Liza May Minnelli (March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer.
Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy (Grammy Legend Award), Oscar, and Tony (EGOT). Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
Daughter of actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, Minnelli was born in Los Angeles, spent part of her childhood in Scarsdale, New York, and moved to New York City in 1961 where she began her career as a musical theatre actress, nightclub performer and traditional pop music artist.
She made her professional stage debut in the 1963 Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward and won a Tony Award for starring in Flora the Red Menace in 1965, which marked the start of her lifelong collaboration with John Kander and Fred Ebb.
They wrote, produced or directed many of Minnelli's future stage acts and TV shows, and helped create her stage persona of a stylized survivor, including her career-defining performances of anthems of survival (New York, New York, Cabaret and Maybe This Time). Along with her roles on stage and screen, this persona and her style of performance added to Minnelli's status as an enduring gay icon.
An acclaimed performance in the drama film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), marked a film breakthrough for Minnelli and garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
She rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the musical film Cabaret (1972), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Most of her following films, including Lucky Lady (1975), New York, New York (1977), Rent-a-Cop (1988) and Stepping Out (1991), were panned by critics and bombed at the box office, and she had no more major movie hits except Arthur (1981).
She returned to Broadway on a number of occasions, including The Act (1977) for which she earned a second Tony Award, The Rink (1984) and Liza's at The Palace...(2008), worked on various television formats and has predominantly focused on music hall and nightclub performances since the late 1970s. Her concert performances at Carnegie Hall in 1979 and 1987, and at Radio City Music Hall in 1991 and 1992 are recognized among her most successful.
From 1988 to 1990, she toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event.
While Minnelli is known for her renditions of American standards, her early-1960s pop singles were produced to attract a young audience. Her albums from 1968 to 1977 contained contemporary singer-songwriter material.
In 1989, she ventured into the contemporary pop scene by collaborating with the Pet Shop Boys on the album Results.
After a hiatus due to serious health problems, Minnelli returned to the concert stage in 2002 with Liza's Back and was a guest star in the sitcom Arrested Development between 2003 and 2013. Since the 2010s, she has avoided huge concert performances in favor of small retrospective performances.
More information: Instagram-Liza Minnelli
Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles.
She is the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. Her parents named her after Ira Gershwin's song Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away). Minnelli has a half-sister, Lorna, and half-brother, Joey, from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft. She has another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli (nicknamed Tina Nina), from her father's second marriage. Minnelli's godparents were Kay Thompson and her husband William Spier.
Her first performing experience on film was at age three appearing in the final scene of the musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949); the film stars Garland and Van Johnson.
In 1961 she moved to New York City, attending High School of Performing Arts and later, Chadwick School.
Minnelli has long suffered from alcoholism and has been addicted to prescription drugs, originating from a Valium prescription after her mother died. Her use of recreational drugs in the 1970s was noted by Andy Warhol, who in a 1978 diary entry recalled Minnelli arriving at Halston's house and imploring the host to Give me every drug you've got. Along with Warhol and Bianca Jagger, Minnelli made frequent appearances at New York City nightclubs during the late 1970s, including the paragon of a new celebrity culture, Studio 54. Minnelli left her 1984 musical The Rink to enter the Betty Ford Clinic.
Minnelli has stated that she is an Episcopalian.
Throughout her lifetime, Minnelli has served on various charities and causes. She served on the board of directors of The Institutes for The Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) for 20 years, a nonprofit educational organization that introduces parents to the field of child brain development.
In a 2006 interview with Randy Rice at Broadwayworld.com, Minnelli said that she was the person who told Elizabeth Taylor about HIV/AIDS while talking about their mutual friend Rock Hudson. She has also dedicated much time to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which was co-founded by Taylor.
More information: Masterworks Broadway
Let your mind take you to places you would like to go,
and then think about it and plan it
and celebrate the possibilities.
And don't listen to anyone
who doesn't know how to dream.
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