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."
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. ~ Rovi
Born Liza May Minnelli on March 12, 1946 in Hollywood, CA; daughter of Vincente Minnelli (film director) and Judy Garland (singer/actress); married Peter Allen 1967 (divorced 1972); married Jack Haley 1974 (divorced 1979); married Mark Gero (divorced 1992); educated in United States and Europe.
First performed in 1961; made Off-Broadway debut in 1963; made Broadway debut in 1965; has toured extensively in United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan; has appeared or recorded with Judy Garland, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Chita Rivera, Goldie Hawn, Vic Damone, Donna Summer, Joel Grey, Charles Aznavour, Marvin Hamlisch; film credits include Charlie Bubbles; The Sterile Cuckoo; Tell Me That You Love Me, JunieMoon; Cabaret; That’s Entertainment; Lucky Lady; A Matter of Time; New York, New York; Arthur; Rent-A-Cop; Arthur 2—On the Rocks; Stepping Out.
Awards: Tony Award, 1965; David di Donatello (Italy), 1970; Academy Award, 1972; Golden Globe Award, 1972; British Academy Award, 1972; Entertainer of the Year, American Guild of Variety Artists, 1972; David di Donatello, 1972; Emmy Award, 1972; Tony Award, 1973; Tony Award, 1977; Golden Globe, 1985.
Addresses:Home—New York, NY. Management— Lee Salter Co., Los Angeles, CA.
Singer, actress
For the children of the very famous, perhaps the most daunting task of their lives is to emerge from the larger-than-life shadow cast by their parents and become their own persons. For Liza Minnelli, this process has been doubly difficult because she chose to make a name for herself on the stage, thus following in the footsteps of a mother who was one of the most famous performers of the twentieth century. That Minnelli succeeded is a testament both to her artistic gifts and her independent She remains one of the most versatile, and energetic performers on the American music scene.
Minnelli’s life began in the glow of the spotlight and has never really left it. She was born on March 12, 1946 in Hollywood, California to singer/actress Judy Garland and the second of her five husbands, film director, Vincente Minnelli. 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 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."
The Legacy of A Voice If Minnelli’s was a glamorous upbringing, 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. Almost from infancy, Minnelli was pressed into service as her mother’s confidante, and by 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 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. As New York Times music writer Michiko Kakutani pointed out in a 1984 article, "Although [Minnelli’s] voice possesses a harder… edge, it
carries echoes of the throbbing emotion that Judy Garland imparted to all her songs; her stage presence, too—histrionic, nervous, at once vulnerable and brassy—can also conjure up images of her mother." In the early years of her career Minnelli would consciously distant herself from her mother’s image, refusing to sing Garland’s songs and taking movie roles that portrayed her as worldly and tough as opposed to the wide-eyed innocent Garland often played. But in time she would come to accept and be honored that her audience saw her mother in her.
Minnelli’s interest in performing came to the fore in 1960 when she saw the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie. She recognized in the atmosphere of the stage a world in which she felt completely at home. Successful tours with her school drama club and in local theaters followed, and in 1962 she decided to take the plunge, dropping out of school and moving to New York to pursue a stage career. Although her parents refused to pull strings for the aspiring sixteen-year-old actress, good auditions and curiosity based on her name resulted in her being cast in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward. The show opened in April 1963, and Minnelli was praised by critics for her confident and accomplished stage presence. After the show ended, Minnelli recorded her first album and went on the road touring with musicals, slowly but surely moving up the ladder to success by dint of what, in a Washington Post article, she called "slogging along every day… step by step by step."
Competes With A Legend 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. So much so, in fact, that Garland became jealous and paid her the supreme compliment of trying to outperform her, as if she were any other competitor. It was an electrifying moment for Minnelli, confirming that she had arrived as a musical talent. She recalled in a New York Times interview, "It was like Mama suddenly realized I was good…. One minute she smiled at me, and the next minute she was like the lioness that owned the stage and suddenly found somebody invading her territory."
In 1965, Minnelli’s new status as a rising stage star was reaffirmed by her performance in the Broadway musical Flora the Red Menace, a lighthearted spoof of the American Communist movement of the 1930s. Although the show received mediocre reviews and closed after only a few weeks, Minnelli was critically applauded and received the Tony Award as best actress in a musical for her work in the title role. At nineteen, she was the youngest actress in Broadway history to be so honored.
