Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1955

Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

January 7: Marian Anderson at the Met

Events[link]

January[link]

• January 2 – José Antonio Remón Cantera, president of Panama, is assassinated at a race track in Panama City.
• January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.
• January 7 – Marian Anderson is the first African American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
• January 18–January 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan).
• January 19 – The game Scrabble debuts.
• January 22 – The Pentagon announces a plan to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) armed with nuclear weapons.
• January 23 – Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17 near Birmingham, England.
• January 25 – Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941.
• January 28 – United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China.

January 22: ICBM

February[link]

• February 1 – Ray Kroc opens a McDonald's fast food restaurant (the company's 9th since it was founded in 1940), but Kroc later takes over the company and oversees its worldwide expansion.
• February 4 – Pact of Mutual Cooperation "Baghdad Pact" signed.
• February 10 – Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy helps the Republic of China evacuate Chinese Nationalist army and residents from the Tachen Islands to Taiwan.
• February 12 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.
• February 16 – Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.
• February 19 – Southeast Asia Treaty Organization established.
• February 22 – In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,77.

February 1: McDonald's

March[link]

• March 2 – Claudette Colvin (a fifteen year old African American girl) refuses to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white woman after the driver demands it. She is carried off the bus backwards whilst being kicked and handcuffed and harassed on the way to the police station.
• March 5 – WBBJ-TV signs on the air in the Jackson, Tennessee, with WDXI as its initial call-letters, to expanded American commercial television in mostly-rural areas.
• March 7 – The Broadway musical version of Peter Pan, which had opened in 1954 starring Mary Martin, is presented on television for the first time by NBC-TV with its original cast, as an installment of Producers' Showcase. It is also the first time that a stage musical is presented in its entirety on TV almost exactly as it was performed on stage. This program gains the largest viewership of a TV special up to this time, and it becomes one of the first great TV family musical classics.
• March 17 – The Richard Riot occurs in Montreal.
• March 19 – KXTV of Stockton, California, signs on the air in the United States, being the 100th commercial television station in this country.
• March 20 – Evan Hunter's movie adaptation of the novel Blackboard Jungle premieres in the United States, featuring the famous single, Rock Around the Clock, by Bill Haley and His Comets. Teenagers jump from their seats to dance to the song.

April[link]

• April 1 – EOKA A starts a revolution British rule in Cyprus (taken over from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and a Crown Colony since 1925).
• April 5
  • Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • Richard J. Daley defeats Robert Merrian to become Mayor of Chicago by a vote of 708,222 to 581,555.
• April 6 – Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• April 11 – The Taiwanese Kuomintang put a time-bomb on the airplane Kashmir Princess, killing 16 but failing to assassinate the People's Republic of China leader, Zhou Enlai.
• April 12 – The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the FDA.
• April 14 – The Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup for the 7th time in franchise history. Detroit wouldn't win the Cup again until 1997.
• April 15 – Middle East Treaty Organization (MENTO).
• April 16 – Burma-Japanese peace treaty, signed in Rangoon on November 5, 1954, comes into effect, formally ending a state of war between the two countries that had not existed for a long time.
• April 17 – Imre Nagy, the communist Premier of Hungary, is ousted for being too moderate.
• April 18–April 24 – Asian-African Conference held in Indonesia.

May[link]

• May 1 – Warsaw Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance signed (Warsaw Treaty Organization) (effective June 6).
• May 5 – West Germany becomes a sovereign country recognized by important Western foreign countries, such as France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
• May 6 – WEU charter effective.
• May 9 – West Germany joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• May 10 – Mark David Chapman, the man who, in 1980, shot and brutally killed former Beatle John Lennon, is born.
• May 11 – Japanese National Railways' ferry Shiun Maru sinks after collision with sister ship Uko Maru in thick fog off Takamatsu, Shikoku, in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan; 166 passengers (many children) and two crew are killed. This event is influential in plans to construct the Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (built 1986-98).
• May 12– New York's Third Avenue Elevated runs its last train between Chathem Square in Manhattan and East 149th Street in the Bronx, thus ending elevated train service in Manhattan.
• May 14 – Eight Communist Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defence treaty in Warsaw, Poland, that is called the Warsaw Pact.
• May 15 – Austrian State Treaty, which restores Austria's national sovereignty, is concluded between the four occupying powers following World War II (the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France) and Austria, setting it up as a neutral country.
• May 25 – Joe Brown and George Band are the first to attain the summit of Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, as part of a British team led by Charles Evans.

