Liza Minnelli

Royalty is usually passed on to the next generation as an inheritance, from one family member to another. Liza Minnelli inherited her show-business royalty from both sides of her family, from her father Vincent Minnelli, an extraordinary film director, and her mother, the legendary Judy Garland. When one is the daughter of icons of such magnitude there is only one thing to do: to become better than they ever were. And Liza Minnelli did just that, with a talent that made her a heroine of the stage, a unique live performer, and an astonishing film actress.

Liza Minnelli - SOME PEOPLE 1991.

She may very well be the only person in the world capable of singing "New York, New York" without being overshadowed by Frank Sinatra's version in the mind of her audience. In fact, she sang it in the Scorsese film of the same name, starring Robert De Niro. Cabaret highlights all her skills: singing, dancing, acting, and her stage presence. Liza Minnelli knows when to stay, when to go, how to move; she understands timing perfectly. In many ways she was made for Broadway, and yet in the Arthur films, next to a brilliant and much missed Dudley Moore, she gives a comedy performance that shows a different side of her - always ironic and astute.

 

Alcohol and drugs have haunted her life, causing pain and also seriously jeopardizing her health, but like the Phoenix, Liza always seems to rise from her own ashes just when all seems loss. And when she makes her return she surprises everyone.

 

Wherever she performs she thrills audiences, proving that wherever she goes, whenever she appears, people love her and simply cannot get enough of her. She is a true creature of the stage and she is clearly enegised by the lights and by the audience. This relationship with the stage is always in tension with her great sadness and her search for a private peace, an inner stability that the entertainment business deprives her of.

Liza Minnelli on "The Joy Behar Show" May 2010.

Born in L.A., she is the quintessential New Yorker, a queen of Broadway and Hollywood. She has had both tremendous success in the public sphere and tragic times in her private life - four marriages and a sadly naturally interrupted pregnancy. She has been the golden girl of a golden family, every one of whom has won an Oscar, a unique case in Oscar history.

 

In 2000, Liza showed tremendous strength when she was diagnosed with encephalitis and presented with the possibility of a life in a wheelchair and probably losing her ability to talk. It was a devastating prognosis, but Liza was able to turn the situation around with a hard work and therapy. Signs of the disease are still there, but her spirit pulled her through, and she continues to perform up to the present day.

 

Liza's sadness and loneliness, the most poignant aspect of this Hollywood personality, is perhaps just the soul of any comedian. Those of us in the audience, when we watch her perform, must both admire her spirit and sympathize with her pain; to do otherwise is to sell her short - and she deserves far more than this.

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