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 (the youngest actress ever to win) 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.
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 that year 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.
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
Representative Songs:
"Cabaret," "Theme from New York, New York," "Liza (With a "Z")"
Career Highlights: Cabaret, The Sterile Cuckoo, Charlie Bubbles
First Major Screen Credit: Charlie Bubbles (1967)
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 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."
Minnelli is from a well-known artistic family; her maternal lineage had entertainers in the family going back six
generations.[1] Her famous mother,
Judy Garland, had success in film and in music, and her aunts had been part of a singing
group, "The Gumm Sisters," with her mother. Her father, also from a theatrical family including circus performers, was an
acclaimed film director. Minnelli's first film appearance was at the age of three in the
final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old
Summertime, starring her mother and Van Johnson.
Although Minnelli and her mother shared a warm personal relationship, during the London Palladium performances Garland
recognized Minnelli's talent and felt a sense of competition. Minnelli recalled a time where she was singing on stage: "I was
onstage with my mother, but suddenly, she wasn't Mamma ... she was Judy Garland.".[1]
As a teenager with two younger siblings, Minnelli bore the brunt of Garland's substance
abuse issues and instability, and often had to take responsibility for her mother and siblings. Minnelli’s half-siblings
through her mother are sister Lorna Luft and brother Joe "Joey" Luft. Her half-siblings are a
result of Garland's marriage to her manager Sid Luft. She also has a half-sibling Tina Nina
Minnelli through her father's second marriage.
Public life
Her well-publicized struggles with substance abuse have made inevitable parallels and comparisons to her mother's personal and
career challenges. Minnelli has been in rehab for her substance abuse numerous
times. She nearly died from a bout of what was widely reported as encephalitis in
2000 after one rehab visit. Not everyone, however, was convinced that this disease, generally
caused by mosquito or tick bites, was the true diagnosis. She entered rehab shortly before her marriage to Gest.[2] Another visit occurred at their first anniversary; she recently
visited rehab and a psychiatric center to deal with issues stemming from her contentious divorce from Gest.[3]
Marriages
Minnelli has been married (and divorced) four times; her husbands have been:
Peter Allen (real name Peter Allen Woolnough) (March 3, 1967–1972). Australian-born Allen, who died
of complications from AIDS in 1992. Allen was Judy Garland's protégé in the mid-1960s.
Minnelli and Gest signed an agreement in January 2007 to end all pending lawsuits against each other, and to proceed with a
no-fault divorce. The divorce papers were filed in February 2007. Separation and subsequent divorce from Gest in 2003 has been
fraught with controversy; the two had legal disputes, which were all settled in January 2007. Prior legal matters were either
resolved or dismissed.
Career
Theatre
Minnelli started performing (professionally) at age 17, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway
revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices, and her first award -- The Theatre World
Award. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London
Palladium. The audience loved her, launching her future concert career. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace.
In 1969 she appeared in Alan J. Pakula’s first feature film, The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), as Pookie Adams, a needy, eccentric teenager. Her performance won her
her first Academy Award nomination. She played another eccentric character the following year in Tell Me That You Love Me,
Junie Moon, directed by Otto Preminger. In 1972, Minnelli appeared in perhaps her
best-known film role, as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret. Minnelli
won the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award, and was featured on the covers of Time
and Newsweek Magazines simultaneously.
Hot off the success of the movie, Fosse and Minnelli teamed up for what was to become a groundbreaking show in several
departments. “Liza with a “Z””, a filmed concert later aired only two times on TV until the somewhat “accidental” recovery from
the vaults and first public release on DVD in 2006. In the concert, filmed over two performances, Minnelli danced and sang in
several daring and censor-challenging costumes designed by famed costume-designer Halston.
Several awards were the reward for what is regarded by both critics and public, a piece of show business history.
Following a string of less successful feature movies and ventures into television, she finally got the chance to work with her
father, director Vincente Minnelli, in the 1976 fantasy-musical A Matter of Time, co-starring Ingrid Bergman.
After severe editing and cutting, done at the request of the producers, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical
success.
After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's Arthur, Minnelli made fewer film appearances.
Later career
Minnelli’s career has been known to be filled with highs and lows, both personal and professional, however she has never
stopped recording albums, even though in her later career these were mostly live recordings of her concerts, several of them
highly acclaimed record-breaking stints at the Radio City Music Hall among others. In the beginnings however she recorded several
studio albums, for A&M and Capitol Records.
The Capitol albums "Liza! Liza!", "It Amazes Me" and "There Is A Time" have recently been reissued on a 2CD compilation, for the
first time in their entirety. Her perhaps biggest success in the music department might be the 1989 pop album Results, recorded with English duo the Pet Shop Boys, which included
a hit version of the Stephen Sondheim song "Losing My Mind". The album spawned 4
singles ("Don't Drop Bombs", "Losing My Mind", "Love Pains" and "So Sorry, I Said") and gave her a chance to film promotional
videos for them and enjoy another long-overdue comeback in the music business. Initially released on a VHS tape titled "Visible
Results", the clips were later issued on a bonus DVD included in the 2005 remastered and expanded edition of the album. Later
that year she performed "Losing My Mind" live at the Grammys ceremony before receiving a Grammy Legend Award, making her one of
only 12 other entertainers, in a list that includes Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, and Mel Brooks among others, to win an Emmy,
Grammy, Tony, and Academy Award, even though she is sometimes discounted since her Grammy was a special award and was not won in
a competitive category.
She returned to Broadway in 1997, taking over the title role in the musical Victor/Victoria, replacing Julie Andrews. In his review,
New York Times critic Ben Brantley commented, "her every stage appearance is
perceived as a victory of show-business stamina over psychic frailty... She asks for love so nakedly and earnestly, it seems
downright vicious not to respond." However, rumors of ill will between her and co-star Tony Roberts gained momentum when he
deliberately skipped performances.
After a serious case of viral encephalitis in 2000, Minnelli was in very bad shape, her
family and friends were seriously worried, and even a feud with half-sister Lorna was buried. Doctors predicted the rest of her
life in a wheelchair. She however refused to accept this and thanks to her dance lessons, which she still takes daily, managed to
achieve yet another comeback, with her then-husband who produced her big show "Liza's Back"
in 2002.
After this success, the world was again made aware of Minnelli's entertainment capabilities and she kept on touring the world
and had offers coming from several fields in the business. She had once again all doors open to her, the only thing that seems to
escape her is another big movie role, with her last big mark on the silver screen being in 1981 in the comedy Arthur.
In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring character on the critically acclaimed TV sitcomArrested Development as
Lucille Austero, the lover of sexually and socially awkward
Buster Bluth and also the lover of Buster's brother GOB Bluth.