June[link]

• June 7 – The TV quiz program The $64,000 Question premieres on CBS-TV in the United States, with Hal March as the host.
• June 11 – Le Mans disaster: eighty-three people are killed and at least 100 are injured after two race cars collide in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.
• June 13 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.
• June 16 – Lady and the Tramp, the Walt Disney company's 15th animated film, premieres in Chicago, Illinois.

July[link]

• July 7 – The New Zealand Special Air Service is formed.
• July 13 – Ruth Ellis (born 1926) is hanged for murder in London, becoming the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom.
• July 17 – The American Broadcasting Company broadcasts a sneak preview of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
• July 18
  • Disneyland opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
  • The first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering the town of Arco, Idaho.
  • The Illinois Governor, William Stratton, signs the "Loyalty Oath Act", passed by the State Legislature, which mandates all public employees take a loyalty oath to Illinois and the United States, or lose their jobs.
  • The first Geneva Summit meeting between the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France begins. It ends on July 23.
• July 27 – El Al Flight 402 from Vienna, Austria to Tel Aviv-Yafo via Istanbul is shot down over Bulgaria. All 58 passengers and crewmen aboard the Lockheed Constellation airplane are killed.
• July 28 – The first Interlingua Congress in Tours, France, leading to foundation of the Union Mundial pro Interlingua.

August[link]

August 19: Hurricane Diane

• August 19 – Hurricane Diane hits the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.
• August 20 – Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
• August 22 – Eleven schoolchildren are killed when their school bus is hit by a freight train in Spring City, Tennessee.
• August 25 – The last Soviet Army occupation forces leave Austria.
• August 27 – First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London.

September[link]

September 30: James Dean dies in a car wreck.

• September 2 – Under the guidance of Dr Humphry Osmond, Christopher Mayhew ingests 400 mg of mescaline hydrochloride and allows himself to be filmed as part of a Panorama special for BBC TV that was never broadcast.
• September 6 – Istanbul Pogrom: Istanbul's Greek minority is the target of a government-sponsored pogrom.
• September 10 – The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS-TV network.
• September 14 – Pope Pius XII elevates many of the Apostolic Vicariates in Africa to Metropolitan Archdioceses
• September 15 – Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in Paris by Olympia Press.
• September 19–September 21 – The President of Argentina, Juan Peron, is ousted in a military coup.
• September 19 – Hurricane Hilda kills about 200 people in Mexico.
• September 22 – Independent Commercial Television (ITV) begins broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
• September 23 – Alec Guinness meets the actor James Dean. Guinness supposedly has a premonition of Dean's death.
• September 24 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States suffers a coronary thrombosis while on vacation in Denver, Colorado.
• September 30 – Actor James Dean is killed when his automobile collides with another car at a highway junction near Cholame, California. Dean is just 24 years old.

October[link]

• October 2 – Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV program debuts on the NBC-TV network in the United States.
• October 3 – The Mickey Mouse Club TV program debuts on the ABC-TV network in the United States.
• October 4
  • The Reverend Sun Myung Moon is released from prison in Seoul, South Korea.
  • The Brooklyn Dodgers finally win the World Series, defeating the New York Yankees 2–0 in Game 7 of the 1955 baseball playoff.
• October 5 – Disneyland Hotel opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
• October 11 – 70-mm film for projection is introduced with the theatrical release of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical film, Oklahoma!
• October 14 – ODECA secretariat inaugurated.
• October 20
  • The first footage of Elvis Presley is filmed as part of a film short about the Cleveland, Ohio, disc jockey Bill Randle.
  • Cardiff is announced as the capital city of the principality of Wales, within the United Kingdom.
• October 26
  • After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares its permanent neutrality.
  • Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam to be a republic with himself as its President and forms the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.
• October 29 – Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608, the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster.

