Profile of Liza Minnelli on Famous Like Me

Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of legendary entertainer Judy Garland and her second husband, acclaimed Italian-American film director Vincente Minnelli.

Early Career

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.

Liza started performing at age of 16, in 1963, on Broadway, in a revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices. The next year, her mother invited her to perform with her at the London Palladium.

The audience loved her, and her musical career was born. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace. She also received Tony Awards for The Act in 1978 and a special Tony in 1974. She was nominated in 1984 for The Rink but lost to her costar Chita Rivera.

Further success and awards

The film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) garnered her her first Academy Award nomination. In 1972, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as "Sally Bowles" in Cabaret, along with Joel Grey who won an Oscar reprising his role in the movie that he had played in the Broadway musical (that of the creepy "Emcee").

Minnelli has the distinction of being the only Academy Award winner whose parents are both Academy Award winners.

Most recently she has appeared as a recurring guest star on the critically acclaimed TV sitcom Arrested Development as sexually and socially retarded Buster Bluth's lover. She has also won an Emmy Award for the 1972 TV special Liza with a Z.

Minnelli received a 1990 Grammy Legend Award. She received Golden Globe Awards for Cabaret and for the TV movie A Time to Live.

Minnelli, like her mother, is known for her powerful vocal style, as in her trademark songs, "Cabaret" and "Theme from New York, New York." (Minnelli's original preceded Frank Sinatra's successful cover version, for his "Trilogy" album, by two years.)

Marriages

Like her mother, Minnelli has had several marriages, and has also been linked romantically to director Martin Scorsese, Peter Sellers, pianist Billy Stritch, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and actor Desi Arnaz Jr. Her husbands have been:

1. Peter Allen (real name Peter Allen Woolnough) (March 3, 1967 – 1972). Australian-born Allen, who died of complications from AIDS in 1992, was Judy Garland's protegé in the mid 1960s.
2. Jack Haley, Jr., (September 15, 1974 – 1979), a producer and director. His father, Jack Haley, was Judy Garland's co-star in The Wizard of Oz.
3. Mark Gero (December 4, 1979 – 1992), a sculptor and stage manager.
4. David Gest (March 16, 2002 – July 25, 2003), a concert promoter. The couple announced to the press in late 2002 that they would be adopting a three-year-old girl, to be named Serena Gest. They announced their divorce in 2003.

Filmography

• In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
• Charlie Bubbles (1967)
• The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
• Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970)
• Cabaret (1972)
• Just One More Time (1974) (short subject)
• That's Entertainment! (1974) (narrator)
• Journey Back to Oz (1974) (voice)
• Lucky Lady (1975)
• Silent Movie (1976) (Cameo)
• A Matter of Time (1976)
• New York, New York (1977)
• Arthur (1981)
• The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) (Cameo)
• Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987) (voice)
• Rent-a-Cop (1988)
• Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988)
• Stepping Out (1991)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Unzipped (1995) (documentary)
• The OH in Ohio (2005)

Music

Albums

• Best Foot Forward (1963) (Original Cast Recording)
• Liza! Liza! (1963)
• Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli Live at the London Palladium (1964)
• Flora, the Red Menace (1965) (Original Cast Recording)
• It Amazes Me (1965)
• There Is a Time (1966)
• The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1966) (soundtrack)
• Liza Minnelli (1968)
• Come Saturday Morning (1970)
• New Feelin' (1970)
• Liza Minnelli: Live at the Olympia in Paris (1972)
• Cabaret (1972) (soundtrack)
• Liza with a 'Z' (1972) (soundtrack)
• The Singer (1973)
• Liza Minnelli: Live at the Winter Garden (1974)
• Lucky Lady (1975) (soundtrack)
• A Matter of Time (1976) (soundtrack)
• New York, New York (1977) (soundtrack)
• Tropical Nights (1977)
• The Act (1978) (Original Cast Recording)
• The Rink (1984) (Original Cast Recording)
• Liza Minnelli: Live at Carnegie Hall (1987)
• Results (1989)
• Stepping Out (1991) (soundtrack)
• Liza: Live from Radio City Music Hall (1992)
• Paris (1995) (w/ Charles Aznavour)
• The Life: A New Musical (1996)
• Gently (1996)
• Minnelli on Minnelli: Live at the Palace (1999)
• Liza's Back (2002)

Singles

• "Losing My Mind" (UK #6, August 1989)
• "Don't Drop Bombs" (UK #46, October 1989)
• "So Sorry, I Said" (UK #62, November 1989)
• "Love Pains" (UK #41, March 1990)

TV Work

• The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)
• Liza with a 'Z' (1972)
• A Time to Live (1985)
• Sam Found Out: A Triple Play (1988)
• Parallel Lives (1994)
• The West Side Waltz (1995)
• Jackie's Back! (1999) (Cameo)
• Arrested Development (2003-present)

Stage Appearances

• Best Foot Forward (1963) (Off-Broadway)
• Flora, the Red Menace (1965)
• Liza (1974)
• Chicago (1975) (replacement for Gwen Verdon from Aug-Sep. 1975)
• The Act (1978)
• The Rink (1984)
• Victor/Victoria (1995) (replacement for Julie Andrews in 1997)
• Minnelli on Minnelli (1999)

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