More importantly, she established a connection with Flora’s song-writing team, Fred Ebb and John Kander, who would arrange much of her work from that point on. By characterizing Minnelli as an eccentric but resilient waif with a flashy exterior and inner vulnerability, Kander and Ebb were able to imbue her with a stage personality that, while drawing on her mother’s image, was distinctly separate from it. This would be key to Minnelli shedding the critical distinction of being "just like Judy Garland" and emerging into her own as a performer.
Makes Nightclub and Film Debut With the support of Ebb, Minnelli made her cabaret debut in Washington, D.C. in sold-out performances at the Shoreham Hotel’s Blue Room. As was the case with Flora, she received accolades from the critical establishment and went on to tour successfully in the United States and abroad. The nightclub milieu was one in which Minnelli felt very much at ease, bringing a relentless energy and stage presence to the smaller venues regarded by most other performers as merely a sidebar between stage shows. As she explained in a 1970 After Dark article, "The way I do my club act—it is theater… I have too much energy to stand still and be cool." Her audiences invariably responded to her enthusiasm and to this day, her nightclub act is the foundation for her continuing appeal.
In 1968, Minnelli ventured into the world of film for the first time, taking the role of the American secretary to Albert Finney in the British comedy Charlie Bubbles. Favorable reviews resulted in her being cast in The Sterile Cuckoo. Her role of Pookie Adams, a slightly crazy, love-starved college student gave her an opportunity to display her considerable acting talent and would garner her a best actress Oscar nomination. It also served notice that she could do more than just sing and dance, and was in fact a multi-dimensional talent.
In 1969, Minnelli had just begun work on a third film, Otto Preminger’s Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, when she received word that Judy Garland had died from an accidental overdose of sleeping pills. Although she must have been devastated, she calmly took charge of the events surrounding her mother’s funeral and the settling of her estate, much the same way she had run her mother’s household as a child. Plunging back into work afterwards, Minnelli filmed her first television special, entitled Liza Minnelli, for NBC in 1970 and went on tour with her cabaret act. In 1971, she was selected to play the female lead in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret, a film version of writer Christopher Isherwood’s short story collection, Berlin Stories.
Wins Triple Crown The role of Sally Bowles, a down-on-her-luck cabaret singer struggling to survive in the amoral atmosphere of 1930s Nazi Germany was tailor-made for Minnelli. On the strength of an excellent score by Kander and Ebb, director Fosse was able to draw a powerful, well rounded performance from Minnelli, showcasing her singing abilities and highlighting the tough/vulnerable dichotomy that was her hallmark. On its 1972 release, Cabaret was hailed by the critics and audiences alike and Minnelli received the Golden Globe, the Academy Award, the British Academy Award and Entertainer of the Year from the American Guild of Variety Artists. As if to crown her laurels, a NBC television special of her singing act, Liza With a Z, earned Minnelli an Emmy Award, raising her into the select group of artists who had won a Tony, an Academy Award, and an Emmy, the "Triple Crown" of show business.
Having firmly established herself as a star in her own right, Minnelli continued the relentless schedule that had brought her to the pinnacle of recognition. For the next several years, she toured extensively, playing venues all over the United States. A one-woman show, Liza, was the basis for a world tour and garnered her a special Tony Award. In 1974, she was a narrator for That’s Entertainment, a highly successful film tribute to MGM musicals which prominently featured her mother’s work. She also provided voice-overs for the character of Dorothy in Journey Back To Oz, an animated feature that allowed Minnelli to reprise Garland’s most famousrole.
After such a meteoric rise, it seemed inevitable that Liza’s career should hit some sour notes. Lucky Lady, an adventure film starring Minnelli, Burt Reynolds, and Gene Hackman, was released in 1975 to harsh reviews in spite of the assembled talent. Similarly, when A Matter of Time, a Cinderella-type story directed by her father, hit the screens in 1976, her performance was thoroughly panned as mawkish and unconvincing. Perhaps the greatest disappointment for Minnelli, however, was the reception accorded to New York, New York which appeared in 1977. She had jumped at the chance to work with Martin Scorcese on the film, a 1940s style musical with Robert de Niro that would afford her the opportunity to star in the same kind of role that had made her mother famous. Once again, however, the critics were less than charitable, charging that she had merely copied her mother’s mannerisms, and the film was a box-office disaster.
