival. On May 9, 2014, Minnelli had a guest appearance on Cher's Dressed to Kill Tour in Brooklyn, performing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" with Cyndi Lauper and Rosie O'Donnell. On July 24, 2015, Minnelli performed at the IP Casino Resort & Spa, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the closing of Flora the Red Menace.

Achievements

• 

  While the musical Flora, the Red Menace only ran for a few weeks, it brought Minnelli a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She was only 19 at the time, making her one of the youngest performers to ever win the award. In 1990, she was awarded the first Grammy Legend Awards along with three others. Liza Minnelli is part of the elite “EGOT” circle - a collection of entertainers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony over the course of the careers. In 2000, Minnelli was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
  
  In 1991, Minnelli received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for live theatre. It is located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
  
  

Works

More photos

• misic

  • There Is A Time 1966

• movie

  • Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon

    (The story of three wildly neurotic characters: A facially...)

    1970
  • Cabaret

    (Liza Minnelli stars in this musical extravaganza set in a...)

    1972
  • Arthur 2: On The Rocks

    (Dudley Moore and Oscar-winners Liza Minnelli and Sir John...)

    1988
  • Stepping Out

    (Stepping Out is a 1991 musical-comedy film directed by Le...)

    1991
  • Journey Back to Oz

    (Dorothy and Toto travel back to the land of Oz where they...)

    1972
  • Arthur

    (Dudley Moore is hilarious as a drunken playboy who decide...)

    1981
  • Rent-A-Copo

    (A crusty Chicago cop is forced to turn in his badge when ...)

    1988
  • Sterile Cuckoo

    (In this romantic comedy, an eccentric girl forces a colle...)

    1969

• music

  • It Amazes Me 1965
  • Liza Minnelli 1968
  • Come Saturday Morning 1969
  • New Feelin' 1970
  • The Singer 1973
  • Tropical Nights 1977
  • Results 1989
  • Gently 1996
  • Confessions 2010

• TV series

  • Arrested Development

    (Meet the suddenly penniless, and equally clueless, Bluth ...)

    2003

Views

Throughout her lifetime, Minnelli has served on various charities and causes. She served on the board of directors of The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) for 20 years, a nonprofit educational organization that introduces parents to the field of child brain development. In a 2006 interview with Randy Rice at Broadwayworld.com, Minnelli said that she was the person who told Elizabeth Taylor about HIV/AIDS while talking about their mutual friend Rock Hudson. She has also dedicated much time to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which was co-founded by Taylor. In 2007, she stated in an interview with Palm Springs Life: "AmfAR is important to me because I've lost so many friends that I knew [to AIDS]". In 1994, she recorded the Kander & Ebb tune "The Day After That" and donated the proceeds to AIDS research. The same year, she performed the song in front of thousands in Central Park at the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Like her mother, Liza Minnelli is a beloved icon in the LGTBQ community. Just as Judy Garland was declared “the Elvis of homosexuals” of her day by The Advocate, Minnelli made Out magazine’s 2014 list of “12 Greatest Female Gay Icons of All Time.”

Quotations: "It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland's daughter. I had tremendously interesting childhood years - except they had little to do with being a child."

"I'm not a very good singer. I just know how to present a song, and honey, I think I've been through enough to do it right."

"It's a waste of time to think about what I should have done and what I didn't. I really believe in that. That's how I react to the if-only of life. To moan and groan about something I shouldn't have done, could have done, might have done... who knows? It is what it is. You got what you got. I live my life one day at a time."

"I'm always looking at the next thing. I'm too curious to look back... it's very hard to be unhappy when you're curious and grateful. You're busy. You don't have time to be unhappy. My biggest talent is I know who is more talented than I am. I find them and I go to them, and I learn."

Membership

• American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

• Actors' Equity Association

• Actors Guild

Personality

In spite of her continued success, or perhaps because of it, Minnelli’s personal life began to go out of control. Part of a sophisticated, fast-living crowd in the seventies and early eighties, Minnelli, in a haunting parallel to her mother, developed addictions to alcohol and several different types of drugs, particularly Valium. Gradually she became more and more withdrawn and began to miss concert dates until, in 1984, she entered the Betty Ford Center for detoxification treatment. Several months’ intensive therapy cured her of her drug habit and Minnelli emerged from the Center feeling renewed.

Not long after her fourth divorce (which also ended in lawsuits), Liza Minnelli was sued by her former chauffer for sexual abuse, battery, personal injury, and other breaches of contract. The driver alleged that Minnelli coerced him into sexual relations under threat of termination. Minnelli counter-sued for defamation.

Physical Characteristics: By the year 2000, Liza Minnelli began to suffer from serious health issues. Liza was diagnosed with an extreme case of viral encephalitis, her doctors expected her to be wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life, and that she would completely lose the ability to speak. But Liza astounded the medical experts by her determination to beat the debilitating effects of the illness, taking dancing lessons and vocal training daily in order to eventually make a miraculous recovery. She made her comeback performance at the request of her long-time great friend and fellow superstar Michael Jackson, at Madison Square Garden at the ‘Michael Jackson 30th Anniversary Concert’ in 2001.

Liza Minnelli is no stranger to joint replacement surgery. Having received previous two hip replacements, she also had a knee replacement in 2009 at age 64. Minnelli said about her height in 2013 "I know I was 5ft 5in then. From hip surgery, I'm 5ft 3in now".

