Best Known As: Sally Bowles in the 1972 film Cabaret
Liza Minnelli is the daughter of actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli. Like her mother, Minnelli became known as a song-and-dance trouper of stage and screen; she won a Tony award for 1965's Flora, the Red Menace and an Oscar for playing Sally Bowles in the 1972 film Cabaret. Her 1972 TV special Liza With a 'Z' (directed by Bob Fosse) won an Emmy. She also starred opposite Dudley Moore in the successful romantic comedy Arthur (1981). In the 1980s and 1990s Minnelli was especially known for her live revues, including shows with Frank Sinatra and his latter-day Rat Pack. She struggled with her health, having a hip replaced in 1994 and suffering through well-publicized battles with alcohol and pills, but bounced back into the public eye just as often. Her many comebacks included a 2008 Broadway run titled Liza's At the Palace. Her other films include The Sterile Cuckoo (1969, directed by Alan Pakula) and New York, New York (1977, with Robert DeNiro). She also had a recurring role on the sitcom Arrested Development (2003-05).
Minnelli married her fourth husband, producer David Gest, on 16 March 2002 in New York City; singer Michael Jackson was the best man, and the 14 matrons of honor included Elizabeth Taylor, Petula Clark and Gina Lollobrigida. Minnelli and Gest separated in July 2003 and later divorced; Gest sued her for $10 million, claiming she had abused him physically during their marriage... Minnelli's first husband (1967-72) was entertainer Peter Allen... She was also married from 1974-79 to Jack Haley, Jr., the son of actor Jack Haley (who played the Tin Man opposite Minnelli's mother in The Wizard of Oz), and to sculptor Mark Gero (1979-92).
Minnelli, Liza [May] (b. 1946), singer and actress. The daughter of Vincente Minnelli and film star Judy Garland, she was born in Los Angeles and made her New York debut in a 1963 Off‐Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward. She later starred as the naive artist Flora in Flora, the Red Menace (1965), the Las Vegas entertainer Michele Craig in The Act (1977), and the estranged daughter Angel in The Rink (1984). The film and recording star has also appeared on Broadway in concerts and as replacements during the runs of Chicago and Victor/Victoria. Widely popular, Minnelli exudes a sense of intimacy and vulnerability even in the largest venues.
Liza Minnelli (born 1946), actress, singer and entertainer, came from a show business family to achieve success on her own merits. She is one of few entertainers to have won at least one Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award. Although she is often identified with her tabloid-ready battles with drugs, alcohol, and stormy love matches, Minnelli stands as one of the most respected entertainers of the last half of the twentieth century.
A Child of Fame
Minnelli was born March 12, 1946, in Los Angeles, California, to famed actress Judy Garland and her second husband, film director Vincente Minnelli. A part of the entertainment world from birth, Minnelli made her film debut in a 1949 Garland picture, In the Good Old Summertime. 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. As Wendy Leigh notes in Liza: Born a Star, "although [Garland and Minnelli] were divorcing one another, they definitely were not divorcing Liza."
Minnelli idolized her father and was in return, by his own admission, spoiled by him "outrageously." Garland's relationship with her daughter, although loving, was not as close; she remarried in 1952, to producer Sidney Luft, and was often caught up in her own substance abuse and mental problems. As a child, Minnelli dealt with her mother's repeated suicide threats and attempts, as well as her increasing alcohol and drug problems. Vincente Minnelli's two remarriages and the birth of another Minnelli daughter caused Liza Minnelli a great deal of jealousy; however, she remained a committed "daddy's girl."
Began a Career
Adolescence brought Minnelli's first genuine forays into performing. She discovered 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. Her first show, Best Foot Forward, debuted on April 2, 1963. After a brief illness, Minnelli accepted a touring role with Carnival and several months later appeared in The Fantastics.
Minnelli released her first album, Liza! Liza!, in 1964. Later that year, she shared the stage of the London Palladium with her mother. After the show, Minnelli met a protégé of Garland's named Peter Allen; within weeks, the two were engaged. Minnelli landed the lead role in the Broadway musical Flora, the Red Menace, in early 1965. Although the show itself received mixed reviews, Minnelli was a great success, becoming the youngest performer to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. After her Broadway show closed, Minnelli set out in September 1965 on a nightclub tour.