November[link]

October 26: Austria free.

• November 1 – The Vietnam War begins between the South Vietnam Army and the North Vietnam Army in which the latter is allied with the Viet Cong.
  • A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B airliner flying above Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.
• November 3 – The five-and-one-half-mile long Rimutaka Railroad tunnel opens in New Zealand.
• November 5 – Racial segregation is outlawed on trains and buses in Interstate Commerce in the United States.
• November 19 – C. Northcote Parkinson first propounds 'Parkinson's Law', in The Economist.
• November 20 – Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town show for the CBS-TV network.
• November 26 – The British Governor of Cyprus declares a State of Emergency on the island.

December[link]

• December 5
  • The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge to become the AFL-CIO.
  • The Montgomery Improvement Association is formed in Montgomery, Alabama, by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other Black ministers to coordinate a Black people's boycott of all city buses.
• December 9 – Adnan Menderes of DP forms the new government of Turkey (22nd government)
• December 14
  • The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York opens to traffic.
  • Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Sri Lanka join the United Nations simultaneously, after several years of moratorium on admitting new members that began during the Korean War.
• December 22 – American cytogeneticist Joe Hin Tjio discovers the correct number of human chromosomes, forty-six.
• December 31 – General Motors Corporation becomes the first American corporation to make a profit of over one billion dollars in one year.

Date unknown[link]

• Strömsund Bridge in Sweden is completed, being the first significant cable-stayed bridge of the modern era.^[1]

World population[link]

• World population: 2,755,823,000
  • Africa: 246,746,000
  • Asia: 1,541,947,000
  • Europe: 575,184,000
  • South America: 190,797,000
  • North America: 186,884,000
  • Oceania: 14,265,000

Births[link]

January[link]

• January 1
  • Mario Andreacchio, Australian film director
  • Mary Beard, British classicist
• January 2 – Vivien Savage, French singer
• January 6 – Rowan Atkinson, English comedian and actor
• January 9 – J. K. Simmons, American actor
• January 13
  • Ran Ito, Japanese actress
  • Paul Kelly, Australian musician
  • Jay McInerney, American writer
• January 17
  • Steve Earle, American musician
  • Mami Koyama, Japanese voice actress
• January 18 – Kevin Costner, American actor, producer and director
• January 19 – Sir Simon Rattle, English conductor
• January 20
  • Joe Doherty, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
  • Hiromi Ota, Japanese singer
• January 21 – Jeff Koons, American artist
• January 22 – Keiko Takahashi, Japanese actress
• January 26
  • Edward Van Halen, Dutch-born American rock musician (Van Halen)
  • Björn Andrésen, Swedish actor (Death in Venice)
• January 27
  • John G. Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States
  • Alexander Stuart, British author
• January 28
  • Vinod Khosla, venture capitalist
  • Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France
  • George Tokoro, Japanese TV personality and singer-songwriter
• January 29
  • Eddie Jordan, American basketball player and head coach
  • Femi Pedro, Lagos State, Nigeria

February[link]

• February 2 – Leszek Engelking, Polish poet, writer and translator
• February 3 – Kirsty Wark, Scottish television presenter
• February 6 – Michael Pollan, American journalist
• February 7 – Miguel Ferrer, American actor
• February 8
  • John Grisham, American novelist
  • Xu Bing, Chinese artist
• February 9
  • Charles Shaughnessy, English actor
  • Jerry Beck, American animation historian
• February 10
  • Chris Adams, British professional wrestler and judoka (d. 2001)
  • Greg Norman, Australian golfer
• February 12 – Ai Satō, Japanese voice actress
• February 13 – Akiko Yano, Japanese singer-songwriter
• February 15 – Christopher McDonald, American actor
• February 17 – Mo Yan, Chinese writer
• February 19 – Jeff Daniels, American actor
• February 21 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor and comedian
• February 23
  • Howard Jones, English musician
  • Flip Saunders, American basketball coach
• February 24
  • Alain Prost, French race car driver
  • Steve Jobs, American computer pioneer (d. 2011)

