Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood, California, the daughter of actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli. Her parents named her after the Ira Gershwin song "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)," and Gershwin himself served as one of her godparents alongside Kay Thompson. Minnelli has a half-sister, Lorna, and a half-brother, Joey, from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft, as well as another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli, from her father's second marriage. Her first appearance on film came at age three, when she was featured in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, which starred her mother and Van Johnson.

In 1961, Minnelli relocated to New York City, where she attended the High School of Performing Arts. That same year she worked as an apprentice at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts, appearing in the chorus of Flower Drum Song and playing Muriel in Take Me Along. She launched her professional stage career at seventeen in the 1963 Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward, for which she received the Theatre World Award, and also toured in The Fantasticks opposite Elliott Gould. The following year, Judy Garland invited her to perform alongside her at the London Palladium; both concerts were recorded and released as an album.

Minnelli made her Broadway debut in 1965, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical at nineteen for her role in Flora the Red Menace. The production marked her first collaboration with the songwriting team of John Kander and Fred Ebb, a partnership that would define much of her stage career. She returned to Broadway in The Act in 1978, earning a second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, and received a Tony nomination for The Rink in 1984. Special Tony Awards recognized her concert productions Liza at the Winter Garden in 1974 and Liza at the Palace in 2009. Additional Broadway credits include The Rink, Liberace at the Palace, Minnelli on Minnelli, and Jule's Friends at the Palace, with her Broadway appearances spanning from 1965 to 2008.

On screen, Minnelli earned her first major film recognition for The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), Alan J. Pakula's directorial debut, in which she played Pookie Adams; the performance brought her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She achieved international prominence with her portrayal of Sally Bowles in the 1972 musical film Cabaret, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Subsequent film credits include Lucky Lady (1975), New York, New York (1977), Arthur (1981), Rent-a-Cop (1988), and Stepping Out (1991). On television, she gained renewed visibility as a recurring guest star on the sitcom Arrested Development from 2003 to 2013, and her life was the subject of the 2024 documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story.

Minnelli's recording career began with three albums for Capitol Records: Liza! Liza! (1964), It Amazes Me (1965), and There Is a Time (1966), all of which were later compiled on the two-disc set The Capitol Years (2001). She subsequently recorded for A&M Records, releasing Liza Minnelli (1968), Come Saturday Morning, and New Feelin' (both 1970). Her Columbia Records output included The Singer (1973) and Tropical Nights (1977). In 1989 she collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on Results, an electronic dance album that reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and produced four singles: "Losing My Mind," "Don't Drop Bombs," "So Sorry, I Said," and "Love Pains." That same year she performed "Losing My Mind" at the Grammy Awards ceremony before receiving a Grammy Legend Award, making her one of a small group of performers to hold an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony Award, and an Academy Award. In 1996 she released Gently, a jazz standards album that included a duet with Donna Summer on "Does He Love You" and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance. She contributed backing vocals and a solo part alongside Gerard Way on "Mama," from My Chemical Romance's 2006 album The Black Parade, and received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2009 for Liza's at the Palace...!, drawn from her Broadway show. Her album Confessions was released on Decca Records on September 21, 2010.

Among her most celebrated live performances are concerts at Carnegie Hall in 1979 and 1987 and at Radio City Music Hall in 1991 and 1992. From 1988 to 1990 she toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event. In April 1992 she performed "We Are the Champions" with the surviving members of Queen at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in London. Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour and is widely associated with signature songs including "New York, New York," "Cabaret," and "Maybe This Time."