In late 1966, Minnelli traveled to Manchester, England to shoot her first film, Charlie Bubbles. By March 1967, she had returned to New York City where she married Peter Allen in a private ceremony. The following year brought Minnelli a starring role in Alan J. Pakula's film The Sterile Cuckoo. The film's 1969 release garnered Minnelli good reviews from critics and an Oscar nomination. For all the success of the year, however, Minnelli also experienced personal losses: her mother, Judy Garland, died on June 22, 1969, from an accidental overdose of barbiturates; and her marriage steadily weakened, culminating in a formal separation in April 1970.
Award-Winning Performances
In 1971, Minnelli traveled to Berlin to film the role of Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse's film-version of the musical Cabaret. Released in February 1972, the highly successful movie cemented Minnelli's reputation as a performer; indeed, Leigh comments that "just as Judy [Garland] had reached the pinnacle far too soon with The Wizard of Oz, so it would transpire, did Liza with Cabaret." Later that year, Minnelli taped a television special called Liza with a Z. Both Cabaret and Liza with a Z garnered Minnelli honors; Cabaret, a Best Actress Academy Award as well as a Golden Globe Award; and Liza with a Z, an Emmy Award. However, despite professional successes, Minnelli's personal life remained tumultuous. Her divorce from Peter Allen became final in 1972. By this time, Minnelli had been publicly connected to several high-profile men, most notably Desi Arnaz, Jr., to whom she was engaged for some time, and British actor Peter Sellers.
In early 1974, Minnelli returned to Broadway with the opening of her one-women 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. Later that year, Minnelli met Jack Haley, Jr. - the son of the actor who had played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz - while narrating part of Haley's documentary film, That's Entertainment. In September of that year, the two wed in Los Angeles. After their honeymoon, Minnelli resumed her hectic work schedule. Spring 1975 found her in Mexico for the filming of the comedy Lucky Lady. In late summer, Minnelli returned to New York City for five weeks to fill the role of Roxie Hart in the Broadway musical Chicago. By the end of the year, Minnelli was back in Europe, this time working with her director father on what would be his final film, A Matter of Time. Both Lucky Lady and A Matter of Time were critical and commercial failures.
Personal Turmoil in Public
Minnelli continued to work steadily, however. In 1976, she filmed the Martin Scorsese musical New York, New York, starring opposite Robert DeNiro. By the time the film was released, the press had latched onto the rumors of cocaine use on the set, helping to dampen the already lukewarm reception for the movie. Scorsese and Minnelli continued to work together despite the relative failure of New York, New York, with Scorsese directing Minnelli in his first-ever stage production, The Act. Although never a great critical success, The Act ran for several months in New York City (October 1977 - July 1978) and won Minnelli her third and final Tony Award.
Minnelli's personal battle with illegal drugs continued, particularly as she became a regular at famed New York City disco Studio 54. Along with close friend and fashion designer Halston, Minnelli frequented the club nearly every night. During this time, Minnelli continued to perform nightly while staying out until dawn at Studio 54 or other nightclubs. This lifestyle took its toll on her health, causing Minnelli to miss increasing numbers of performances in early 1978 as well as take weeks off from the show to recuperate from a viral infection. In February 1978 Minnelli and husband Jack Haley, Jr., officially separated, although they did not divorce until December of that year.
The Act closed in July 1978 and Minnelli went back on the road; with her as stage manager went Mark Gero, the man who would become Minnelli's third husband. Her tour was immensely successful, foreshadowing a critical and commercial hit at New York City's Carnegie Hall the following September, Liza in Concert. In December 1979, Minnelli and Gero married; less than a week after the wedding, Minnelli suffered a miscarriage. After her recovery, she resumed working steadily, returning to television with a 1980 special, Goldie and Liza Together, which featured comedienne Goldie Hawn. Leigh noted that at this time Minnelli's "heart was still set on achieving cinematic success and reliving her Cabaret glory days." To further this goal, she accepted a role in the comedy Arthur. By summer 1981, another album, Liza in Concert, had been released to critical acclaim and Arthur was proving to be Minnelli's first film success in nearly a decade.