March[link]

• March 1 – Sir Timothy Laurence, second husband of Anne, Princess Royal
• March 2
  • Shoko Asahara, Japanese cult leader (Aum Shinrikyo)
  • Jay Osmond, American pop singer
• March 3 – Kent Derricott, Canadian TV personality in Japan
• March 4 – Dominique Pinon, French actor
• March 5
  • Penn Jillette, American magician and comedian
  • Julien Dray, French politician
• March 6 – Alberta Watson, Canadian actress
• March 7 – Tommy Kramer, American football player
• March 8
  • Don Ashby, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1981)
  • Joellyn Auklandus, American writer
• March 9
  • Ornella Muti, Italian actress
  • Franco Uncini, Italian motorcycle racer
• March 10 – Youssra, Egyptian actress and singer
• March 11 – Nina Hagen, German pop singer
• March 13
  • Bruno Conti, Italian football player
  • Glenne Headly, American actress of film, stage and television
• March 15
  • Robert Kabbas, Australian weightlifter
  • Dee Snider, American rock singer (Twisted Sister)
• March 16
  • Jiro Watanabe, Japanese boxer
  • Bruno Barreto, Brazilian film director
• March 17 – Gary Sinise, American actor, producer and director
• March 18
  • Guillermo Dávila, Venezuelan actor and singer
  • Dwayne Murphy, American baseball player
• March 19
  • Bruce Willis, American actor
  • Simon Yam, Hong Kong actor
• March 20 – Mariya Takeuchi, Japanese singer-songwriter
• March 21 – Philippe Troussier, French football coach
• March 22
  • Pete Sessions, American politician
  • Valdis Zatlers, president of Latvia
  • Lena Olin, Swedish actress
• March 23 – Moses Malone, American basketball player
• March 26 – Danny Arndt, Canadian ice hockey player
• March 28
  • John Alderdice, Irish politician
  • Reba McEntire, American country singer and actress
• March 29
  • Earl Campbell, American football player
  • Brendan Gleeson, Irish actor
  • Marina Sirtis, English actress (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• March 31 – Angus Young, Australian rock guitarist (AC/DC)

April[link]

• April 3 – Mick Mars, American rock guitarist (Motley Crue)
• April 5
  • Janice Long, British radio disc jockey
  • Akira Toriyama, Japanese manga artist
• April 6
  • Michael Rooker, American actor
  • Janet Ellis, British children's TV presenter
• April 7
  • Grace Hightower, American philanthropist, actress and singer
  • Werner Stocker, German actor (d. 1993)
  • Gregg Jarrett, American lawyer turned journalist
  • Akira Nishino, Japanese soccer player and manager
• April 8
  • Kane Hodder, American actor
  • Barbara Kingsolver, American fiction writer
• April 9 – Kate Heyhoe, American food writer
• April 11 – Kevin Brady, American politician
• April 13
  • Steve Camp, American Christian musician
  • Hideki Saijo, Japanese singer and actor
• April 15 – Dodi Al-Fayed, Egyptian businessman (d. 1997)
• April 16 – Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
• April 18 – Bobby Castillo, American baseball player
• April 21
  • Ebiet G Ade, Indonesian singer and songwriter
  • Toninho Cerezo, Brazilian footballer and coach
• April 23
  • Judy Davis, Australian actress
  • Fumi Hirano, Japanese voice actress and essayist
  • Tony Miles, English chess player (d. 2001)
• April 24 – John de Mol, Dutch media tycoon
• April 25
  • John Nunn, English chess player and mathematician
  • Parviz Parastui, Iranian actor
• April 26 – Chen Daoming, Chinese actor
• April 27 – Eric Schmidt, American software engineer and businessman
• April 28 – Eddie Jobson, English musician
• April 29
  • Wendee Lee, American voice actress
  • Kate Mulgrew, American actress
  • Yūko Tanaka, Japanese actress

May[link]

