Liza Minnelli is an icon.
Minnelli’s career has been an extraordinary one, but it’s also been marred with tragedy.
In spite of all her troubles, though, Minnelli has always managed to come out on top.
Minnelli has captured the hearts of generation after generation, and her lifelong career is still going strong.
Here are some facts that you never knew about Liza Minnelli.
“Everybody does what everybody else does.”
As she grew older, of course, Minnelli realized that her world was anything but normal.
As Minnelli put it in an interview withVariety, “I was born and they took a picture.”
But Minnelli had very different dreams as a child, although they still involved performing for an adoring audience.
Minnelli explained that it wasn’t exactly the ice that enraptured her, though.
“I loved the music,” she revealed.
“I loved the music so much that I wanted to do strides that matched it.
It was like some kind of force.”
“And I thought, maybe I’ll do that,” she added.
And while her parents reluctantly approved of her move, they didn’t financially support her.
Minnelli’s efforts paid off.
At 19, her role in “Flora the Red Menace” made her the youngest-ever Tony winner.
Minnelli didn’t let the award make her complacent, though.
“The best part about winning an award is the night you win it,” she told Variety.
“And then you have to go back to work.”
Garland died in 1969 from an accidental overdose, notedBiography.
She was just 47 years old.
She added, “It took space away, and also now no one can harm her.
“I got my drive from my mama and my dreams from my father,” she toldVogue.
Minnelli’s father encouraged her love of acting and dancing.
They divorced the following year, and both would go on to re-marry three times.
“They married again so many times I have millions of parents,” Minnelli toldThe Guardian.
Some of those bonds could be complicated, though.
The lawsuit was dropped later that year, with Minnelli’s stepmother insisting the two were on good terms.
“I love her, she said (via the Associated Press).
“She’s my daughter.
Watch her perform just once, though, and it becomes obvious that her success is well-deserved.
PerInsider, just a handful of people have won “the most coveted award in Hollywood.”
The short list includes Rita Moreno,Audrey Hepburn, Andrew Lloyd Weber, and John Legend.
“My whole life, this disease has been rampant,” she toldThe Guardianof her alcoholism.
“I inherited it, and it’s been horrendous, but I have always asked for help.”
After her mother’s death, Minnelli was prescribed Valium to cope with her grief.
Minnelli then began abusing drugs, until she entered rehab at the Betty Ford Center in 1985.
“I’m learning to be a friend to myself,” Minnelli said (viaThe Buffalo News).
“So what do you do?”
she asked “Today” in 2005 after a relapse.
“You get up and you go on, and you try not to do it again.”
Minnelli eventually made a full recovery, but it was hard work.
“I just couldn’t I don’t know how you’d do anything else.”
“I want to live,” she revealed.
“I have always wanted to live.”
“I said, ‘What do you mean?'”
she told theThe Spokesman Review.
“I went … and worked three hours on how to fall down.”
Still, Minnelli has never seemed keen on becoming a movie star.
“I loved entertaining.”
Instead, she prefers the rush of performing for a packed theater.
“That’s a different audience every night,” she added.
Minnelli has very strong feelings about someone interpreting her life.
As far as Minnelli is concerned, there’s only one Liza Minnelli and she’s it.
“She doesn’t want to see somebody do her,” said Feinstein.
“She says, ‘Honey, not when I’m alive and can still do it.'”
PerTown & Country, Garland was married five times, with four of those marriages ending in divorce.
Minnelli has been married and divorced four times.
Minnelli’s most recent marriage, to David Gest, ended in a bitter divorce after just 16 months.
Minnelli swore off marriage after that.
I made a mistake and you pay for that.”
In spite of everything she’s been through, though, Minnelli is still thriving.
“You don’t understand,” she toldVulturein 2013.
“I am ageless!”
Minnelli added that she “never think[s] about age,” and why would she?
She’s still at the top of her game and as beloved as ever.
Still, she was gracious about the film.
“I hope [Renee Zellweger] had a good time making it,” she toldVarietyin February 2020.
After her win, she toldIndieWirethat making the film was a “celebration” of Garland’s life.
Minnelli was not alone in her distaste for the biopic, however.
Some of her celebrity pals got together for a virtual celebration called “A Love Letter to Liza.”
The event streamed live onStellarand was re-aired twice after Minnelli’s birthday.
Varietyreported that the celebration wasn’t just a way to pay homage to the icon, either.
She was at the 2022 Academy Awards, however, and co-presented the best picture Oscar alongside Lady Gaga.