Rehabilitation and Reconciliation
Through the early 1980's, Minnelli continued to tour and perform around the world. Her hectic, party-fueled lifestyle had calmed down, although rumors regarding heavy drug use and marital infidelity continued to plague her. In 1984, she performed in the Broadway musical The Rink, a drama that garnered Minnelli another Tony nomination. However, Minnelli's personal life was again on the rocks. Minnelli and Gero had separated and in July 1984 she checked herself into the Betty Ford Clinic, for seven weeks, hoping to break herself of her dependency on drugs and alcohol. In early 1985, Minnelli checked into the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, another facility treating chemical dependencies. However, she was well enough to embark on another concert tour by summer. Also in 1985, Minnelli found time to film the television movie A Time to Live; this performance won her a Golden Globe Award. The following winter Minnelli returned to England for a tour, accompanied by her now-reconciled husband.
Personal tragedy struck again for Minnelli when Vincente Minnelli died on July 25, 1985. Still close to her father, Minnelli was severely shaken by his death; however, she did not return to drugs or alcohol. She spent the next several months working on her marriage and arranging tributes to her father. 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 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 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 Bill-board 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.
Returned to the Spotlight
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 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 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 December 2005, Minnelli filmed an episode of the respected television show Inside the Actor's Studio. Nearly 60 years old - and with no signs of giving up performing - Minnelli seems assured a place in entertainment history far beyond that of being simply Judy Garland's daughter.
Books
Carrick, Peter, Liza Minnelli, Ulverscroft, 1993.
Leigh, Wendy, Liza: Born a Star, Dutton, 1993.
Online
"CNN Larry King Weekend: Interview with Liza Minnelli, April 4, 2002," http://www.transcripts.cnn.com (December 22, 2005).
"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."
Representative Albums: "The Best of Liza Minnelli," "Liza with a "Z'," "Gently"
Representative Songs: "Cabaret," "Theme from New York, New York," "Liza (With a "Z")"
Biography
Although singer-actress Liza Minnelli can count Academy Award-winning film roles, Tony Award-winning musical theater performances, Emmy Award-winning television specials, and gold-selling records among her accomplishments, she is primarily a concert performer whose career has been defined by a series of stage acts dating back to her nightclub debut in 1965. Her best work in film, in the musical theater, and on television has taken advantage of and grown out of her reputation as a live performer, and many of the albums she has released under her own name are concert recordings. (She has also appeared on numerous soundtracks and cast albums.) Since she began performing in the early '60s, Minnelli has displayed an energetic style that combines technical precision with warmth and enthusiasm, allowing her to transcend the contrary trends in popular music over the course of her career and maintain her status as a major star.
Minnelli is the daughter of film director Vincente Minnelli and actress-singer Judy Garland. As such, her show business career began early, when she was cast as a baby in the 1949 film In the Good Old Summertime starring her mother and directed by her father. When she was five, her parents divorced, agreeing on joint custody, and she shuttled between them for the rest of her childhood, living alternately in Hollywood, where her father continued to direct movies, and on the road with her mother, who toured the world as a concert performer. She first performed on-stage with her mother at the age of ten and also made occasional appearances on television as a child. Due to her mother's peripatetic career, she attended many different schools. By her teens, she had decided she wanted to pursue a career as an entertainer, and in 1961 she passed the audition for admittance to the New York High School for the Performing Arts, though, typically, she did not stay there long. In 1962, she recorded the voice of Dorothy, the part played by her mother in the film The Wizard of Oz, for an animated sequel called Journey Back to Oz that was shelved until 1974, when it resulted in a soundtrack album on RFO Records called The Return to Oz. Later in 1962, following a brief attendance at the Sorbonne in Paris, she abandoned formal education to try to become an actress in New York. She made her professional debut at 17 in an off-Broadway revival of the 1941 musical Best Foot Forward, which opened April 2, 1963. It ran 244 performances, and Cadence Records released a cast album that marked her recording debut.
Minnelli sang with her mother on two episodes of the television series The Judy Garland Show in November and December 1963, and the performances have turned up on several Garland albums. In 1964, Minnelli gained experience in touring companies of the musicals Carnival! and The Fantasticks, and she signed a recording contract with Capitol, which released her debut LP, Liza! Liza!, in September. The album reached the Billboard charts, but its successors, It Amazes Me (March 1965) and There Is a Time (December 1966), did not. In November 1964, she was co-billed with her mother at the London Palladium, and their appearance was recorded for a 1965 Capitol album, Live at the London Palladium, that reached the Top 100.
