Judy Garland (June 10, 1922
– June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through
a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained
international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles,
as a
recording artist and on
the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a
Juvenile
Academy Award, won
a
Golden Globe
Award, received the
Cecil
B. DeMille Award for her work in films, as well as
Grammy Awards and a
Special Tony
Award.
Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand
Rapids, Minnesota, Judy Garland was the youngest child of
Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm (March 20, 1886 – November 17,
1935) and Ethel Marion Milne (November 17, 1893 – January 5,
1953). Garland's parents were vaudevillians who
settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured
vaudeville acts.
Named after both her parents and
baptized at a local
Episcopal church, "Baby" (as Frances was called by her parents
and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance. Baby
Gumm's first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half when she
joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm
(1915–64) and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm (1917–77),
on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show
and sang a chorus of "Jingle
Bells".[2]
Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed at
their father's theater for the next few years. Following rumors
that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances toward male ushers at his
theater, the family relocated to Lancaster,
California, in June 1926.[3]
Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and
Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters
into motion pictures.
After appearing in vaudeville with her
sisters, Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including
nine with Mickey Rooney and
the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The
Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, Garland was released from
the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking
concert appearances, including a critically acclaimed Carnegie Hall
concert, a well-regarded but short-lived television
series and a return to acting beginning with a critically
acclaimed performance in A
Star Is Born (1954).
Despite her professional triumphs,
Garland battled personal problems throughout her life. Insecure
about her appearance, her feelings were compounded by film
executives who told her she was unattractive and manipulated her
on-screen physical appearance. Plied with drugs to control her
weight and increase her productivity, Garland endured a
decades-long struggle with prescription drug addiction.
Garland was plagued by financial instability, often owing hundreds
of thousands of dollars in back taxes. She
married five times, with her first four marriages ending in
divorce. She also attempted suicide on a number of
occasions. Garland died of an accidental drug overdose
at the age of 47, leaving children Liza Minnelli,
Lorna Luft and Joey
Luft.
In 1997, Garland was posthumously
awarded a Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been
inducted into the Grammy
Hall of Fame. In 1999, the American
Film Institute placed her among the ten greatest
female stars in the history of American
cinema.