As if to redeem herself, Minnelli returned to the Broadway stage in late 1977 with The Act, the story of a has been singer trying to reclaim her earlier success. The verve of her live performances, a domain which seemed to suit her more than the screen, pleased the theater-going public and critics alike, and resulted in her third Tony Award. Likewise, her concert appearances continued to attract overflow audiences, with a 1979 Carnegie Hall engagement setting a record for that venerable theater. In 1981, Minnelli returned to film with the hit movie Arthur, the story of the unlikely match between a waitress and a drunken millionaire. Capitalizing on that success, Minnelli launched an international tour of her stage show and in 1983 earned a Tony Award for her starring role in The Rink, a musical with the close-to-home subject of a daughter coming to terms with her estranged mother.
Overcomes Drug Addiction 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. In 1985, she mounted a hit tour that was a comeback of sorts for her, as well as appearing in a NBC made-for-television movie A Time to Live that brought her a second Golden Globe award.
Since the mid-eighties, Minnelli’s career has leveled off. She has had little success on the silver screen, starring in Rent-A-Cop in 1987, Arthur 2- On the Rocks in 1988, and Stepping Out in 1991 with minimal critical or box-office impact. However she has found the medium of television much friendlier, appearing in a series of highly acclaimed specials including Liza in London, an HBO pay-per-view event in 1986, Minnelli on Minnelli: Liza Remembers Vincente, a 1987 PBS tribute to her father who had died the previous year, and Liza Minnelli: Sam Found Out, three one-act plays on ABC in 1988.
Minnelli’s greatest success, however, has come in her continually sold-out appearances in theaters and clubs, a forum in which she has the greatest latitude to showcase her high-energy performance style. In 1987, Minnelli appeared in a three-week engagement at Carnegie Hall, recording the concerts as a best-selling live album, her first in almost a decade. A worldwide tour in 1988 with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. was billed as "The Ultimate Event" and proved to be very lucrative as a pay-per-view special. Minnelli appeared for several weeks in 1991 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, selling out every performance and recording a PBS special that was nominated for six Emmy Awards.
Through the seventies, eighties, and on into the nineties, Minnelli has also kept up a high profile as a recording artist, releasing albums steadily. Although her recorded output has not achieved the kind of recognition her film, television, and stage work did, all of her albums have sold well, reflecting the extreme devotion of the following she has maintained over the years. A 1996 recording of smoky-sounding romantic standards entitled Gently is a distinct change from the show tune-oriented albums she has done in the past and has been generally well received by music critics.
Now in her fifties, Liza Minnelli can ’look back over a career that has seen many highs and some lows as well. From her teenage years on, she has walked a fine line, striving to establish herself as an artist in the face of inevitable comparisons to her legendary mother. That she has succeeded in making a name for herself is beyond doubt, and in many ways she has become a more well-rounded, if not as compelling, an entertainer as Garland. In the process she has, if anything, extended her mother’s renown by giving fresh life to the musical domain Garland had her greatest triumphs, a fact that New York Times critic Stephen Holden underlined in extolling Liza Minnelli as "an exuberant, brash entertainer who may be the last great practioner of the brassy and at times proudly vulgar American music-hall tradition."
Selected discography
Albums Liza! Liza. Capitol, 1964. It Amazes Me, Capitol, 1965. Judy Garland & Liza Minnelli Live at the London Palladium, Capitol, 1965. Flora, The Red Menace, RCA Victor, 1965. There is a Time, Capitol, 1966. Liza Minnelli, A&M, 1968. Cabaret: Original Soundtrack, MCA, 1972. Liza with a Z, Columbia, 1972. Liza Minnelli: The Singer, Columbia, 1973. Live at the Winter Garden, Columbia, 1974. New York, New York, EMI, 1977. Tropical Nights, Columbia, 1977. The Act, DRG, 1978. Best Foot Forward, Picc-a-dilly, 1980. Liza Minnelli Live at Carnegie Hall, Caltel, 1981. The Rink, Polydor, 1984. I Believe In Music, CBS, 1986. Liza Minnelli At Carnegie Hall, Telare, 1987. Lovely! Lively! Liza. Capitol, 1987. The Liza Minnelli Four Sider, A&M, 1988. Results, Epic, 1989. Love Pains, Epic, 1990. Stepping Out, Milan America, 1991. Liza Minnelli: Live from Radio City Music Hall, Columbia, 1992.