Minnelli was given her first starring role in a Broadway musical at the age of 19 with Flora, the Red Menace, featuring a score by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb, that opened on May 11, 1965, but closed after only 87 performances. Despite its failure, she became the youngest woman ever to win a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The resulting cast album, released on RCA Victor Records, reached the charts. She formed a lasting association with Kander & Ebb, who frequently wrote for her from then on. On September 14, 1965, she made her nightclub debut at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., in an act written by Ebb. From there, she went on to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, and other stops on her first tour. For the rest of her career, her work in clubs, theaters, concert halls, hotels, and casinos would be a constant, with other activities fitted in around it. On November 28, 1965, she starred in the television musical The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood, featuring songs by Jule Styne and Robert Merrill. A soundtrack album was released on ABC Records in January 1966.
Minnelli performed in prestigious venues such as the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel in New York and the Talk of the Town nightclub in London during 1966. On March 3, 1967, she married singer/songwriter Peter Allen. They divorced on July 24, 1974. She was also married to movie producer Jack Haley, Jr. (1974-1979), stage manager Mark Gero (1979-1992), and concert promoter David Gest (on March 16, 2002). She turned to screen acting with a featured role in the drama Charlie Bubbles, which was released in February 1968. Her first starring role in a movie came with the drama The Sterile Cuckoo, which was released in October 1969 and brought her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Meanwhile, as a recording artist she had switched from Capitol to A&M Records, which released her albums Liza Minnelli (May 1968), Come Saturday Morning (April 1970, named after the theme song from The Sterile Cuckoo), New Feelin' (November 1970), and Live at the Olympia in Paris (July 1972), of which only New Feelin' reached the charts.
Minnelli continued to work steadily in the early '70s, headlining her first television special on June 29, 1970, and starring in the film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, released that July. But her career really took off in 1972. The year marked her starring role in the film adaptation of Kander & Ebb's musical Cabaret, directed by Bob Fosse, which was released in February and became a major hit. The soundtrack album, released by ABC Records, went gold, and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She again teamed with Kander, Ebb, and Fosse for her next television special, a taped version of her live show dubbed Liza with a "Z". Broadcast September 10, it won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety/Music Program, and Columbia Records' soundtrack LP reached the Top 20 and went gold. The album marked the beginning of her new record contract with Columbia, and she followed with an album of contemporary songs, Liza Minnelli, the Singer, which reached the Top 40 in 1973.
Minnelli did not immediately follow up on her film success, but instead continued to tour with her live act. Her sold-out three-week appearance at the Winter Garden on Broadway in January 1974 was recorded for the Columbia album Live at the Winter Garden and earned her a special Tony Award. She finally returned to filmmaking in 1975, shooting Lucky Lady (December 1975) and A Matter of Time (October 1976), the latter directed by her father; neither was well received. In between the two, she filled in for an ailing Gwen Verdon in the recently opened Broadway musical Chicago (directed by Fosse, with music by Kander & Ebb) for several weeks in the summer of 1975, and Columbia released a single of her recording of "All That Jazz" from the score.
In June 1977, Minnelli co-starred with Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's film musical New York, New York, about the star-crossed romance between a band-singer-turned-Hollywood-star and a jazz musician in the 1940s and '50s. Kander & Ebb wrote the period-style music, and the soundtrack album reached the Top 50. The lengthy, big-budget movie itself was not a financial success, but the title song went on to become a standard after it was recorded by Frank Sinatra, though it remained a signature song for Minnelli. She next made a disco-styled album, Tropical Nights, for Columbia, then teamed again with Scorsese, who directed her in the Broadway musical The Act, featuring songs by Kander & Ebb. It opened on October 29, 1977, and ran 233 performances, winning her a third Tony Award. The cast album was released on DRG Records.
In the late '70s, Minnelli returned to concert work primarily, as her recording contract had lapsed and her string of unsuccessful films had hurt her movie career. Such setbacks could not keep her from selling out 11 consecutive nights at Carnegie Hall in September 1979, a record for the venue. In July 1981, she appeared in the successful film comedy Arthur, but her focus remained on concertizing, as she toured around the world in the early '80s. She co-starred with Chita Rivera in the Broadway musical The Rink, a Kander & Ebb effort that opened February 9, 1984, produced a cast album on Polydor Records, and ran 204 performances. She left the show in July 1984 to overcome substance abuse at the Betty Ford Clinic. By June 1985, she was back to touring. On October 28, 1985, she starred in the television movie A Time to Live, a drama. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance.