• May 1 – Ray Buttigieg, Maltese composer and poet
• May 2
  • Willie Miller, Scottish footballer
  • Donatella Versace, Italian designer
  • Dave Winer, American software pioneer
• May 3 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer (d. 2004)
• May 4
  • Avram Grant, Israeli football manager
  • Robert Ellis Orrall, American singer
• May 6 – Tom Bergeron, American television host
• May 8 – Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia
• May 9 – Anne Sofie von Otter, Swedish mezzo-soprano
• May 10
  • Chris Berman, American sports broadcaster (ABC Sports)
  • Mark David Chapman, American murderer of John Lennon
• May 16
  • Olga Korbut, Russian gymnast
  • Jack Morris, American baseball player
  • Hazel O'Connor, English singer-songwriter and actress
  • Debra Winger, American actress
• May 17 – Bill Paxton, American actor
• May 18 – Chow Yun-fat, Hong Kong actor
• May 19
  • James Gosling, Canadian software engineer
  • Mark Staff Brandl, American and Swiss artist and art historian
  • Th. Emil Homerin, American scholar of religion
• May 20
  • Diego Abatantuono, Italian actor
  • Zbigniew Preisner, Polish film composer
• May 22
  • Chalmers "Spanky" Alford, American jazz guitarist (d. 2008)
  • Dale Winton, English radio DJ and television presenter
• May 24
  • Rosanne Cash, American entertainer
  • Rumiko Ukai, Japanese voice actress
• May 25
  • Suguru Egawa, Japanese baseball player
  • Connie Sellecca, American actress
• May 26
  • Doris Dörrie, German actress and screenplay writer
  • Masaharu Morimoto, Japanese chef
• May 30
  • Colm Tóibín. Irish novelist
  • Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII, Japanese Kabuki actor
• May 31
  • Susie Essman, American actress
  • Tommy Emmanuel, Australian guitarist

June[link]

• June 1 – Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler (58th Yokozuna grand champion)
• June 2 – Dana Carvey, American actor and comedian
• June 5 – Fernando Borrego Linares, Cuban singer and songwriter (aka Polo Montañez)
• June 6
  • Sandra Bernhard, American comedian, actress, author and singer
  • Chris Nyman, American baseball player
• June 7 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (d. 1989)
• June 8
  • Tim Berners-Lee, English inventor of the World Wide Web
  • Griffin Dunne, American actor and director
• June 10
  • Floyd Bannister, American baseball player
  • Andrew Stevens, American actor, producer and director
• June 11 – Yuri Sedykh, Ukrainian hammer thrower
• June 14
  • Kim Lankford, American actress, businesswoman, and horse wrangler
  • Paul O'Grady, English talk show host and comedian
• June 15 – Polly Draper, American actress, screenwriter, playwright, producer and director
• June 16 – Laurie Metcalf, American actress
• June 18 – Sandy Allen, American, world's tallest woman (d. 2008)
• June 20 – Tor Norretranders, Danish author
• June 21
  • Aloysius Amwano, Nauruan politician
  • Jean-Pierre Mader, French singer-songwriter
  • Leigh McCloskey, American actor (Dallas)
  • Michel Platini, French football player
  • Tim Bray, Canadian computer programmer
• June 22 – Glenn Danzig, American rock singer (The Misfits, Samhain, Danzig)
• June 23 – Alan J. Gow, British motorsport executive
• June 24 – Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Indian head of Siddha Yoga
• June 26 – Yoko Gushiken, Japanese boxer
• June 27 – Isabelle Adjani, French actress
• June 30 – David Alan Grier, American actor and comedian

July[link]