Liza, Sony, 1993. Gently, Angel, 1996.
Films Charlie Bubbles, 1968.
The Sterile Cuckoo, 1969.
Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, 1971.
Cabaret, 1972.
Lucky Lady, 1975.
A Matter of Time, 1976.
New York, New York, 1977.
Arthur, 1981.
Rent-A-Cop, 1987.
Arthur 2- On The Rocks, 1988.
Stepping Out, 1991.
Television Liza With A.Z, 1972.
Goldie and Liza Together, 1980.
Baryshnikov on Broadway, 1980.
A Time to Live, 1985.
Liza In London, 1986.
Liza Minnelli: Sam Found Out, 1988.
The Ultimate Event, 1989.
Liza: Live at Radio City Music Hall, 1992.
Parallel Lives, 1994.
The Wesf Side Waltz, 1995.
Theater Best Foot Forward, 1963.
Flora, the Red Menace, 1965.
Liza at the Winter Garden, 1973.
Chicago, 1975.
The Act, 1977.
The Rink, 1984.
Sources Periodicals After Dark, April 1970. Boston Globe, April 18, 1996. Harper’s Bazaar, August 1990. New York Newsday, April 23, 1991. New York Times, September 6, 1979; March 4, 1984; May 31, 1987; April 25, 1991. USA Today, April 16, 1996. Vanity Fair, June 1987. Washington Post, July 9, 1988. Additional material for this profile was furnished by Angel/EMI Records, 1996.
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 monthlong 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. Her 2008 return to Broadway, Liza's at the Palace.... (the album version appeared the following year), was directed and choreographed by Ron Lewis, with vocal arrangements by Kay Thompson and Billy Stritch. Minnelli returned to the studio in 2010 for the album Confessions. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946) is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.
Already established as a nightclub singer and musical theatre actress, she first attracted critical acclaim for her dramatic performances in the movies The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970); Minnelli then rose to international stardom for her appearance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Cabaret, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She later made a great star turn in, Arthur (1981), co-starring with Dudley Moore (in the title role), and the great Sir John Gielgud, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as Arthur's snobbish but loveable butler.
While film projects such as Lucky Lady, A Matter of Time and New York, New York were less favorably received than her stage roles, Minnelli became 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 of Flora the Red Menace, The Act and The Rink. Minnelli also toured internationally and did shows such as Liza Minnelli: At Carnegie Hall, Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event, and Liza Live from Radio City Music Hall.
Minnelli's half-sister and brother from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft are Lorna and Joey Luft. She also has another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli (nicknamed Tina Nina), from her father's second marriage.[5] Minnelli's godparents were Kay Thompson and Ira Gershwin.
Career
Theatre
During the summer of 1961, Minnelli was an apprentice at the Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis, MA. She appeared in the chorus of Flower Drum Song and played the part of Muriel in Take Me Along. Minnelli began performing professionally at age 17, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received the Theatre World Award. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. 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. It was the first time she worked with the musical duo John Kander and Fred Ebb.
Music
Minnelli began as a nightclub singer as an adolescent, making her professional nightclub debut at the age of 19 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.. She later appeared in other clubs and on stage in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York City. Her success as a live performer led to her recording 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 various musicals that she starred in. Because of this fact, William Ruhlmann named her “Barbra Streisand's little sister”.[6] The Capitol albums Liza! Liza!, It Amazes Me, and There Is A Time were reissued on the two-CD compilation The Capitol Years in 2001, 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. 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 (the first Grammy Legend Awards were issued in 1990 to Liza Minnelli, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Smokey Robinson and Willie Nelson). With this award, she became 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 Award and Academy Award.[7]
In 1996, Minnelli released a new studio album titled Gently. It was a recording of jazz standards and also included some contemporary songs such as the cover of Does He Love You which she performed as a duet with Donna Summer. This album brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. Minnelli was nominated in 2009 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her studio recording Liza's at the Palace...!, based on her hit Broadway show.
In May 2010, Playbill.com reported Minnelli would be releasing an album on the Decca Records label entitled Confessions, which was released on September 21, 2010.[8]
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. 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.[9] Minnelli won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award. This made her the only Oscar-winning child of Oscar-winning parents.