Minnelli continued to perform internationally in the mid-'80s. Her record-breaking three-week stand at Carnegie Hall in the spring of 1987, which launched a national tour, was taped for her first album in ten years, Liza Minnelli at Carnegie Hall, released by Telarc that September; it made the charts. In 1988, she appeared in two films, Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2: On the Rocks. She also starred in another TV movie, Sam Found Out: A Triple Play, on June 7 and substituted for an ailing Dean Martin on a September concert tour with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., that later moved on to Europe and Asia and culminated in a performance broadcast on cable television. She surprised fans by collaborating with the Pet Shop Boys on a dance music arrangement of Stephen Sondheim's "Losing My Mind," which became a Top Ten hit in the U.K. upon its release by Epic Records in the spring of 1989 and placed in the dance charts in the U.S. (as did its B-side, "Love Pains"). This prefaced a full-length album, Results, released in September, that made the Top Ten in England and charted in America. In September 1991, she appeared in the film musical Stepping Out and on the soundtrack album released by Milan Records.
Still, concert performing remained her primary means of expression, and her next album, released by Columbia Records in connection with a video in late 1992, was Live from Radio City Music Hall. She appeared in the cable-television movie Parallel Lives on August 14, 1994. Hip replacement surgery in December 1994 only interrupted her road work briefly; she was back on tour in March 1995. Another TV movie, West Side Waltz, was broadcast on November 23, 1995. In March 1996, Angel Records released Gently, an album of traditional pop standards, and she toured to support it. It charted briefly and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. In January 1997, she substituted for Julie Andrews in the Broadway musical Victor/Victoria. Her next stage act, launched with a month-long run at the Palace Theater in New York in December 1999, was called Minnelli on Minnelli and focused on songs featured in movie musicals directed by her father. She recorded it for an album released on Angel in February 2000, but the subsequent national tour was cut short in April when she contracted double pneumonia. In October, she fell ill with a life-threatening attack of encephalitis. During 2001, she recovered from the illness and underwent a second hip replacement operation, and in the spring of 2002 she returned to live performing with multiple shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Beacon Theater in New York, produced and directed by her new husband, David Gest. J Records released an album drawn from the Beacon performances, Liza's Back, in October. A proposed reality TV series featuring her and Gest for the cable network VH1 was scuttled at the last moment in early 2003 amid mutual recriminations, and she embarked on a national tour. She and Gest filed for divorce in July. In November, she began a continuing role on the television series Arrested Development that ran through 2005. In 2006, she appeared in the film The OH in Ohio and was reported to be working on a tribute album to Kay Thompson, the nightclub singer, author of the children's book Eloise, and MGM vocal coach. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: Cabaret, The Sterile Cuckoo, Charlie Bubbles
First Major Screen Credit: The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)
Biography
Liza Minnelli grew up on the front lines of entertainment; her mother was the great singer/actress Judy Garland and her father the director/designer Vincente Minnelli. Minnelli made her first film appearance, uncredited, as Garlands daughter (with co-star Van Johnson) in the last few seconds of In the Good Old Summertime (1948). When Garland shared a 1964 concert engagement at the London Palladium with her 18-year-old daughter, Minnelli's performing career was kickstarted. A year later, Minnelli had won the Tony Award for Flora, the Red Menace -- the youngest performer ever to do so -- and by 1974 had won an Oscar as well, for her performance as Sally Bowles in Bob Fosse's dramatic musical Cabaret. Several of her TV specials, particularly Liza with a Z, received critical acclaim. Despite her auspicious beginnings in show business, her film career after Cabaret has been less than notable, with the possible exception of Arthur (1981) with Dudley Moore and Sir John Gielgud. Married three times, first to cabaret artist Peter Allen, then to Jack Haley, Jr., then to artist Mark Gero, for a time she was also linked romantically with Desi Arnaz, Jr., and Peter Sellers. Her concert appearances continue to sell out, at which she often performs the music of John Kander and Fred Ebb, who wrote the score for Cabaret. ~ All Movie Guide
Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946) is an American singer and actress of film, stage and television. She is the daughter of entertainer Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
While film projects such as Lucky Lady, A Matter of Time and New York, New York were poorly received, Minnelli found herself as one of the most versatile, highly regarded and best-selling entertainers in television, beginning with Liza with a Z in 1972, and on stage in the Broadway productions The Act and The Rink. From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, headlines focused on her health problems, alcoholism and drug abuse, but Minnelli found new prominence with international concert tours and appearances such as Liza Minnelli: At Carnegie Hall, Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event and Liza Live from Radio City Music Hall.