• July 1
  • Sanma Akashiya, Japanese comedian and actor
  • Lisa Scottoline, American novelist
• July 2 – Stephen Walt, American political scientist
• July 3
  • Matt Keough, American baseball player
  • John Cramer, American game show announcer
• July 5
  • Sebastian Barry, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet.
  • Henry Lee Summer, American singer
• July 8 – Mihaela Mitrache, Romanian actress
• July 9
  • Fred Norris, American radio personality
  • Jimmy Smits, American actor
• July 11 – Balaji Sadasivan, Singaporean politician and neurosurgeon
• July 18 – Bernd Fasching, Austrian painter and sculptor
• July 21
  • Howie Epstein, American musician and producer (d. 2003)
  • Marcelo Bielsa, Argentine football player and manager
• July 22
  • Willem Dafoe, American actor
  • Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani politician
• July 26 – Michele Pillar, American Christian musician
• July 27 – Allan Border, Australian cricketer
• July 31 – Jakie Quartz, French singer

August[link]

• August 2 – Caleb Carr, American writer
• August 4
  • Gerrie Coetzee, South African boxer
  • Billy Bob Thornton, American actor, director and screenwriter
• August 6
  • Ron Davis, American baseball player
  • Gordon J. Brand, English golfer
• August 7 – Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
• August 8 – Diddú (Sigrún Hjálmtýsdóttir), Icelandic soprano and songwriter
• August 9 – Doug Williams, American football quarterback
• August 10 – Mel Tiangco, Television host and newscasters 24 Oras
• August 13 – Daryl, American magician
• August 14 – Gillian Taylforth, English actress
• August 17 – Richard Hilton, American businessman
• August 19
  • Peter Gallagher, American actor
  • Terry Harper, American baseball player
• August 20 – Agnes Chan, Hong Kong born TV personality in Japan
• August 22 – Chiranjeevi, Indian actor
• August 24 – Mike Huckabee, American politician, former Governor and 2008 Presidential candidate
• August 27
  • Laura Fygi, Dutch singer
  • Sergey Khlebnikov, Soviet speed skater (d. 1999)
• August 30 – Mayumi Muroyama, Japanese manga artist
• August 31
  • Olek Krupa, Polish actor
  • Edwin Moses, American athlete

September[link]

• September 1
  • Billy Blanks, American martial artist, inventor of the Tae Bo
  • Bruce Foxton, English musician
• September 2
  • Robert Duncan, American astrophysicist
  • Natalya Petrusyova, Soviet speed skater
  • Michelle Yim, Hong Kong actress
• September 4 – Hiroshi Izawa, Japanese actor
• September 6 – Raymond Benson, American author
• September 7 – Efim Zelmanov, Russian mathematician
• September 9 – John Kricfalusi, Canadian cartoonist
• September 12 – Peter Scolari, American actor and comedian
• September 15
  • Željka Antunović, Croatian politician
  • Renzo Rosso, Italian clothing designer
• September 16 – Robin Yount, American baseball player
• September 17 – Charles Martinet, American voice-actor
• September 19 – Richard Burmer, American composer, sound designer, and musician (d. 2006)
• September 21 – Richard Hieb, American astronaut
• September 24 – Shinbo Nomura, Japanese manga artist
• September 25 – Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, German football player
• September 28 – Stéphane Dion, Canadian politician

October[link]

• October 2 – Philip Oakey, English rock musician (The Human League)
• October 5
  • Jean-Jacques Lafon, French singer-songwriter
  • Caroline Loeb, French singer and actress
• October 7 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-born Chinese cellist
• October 13 – Sergei Shepelev, Russian ice hockey player
• October 15
  • Kulbir Bhaura, British field hockey player
  • James B. Aguayo-Martel, physician, surgeon, scientist, inventor
  • Tanya Roberts, American actress (Charlie's Angels)
• October 18
  • Hiromi Go, Japanese singer
  • Timmy Mallett, British television presenter
• October 19 – LaSalle Ishii, Japanese TV personality
• October 21
  • Yasukazu Hamada, Japanese politician
  • Rich Mullins, American Christian musician (d. 1997)
• October 24 – Karen Austin, American actress
• October 25 – Glynis Barber, English Actor
• October 28
  • Bill Gates, American software entrepreneur
  • Indra Nooyi, Indian CEO
• October 29
  • Kevin DuBrow, American musician (d. 2007)
  • Etsuko Shihomi, Japanese actress
  • Roger O'Donnell, English musician
• October 30 – Jeremy Black, British historian
• October 31 – Eduardo V. Manalo, 3rd Executive Minister (Tagapamahalang Pangkalahatan) of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ)

