Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli is an American singer and actress from Hollywood, United States. Born in 1946, she is associated with jazz, cabaret, Broadway and showtunes, and is known for a powerful vocal style.

Early life and family background

She is the daughter of Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli. Her father is of Italian and French descent. She makes her first film appearance at the age of three in the final scene of In the Good Old Summertime, a 1949 musical starring her mother and Van Johnson.

Stage career

Minnelli begins performing professionally in 1963, at the age of 16, in an Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward, where she receives strong notices. The following year, Judy Garland invites her to appear with her at the London Palladium, and the reception helps launch her musical career. She returns to Broadway at 19 and wins a Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace in 1965. She later receives a special Tony Award in 1974 and another Tony for The Act in 1978. In 1984 she is nominated for The Rink, losing to co-star Chita Rivera. She returns to Broadway again in 1997, taking over the title role in Victor/Victoria from Julie Andrews.

Film and television

Her first Academy Award nomination comes for The Sterile Cuckoo in 1969, in which she plays a lonely teenage misfit. In 1972 she wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for Cabaret, playing Sally Bowles. She also receives an Emmy Award for the 1972 television special Liza with a Z. Among her other screen work, she appears in Arthur in 1981 and later makes fewer film appearances. She returns to television as a recurring guest star in Arrested Development in 2004 and 2005, playing the lover of Buster Bluth, and appears again in the show’s fourth season. In 2013 she guest-stars on Smash and performs “A Love Letter From the Times”.

Recordings, songs and recognition

Minnelli is known for songs including “Cabaret” and “Theme from New York, New York”. Her version of “Theme from New York, New York” appears in the film in which she co-stars with Robert De Niro, and it predates Frank Sinatra’s later cover by two years. She receives a Golden Globe Award for Cabaret and another for the television film A Time to Live. In 1990 she receives the Grammy Legend Award.

Notable performances

Her other well-known appearances include a performance at the 1978 Studio 54 party honouring New York City’s revival, the reopening of the Statue of Liberty on 4 July 1986, and a performance at a New York Mets game in 2001, the metropolitan area’s first major sporting event after the September 11 attacks. On 1 January 2006 she sings “New York, New York” at the second inauguration of New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

Other projects

After her wedding to David Gest in 2002, she and Gest sign with VH1 to star in a reality series, although production is cancelled before broadcast.