Judy Garland is one of the Hollywood legends. Her life was made recently into a biographical film!
So let’s dive into her tumultuous life and career!
- Judy Garland was born in June 10, 1922
- She died inJune 22, 1969
- Her birth name was Frances Ethel Gumm
- She was an American actress, singer, dancer, and vaudevillian
- Her career spanned 45 years
- She attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles
- As a recording artist
- And on the concert stage
- Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Special Tony Award
- Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year
- She won for her live recording Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961)
- Garland began performing in vaudeville as a child with her two elder sisters
- She was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager
- Although she appeared in more than two dozen films with MGM
- And received acclaim for many different roles
- She is widely remembered for her portrayal of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly
- And regularly collaborated with director and second husband Vincente Minnelli
- Some of her film appearances during this period include roles in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946), Easter Parade (1948), and Summer Stock (1950)
- Garland was released from MGM in 1950
- After 15 years with the studio
- Amid a series of personal struggles that prevented her from fulfilling the terms of her contract
- Her film career diminished thereafter
- Two of Garland’s most critically acclaimed performances came late in her career
- She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in A Star Is Born (1954)
- And a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
- She also made record-breaking concert appearances
- Released eight studio albums
- And hosted her own Emmy-nominated television series, The Judy Garland Show (1963–1964)
- At age 39, Garland became the youngest and first female recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry
- In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
- And in 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the 10 greatest female stars of classic American cinema
- Garland struggled in her personal life from an early age
- The pressures of early stardom affected her physical and mental health from her teens onward
- Her self-image was influenced and constantly criticized by film executives
- They believed that she was physically unattractive
- Those same executives manipulated her onscreen physical appearance
- Throughout her adulthood she was plagued by alcohol and substance abuse
- As well as financial instability
- She often owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes
- She had a lifelong addiction to drugs, including alcohol
- Ultimately led to her death in London from an accidental barbiturate overdose at age 47
- Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota
- She was the youngest child of Ethel Marion and Francis Avent “Frank” Gumm
- Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts
- She was of Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry
- She was named after both of her parents
- She was baptized at a local Episcopal church
- “Baby” was the nickname she was given by her parents and sisters
- She shared her family’s flair for song and dance
- Her first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half
- Then she joined her elder sisters Mary Jane “Suzy/Suzanne” Gumm and Dorothy Virginia “Jimmie” Gumm
- On the stage of her father’s movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of “Jingle Bells”
- The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years
- Accompanied by their mother on piano
- The family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926
- Following rumors that her father had made sexual advances towards male ushers
- Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster
- And Ethel began managing her daughters and working to get them into motion pictures
- By the time of her death in 1969, Garland had appeared in more than 35 films
- She has been called one of the greats of entertainment
- And her reputation has endured
- In 1992, Gerald Clarke of Architectural Digest dubbed Garland “probably the greatest American entertainer of the twentieth century”
- O’Brien believes that “No one in the history of Hollywood ever packed the musical wallop that Garland did”
- Turner Classic Movies dubbed Garland “history’s most poignant voice”
- Entertainment Weekly’s Gene Lyons dubbed Garland “the Madonna of her generation”
- The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest female stars of Golden Age Hollywood cinema
- In recent years, Garland’s legacy has maintained fans of all different ages, both younger and older
- Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997
- Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame
- These include “Over the Rainbow”
- It was ranked as the number one movie song of all time in the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Songs” list
- Four more Garland songs are featured on the list: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (No. 76), “Get Happy” (No. 61), “The Trolley Song” (No. 26), and “The Man That Got Away” (No. 11)
- She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989
- And again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born)
- Subsequent celebrities who have suffered from personal struggles with drug addiction and substance abuse have been compared to Garland
- Particularly Michael Jackson
- Garland’s elder daughter Liza Minnelli had a personal life that was almost parallel to that of her mother’s
- Having struggled with substance abuse and several unsuccessful marriages
- Paglia observed that actress Marilyn Monroe would exhibit behavior which was similar to that which Garland had exhibited a decade earlier in Meet Me in St. Louis
- On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Judy Garland among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire
- Garland had a large fan base in the gay community and became a gay icon
- Reasons given for her standing among gay men are the admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in the United States during the height of her fame, and her value as a camp figure
- In the 1960s, a reporter asked how she felt about having a large gay following
- She replied, “I couldn’t care less. I sing to people!”
Got anything to add?