After years of continued health problems including a serious bout with viral encephalitis, she returned with a new concert show Liza's Back in 2002, well regarded guest appearances in the sitcomArrested Development, a small role in the movie The OH in Ohio as well as worldwide concert tours. Having finished the Broadway show Liza's at The Palace...! in January 2009, which garnered her excellent notices, Minnelli is set to tour.
Liza Minnelli was born in Hollywood, California to father Vincente Minnelli and mother Judy Garland. Born into a family well known to film-goers, Minnelli's maternal lineage can claim entertainers going back six generations.[2] Her mother, Judy Garland, had legendary success in film and in music, but started in show-business as part of a vaudeville act with Minnelli's aunts as "The Gumm Sisters". Her father, an acclaimed MGM film director, was from a theatrical family which also included circus performers.
Minnelli's first performing experience on film was at age three where she appeared in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime. The film starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson. Although Minnelli and her mother shared a warm personal relationship, during her perfomances with her mother at the London Palladium, Garland recognized Minnelli's talent and felt a sense of competition. Minnelli recalled, "I was onstage with my mother, but suddenly, she wasn't Mama ... she was Judy Garland."[2]
Minnelli's half-sister and brother from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft are sister Lorna Luft and brother Joey Luft. She also has another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli (nicknamed Tina Nina), from her her father's second marriage.[3]
Career
Theatre
Minnelli began 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 turned to Broadway at 19, and in 1965 she became the youngest woman ever to win a leading actress Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace.
Music
Minnelli began as a nightclub singer while in her teens and made her professional nightclub debut at the age of 19 at Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.. Later, she appeared in other clubs and on stage in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York City. Her success as a live performer brought her a chance to record several albums at Capitol Records: Liza! Liza! (1964), It Amazes Me (1965) and There Is a Time (1966). In her early years, she recorded traditional pop standards as well as show tunes from different musicals within she also has starred from time to time. Because of this fact, William Ruhlmann named her “Barbra Streisand's little sister”. [4]
From 1968 up to the 1970s, she also recorded more contemporary material according to classic pop songs with her albums Liza Minnelli (1968), Come Saturday Morning and New Feelin' (both 1970) from A&M Records and The Singer (1973), which seemed like a compilation of soft rock material, as well as the disco-styled Tropical Nights (1977) from Columbia Records. Her music career was more influenced by successful live performances with international concert tours than commercial success as a recording artist. Today, she is still better known for her contributions to the Great American Songbook than for her interpretations of contemporary pop songs, although her collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in 1989 produced the significant album Results.
In April 1992 Liza Minnelli performed with the surviving members of the rock band Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Liza Minelli performed final song We Are The Champions.
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. She said that one of the things she did to prepare was to study photographs of classic actresses Louise Glaum and Louise Brooks and the dark-haired ladies of that time.[5] Minnelli won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award. She was the first person to ever grace the covers of Time and Newsweek magazines simultaneously.
Hot off the success of the movie, Bob Fosse and Minnelli teamed up for what was to become a groundbreaking show in several departments. Liza with a ‘Z’. A Concert for Television, a filmed concert later aired only two times on TV until the recovery from the vaults and first public release on DVD in 2006. In the concert, filmed in one non-stop performance, 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 by the studio, with no input from Vincente Minnelli, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical success.
After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's hit film Arthur, Minnelli made fewer film appearances although she returned to the big screen in 1991 for Stepping Out, a musical dramedy.
Later career
Minnelli's career has been filled with highs and lows.[citation needed] 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 been reissued on the two-CD compilation The Capitol Years in 2001, for the first time in their entirety.
In 1989 Minnelli collaborated with Pet Shop Boys on Results, an electronic dance-style album. The release hit the top 10 in the UK and also charted in the US, spawning four singles: Losing My Mind, Don't Drop Bombs, So Sorry, I Said and Love Pains. This also gave her a chance to film promotional videos for the songs and resulted in a long-overdue comeback in the music business. Initially released on VHS 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 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.”
After a serious case of viral encephalitis in 2000, doctors predicted that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. However, she refused to accept this and with the help of dance lessons, which she still takes daily, managed to recover and returned to the stage Liza's Back in 2002 performing to rave reviews in London and New York City. After this success, the world was again aware of Minnelli's entertainment capabilities and thus she continued to tour globally.