Following the success of Cabaret, Bob Fosse and Minnelli teamed up for Liza with a ‘Z’. A Concert for Television, a made-for-television special. The program aired two times on TV and was not seen again until a DVD release in 2006.
Minnelli worked with her father in the 1976 A Matter of Time, costarring Ingrid Bergman. After severe editing and cutting, done by the studio, with no input from Vincente, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical success[citation needed] .
After her performance as leading woman to Dudley Moore in 1981's hit film Arthur, Minnelli made fewer film appearances although she returned to the big screen in 1988 for Arthur 2: On the Rocks and in 1991 for Stepping Out, a musical dramedy.
In 2007 she made a cameo appearance on Family Guy (1998) in the episode titled "No Meals on Wheels."
Most recently she made an appearance in the movie Sex and the City 2 (2010) as herself.
In November 2009, American Public Television aired "Liza's at the Palace", taped from September 30 – October 1, 2009 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre.[10] The executive producers of the taping, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, previously were involved with the 2005 rerelease of 1972's Emmy and Peabody Award winning "Liza with a 'Z'".[11]
She is currently scheduled to appear in the hit show Hot in Cleveland.
Later career
Performing Liza's Back live in 2002.
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 and would perhaps not even be able to speak again. However, she refused to accept this and with the help of vocal and dance lessons (most notably Sam Harris, Angela Bacari), which she still takes daily, managed to recover and returned to the stage in 2001 when asked by long time friend Michael Jackson to perform at Madison Square Garden in New York City where she sang "Never Never Land" and the televised "You Are Not Alone" at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special concert produced by soon to be husband David Gest. Gest was so impressed with her stamina and ability to stun audiences that he produced her in Liza's Back in spring 2002 performing to rave reviews in London and New York City. (Most noted in that tour was a tribute to her mother. After years of declining fans' pleas for her to sing Garland's signature song, "Over The Rainbow", she concluded Act 1 with the final refrain of her mother's famous anthem, to an instant ovation.) Among performing her classic hits, other numbers unreleased in the album version included "I Believe You" by The Carpenters, a rap version of "Liza With A 'Z'", "Yes", and Mary J. Blige's "Family Affair".
In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring character on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning TV sitcom Arrested 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, in Masquerade, a Halloween-themed episode, broadcast on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.[12] 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, Minnelli had wanted to record a collection of songs that her godmother Kay Thompson had performed in her nightclub act.[citation needed] In 2007, she added some of Thompson's songs to her latest tour to introduce them to audiences.
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.[13][14] In her second act she performed a series of numbers created by Kay Thompson.[15] 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 on September 30 and 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 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" (written by Johnny Rodgers, Billy Stritch, and Brian Lane Green) from her new CD Liza's at The Palace...!. She was also interviewed by the cast of The View.
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.
She also made a starring appearance in December 2010 in NBC's The Apprentice.
Personal life
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.[16] Australian-born Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s.[17] They divorced on July 24, 1974.[18]
Later that year, she married Jack Haley, Jr., a producer and director, on September 15, 1974.[19] His father, Jack Haley, was Garland's costar in The Wizard of Oz. They divorced in April 1979.[20]
Minnelli was married to Mark Gero, a sculptor and stage manager, from December 4, 1979 until their divorce in January 1992.[21]
She was married to David Gest, a concert promoter, from March 16, 2002, until they divorced in April 2007. (They separated in July 2003.)[22][23]
Minnelli has no children; one pregnancy left her with an incisional hernia as a result of the medical steps taken to try to save the baby.[5]
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 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 has also dedicated much time to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research. In 2007, she 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]”.[26] In 1994, she 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.
Minnelli has the distinction of being the only Academy Award winner whose parents were both Academy Award winners (her father won as Best Director for Gigi and her mother received an honorary Oscar for The Wizard of Oz).
2009 won: 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...!”[33]
Independent Theatre Reviewers Association
2009 won: Best Female Theatrical Performance (Liza's at The Palace...!)
2010: Straight for Equality in Entertainment Award, for “her lifelong support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.”
Other appearances
Minnelli appears in the song "Mama" on the My Chemical Romance album The Black Parade. She added her vocals to the song from a separate studio while members of the band listened via satellite.
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