Quotes from others about the person

• "I'm annoyed when people keep comparing her to her mother Judy Garland. She's nothing to do with her mother. She's a completely different woman. The film Cabaret is a great hit for her and that's all one wants." - Marlene Dietrich

Interests

• Music & Bands

  Adele, Michael Bublé, Pink, Lady GaGa

Connections

Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times. Her first marriage was to Peter Allen (full name Peter Richard Woolnough) on March 3, 1967, an Australian-born Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s. They divorced on July 24, 1974. Later that year, she married Jack Haley, Jr., a producer and director, on September 15, 1974. His father, Jack Haley, was Garland's co-star in The Wizard of Oz. They divorced in April 1979.

Minnelli’s third marriage was to stage manager and sculptor, Mark Gero. The two were married in December 1979 but divorced in 1992. At 13 years, this is her longest-lasting marriage. She was married to David Gest, a concert promoter, from March 16, 2002, until they divorced in April 2007. (They separated in July 2003.) In a 2003 lawsuit, Gest alleged that Minnelli beat him in alcohol-induced rages during their marriage. Minnelli's attorneys said Gest tried to isolate the singer from her three siblings-Christiane Minnelli, Lorna, and Joey Luft, and evict her step-mother Lee Anderson Minnelli from one of Minnelli's properties.

In spite of her many relationships, Minnelli has no children due to medical complications that left her with a hiatal hernia caused in trying to save the baby during her pregnancy.

Father:

Vincente Minnelli

Due to her mother's moodiness and increasing dependence on alcohol and pills, Minnelli developed a close relationship with her father, even as a toddler; when Garland and Vincente Minnelli divorced in early 1951, the custody agreement placed five-year-old Liza with each parent for part of the year.

Mother:

Judy Garland

Minnelli's parents divorced when she was five, and by age twelve Minnelli had become a caregiver to her fragile, unstable mother, managing the household and even purchasing a stomach pump as a precaution against Garland's many suicide attempts with pills. Minnelli tried her best to distance herself from her mother’s image. In fact, she refused to sing any of the late Garland’s trademark songs until recently, when she unveiled a 75th birthday tribute during a concert.

Friend:

Mia Farrow

Farrow and Minnelli were close friends since childhood.

ex-spouse:

Peter Allen

Minnelli’s first marriage to Peter Allen ended when he came out as gay in 1974. According to her, she was the last to know: “I married Peter, and he didn’t tell me he was gay. Everyone knew but me. And I found out … well, let me put it this way: I’ll never surprise anybody coming home as long as I live. I call first!” Nevertheless, the two stayed close friends until Allen’s 1992 passing.

ex-spouse:

Jack Haley, Jr.

ex-spouse:

Mark Gero

Minnelli suffered three miscarriages during this marriage, the first occurring just a week after their wedding in December 1979.

ex-spouse:

David Gest

Minnelli’s most recent marriage, to TV personality David Gest, was explosive. They were married for just a year before accused her of being violently abusive, citing her chronic alcoholism. In 2003, he launched a $10 million lawsuit against her. Minnelli would insist Gest only made up the accusations for money. Whatever the truth, the case was kicked out of court in 2006 for lack of evidence. Their wedding cost $ 3.5 million.

half-sister:

Christiane Nina Minnelli

Christiane Nina Minnelli is Liza's paternal half-sister.

half-sister:

Lorna Luft

Lorna Luft is Liza's maternal half-sister.

Half-brother:

Joey Luft

Joey Luft is Liza's maternal half-brother.

Godmother:

Kay Thompson

Eloise was a series of illustrated children’s books that Kay Thompson and illustrator Hilary Knight initially published in the 1950s. The series focused on a rich little girl who lived in the penthouse suite at the Plaza Hotel with her nanny, pet pug, and pet turtle. The franchise then spawned into several film adaptions and another book in the early aughts. As Kay Thompson was Liza’s godmother, some have speculated that the rambunctious Eloise was based on Minnelli.

Friend:

Michael Jackson

Liza Minnelli was good friends with Michael Jackson, who served as the best man at her (fourth) wedding to David Gest. After the marriage fell apart, she jokingly (we think) blamed Jackson for ever marrying him. To quote Minnelli, “I grabbed [Michael]… And I said, ‘Why did you let me marry this idiot?’ He said, ‘I thought you liked him! You look so happy. Your dress was so beautiful. I don’t know. Let me go!’ And I said, ‘Michael, how could you.’ He said, ‘It’s over, relax.’ Then we looked at each other and we started to laugh. We really started to laugh.”

Friend:

Freddie Mercury

Liza Minnelli was good friends with Queen singer Freddie Mercury. She performed with the surviving members of Queen at 1992 tribute concert, singing ‘We Are the Champions.”

colleague:

Mickey Rooney

colleague:

Milton Berle

godfather:

Ira Gershwin

Minnelli's parents named her after Ira Gershwin's song "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)".

colleague:

Robert De Niro

References

• Under the Rainbow: The Real Liza Minnelli The author of Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story recounts the singer's private life, including her conflicts with her mother, her dependency on drugs, her abortive marriage to Peter Allen, and her public sexual affair with Mikhail Baryshnikov.
  1996