In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring character on the critically acclaimed TV sitcomArrested Development as “Lucille Austero”, the lover of both the sexually and socially awkward “Buster Bluth” and Buster's brother “GOB”.
In September 2006, she made a guest appearance on the long-running NBC drama Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Masquerade, the Halloween-themed episode, broadcast on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.[6] 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.
For years, Liza had wanted to record a collection of songs that her godmother Kay Thompson had performed in her nightclub act. In 2007 Liza added some of Thompson's songs to her latest tour to introduce them to audiences. The Thompson material eventually appeared on the 2-disc set, "Liza's at the Palace...!," which was released in early 2009.
Minnelli returned to Broadway in a new solo concert at the Palace Theatre called Liza's at The Palace...! which ran from December 3, 2008, through January 4, 2009.[7][8] In her second act she performed a series of numbers created by Kay Thompson.[9] 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—from first to last, Minnelli had audiences cheering and applauding and begging for more. The show was subsequently staged at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in September 2009, at which time it was filmed for a PBS broadcast and a later DVD release.
On January 10, 2009, Minnelli made a rare live TV appearance in a surprise cameo on NBC's Saturday Night Live, playing the best friend of “Penelope” (Kristin Wiig). On January 26, 2009, she made an appearance on The View, singing I Would Never Leave You from her new CD Liza's at The Palace...!. She was also interviewed by the cast of The View.
She was portrayed in the Australian musical The Boy From Oz starring Hugh Jackman. On Broadway, she was portrayed by star Stephanie J. Block. The show received four Tony nominations.
On October 18th in a coup for the Australian version of "Idol" Liza spent the week mentoring the contestants and provided comments on the judging panel while touring down under for the first time in twenty years. Liza also performed "Cabaret" during the show.
Marriages
Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times. Her first marriage was to Peter Allen (full name Peter Allen Woolnough) on March 3, 1967. Australian-born Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s.[10] The couple 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 1979.
Minnelli was married to Mark Gero, a sculptor and stage manager, from December 4, 1979 until 1992. She was married to David Gest, a concert promoter, from March 16, 2002, until July 25, 2003.
Minnelli has no children; one pregnancy left her with a hiatal hernia as a result of the medical steps taken to try to save the baby.[3]
Signature song
She has made many 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 (this performance of "New York, New York" is generally felt to be among the strongest of her career[citation needed]);
Saturday Night Live (2009): Penelope in Therapy, Neil Patrick Harris/Taylor Swift January 10, 2009
(surprise cameo appearance as herself at end of sketch)
1969 nominated: Best Actress in a Motion Picture ("The Sterile Cuckoo")
1972 won: Best Actress in a Motion Picture ("Cabaret")
Minnelli 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.
1978 won: Best Leading Actress in a Musical (The Act)[18]
1984 nominated: Best Leading Actress in a Musical (The Rink)
Most recently, Minnelli won the Independent Theatre Reviewers Association award for Best Female Theatrical Performance of 2009. In addition, she was presented with a 2009 Drama Desk Special Award for her role as "a beloved American musical theater icon, for her enduring career of sustained excellence, and her glorious performance in “Liza’s at the Palace..."[19].
2005 - Vanguard Award, for "her contributions to increased visibility and understanding of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community"
2007 - Honorary Doctorate, "for her charitable activities and a career that has spanned five decades and multiple genres"[23]
Philanthropy
Minnelli has, throughout her lifetime, served various charities and causes which she considers very important. She served on the board of directors of the 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. She also dedicated much time to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. In 2007, Minnelli stated in an interview with Palm Springs Life magazine, “AmfAR is important to me because I’ve lost so many friends that I knew [to AIDS]”.[24] In 1994, Minnelli recorded the Kander & Ebb tune "The Day After That" and donated the proceeds to AIDS research. That same year she performed the song in front of thousands in Central Park at the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.
Other appearances
Minnelli also appears on "The Black Parade" CD by My Chemical Romance. During the song "Mama" she is the woman who sings "and if you would call me your sweetheart, I'd maybe then sing you a song".
In November 2009, American Public Television is slated to air "Liza's at the Palace", taped from September 30-October 1, 2009 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre. It is set to be distributed on DVD in early 2010.[25]. The executive producers of the taping, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, previously were involved with the Academy Award winning film "Chicago" and the 2005 re-release of 1972's Emmy and Peabody Award winning "Liza with a 'Z'"[26].
