Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli - Mein Herr - Cabaret

Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946) is an American actress and singer. She is a daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli.

Already established as a nightclub singer and musical theatre actress, she first attracted critical acclaim for her dramatic performances in the movies The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970). Minnelli rose to international stardom for her appearance as Sally Bowles in the 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Cabaret, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

While film projects such as Lucky Lady, A Matter of Time and New York, New York were less favorably received than her stage roles, Minnelli became one of the most versatile, highly regarded and best-selling entertainers in television, beginning with Liza with a Z in 1972, and on stage in the Broadway productions of Flora the Red Menace, The Act and The Rink. Minnelli also toured internationally and did shows such as Liza Minnelli: At Carnegie Hall, Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event, and Liza Live from Radio City Music Hall.

She starred in Liza's Back, in 2002. She had guest appearances in the sitcom Arrested Development and had a small role in the movie The OH in Ohio, while continuing to tour internationally. In 2008/09, she performed the Broadway show Liza's at The Palace...! which earned a Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event.

Minnelli has won a total of three Tony Awards awards, including a Special Tony Award She has also won an Oscar, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globes and a Grammy Legend Award for her contributions and influence in the recording field, along with many other honors and awards. She was one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.

Liza Minnelli was born in Hollywood, California, to Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland. Her mother, Judy Garland, had a history in film, music, and a role in the vaudeville act "The Gumm Sisters". Her father was a film director. Minnelli attended New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and Chadwick School.Her first performing experience on film was at age three where she appeared in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime. The film starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

Minnelli's half-sister and brother from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft are Lorna and Joey Luft. She also has another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli (nicknamed Tina Nina), from her father's second marriage.

Minnelli began performing professionally at age 17, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received the Theatre World Award. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. She turned to Broadway at 19, and in 1965 she became the youngest woman ever to win a leading actress Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace. It was the first time she worked with the musical duo John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Minnelli began as a nightclub singer as an adolescent, making her professional nightclub debut at the age of 19 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.. She later appeared in other clubs and on stage in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and New York City. Her success as a live performer led to her recording several albums at Capitol Records: Liza! Liza! (1964), It Amazes Me (1965) and There Is a Time (1966). In her early years, she recorded traditional pop standards as well as show tunes from various musicals that she starred in. Because of this fact, William Ruhlmann named her “Barbra Streisand's little sister” The Capitol albums Liza! Liza!, It Amazes Me, and There Is A Time were reissued on the two-CD compilation The Capitol Years in 2001, in their entirety.