November[link]

• November 2 – Chris Burnett, American saxophone player, composer, veteran of US military jazz bands and band leader
• November 3
  • Phil Simms, American football player
  • Yukihiko Tsutsumi, Japanese film director
  • Teresa De Sio, Italian singer-songwriter
• November 4 – Moulana Ghousavi Shah, Author, (Secretary General: The Conference of World Religions)
• November 4 – Matti Vanhanen, Prime Minister of Finland
• November 5
  • Pedro Brieger, Argentine journalist and sociologist.
  • Kris Jenner, American TV personality
  • Karan Thapar, Indian journalist, political analyst & commentator
• November 6 – Maria Shriver, American journalist, First Lady of California
• November 7 – Detlef Ultsch, German judo athlete
• November 9 – Karen Dotrice, English actress
• November 10 – Roland Emmerich, German film director
• November 11 – Jigme Singye Wangchuk, King of Bhutan
• November 13 – Whoopi Goldberg, American actress and comedienne
• November 14 – Koichi Nakano, Japanese bicycle racer
• November 19 – Dianne de Leeuw, Dutch figure skater
• November 20 – Ray Ozzie, American computer programmer
• November 21 – Kyle Gann, American composer and music critic
• November 22 – George Alagiah, British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter
• November 23 – Steven Brust, American author
• November 24 – Ian Botham, British cricketer
• November 25 – Bruno Tonioli, Film, music video & theater choreographer
• November 26 – Tracy Hickman, American Author
• November 27 – Bill Nye, American science presenter and public television host
• November 28 – Alessandro Altobelli, Italian football player
• November 29 – Howie Mandel, Canadian actor and game show host
• November 30
  • Kevin Conroy, American voice actor
  • Billy Idol, English rock singer
  • Gordon Liu, Chinese actor
  • Michael Beschloss, American historian

December[link]

• December 3
  • Melody Anderson, Canadian actress and social worker
  • Steven Culp, American actor
• December 4 – Maurizio Bianchi, Italian musician
• December 7 – Priscilla Barnes, American actress
• December 8 – Ian Greig, English cricketer
• December 9 – Asashio Tarō IV, Japanese sumo wrestler
• December 12 – Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Greek politician and businesswoman
• December 16 – Chiharu Matsuyama, Japanese singer-songwriter
• December 17 – Brad Davis, American basketball player
• December 16 – Rob Levin, American founder of the freenode IRC network (d. 2006)
• December 21 – Jane Kaczmarek, American actress
• December 23
  • Keith Comstock, American baseball player
  • Carol Ann Duffy, British poet
• December 24
  • Mizuho Fukushima, Japanese politician
  • Clarence Gilyard, American actor and college professor
• December 27 – Barbara Olson, American television commentator (d. 2001)
• December 31 – Jim Tracy, American baseball player

Date unknown[link]

• Gish Jen, American writer
• Mark Marderosian, American artist

Deaths[link]

January–February[link]

• January 1 – Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, Indian scientist (b. 1894)
• January 2 – Jose Antonio Remon, President of Panama (assassinated) (b. 1908)
• January 6 – Yevgeny Tarle, Soviet historian (b. 1874)
• January 11 – Rodolfo Graziani, Italian General (b. 1882)
• January 15 – Yves Tanguy, French painter (b. 1900)
• January 18 – August Duesenberg, German-born American automobile manufacturer (b. 1879)
• January 21 – Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
• January 24 – Ira Hayes, U.S. Marine (b. 1923)
• January 29 – Hans Hedtoft, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1903)
• January 31 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1865)
• February 11 – Ona Munson, American actress (b. 1903)
• February 12
  • Thomas J. Moore, Irish-American film actor (b. 1883)
  • S.Z. Sakall, Hungarian actor (b. 1883)
• February 23 – Paul Claudel, French poet, dramatist, and diplomat (b. 1868)
• February 27 – Trixie Friganza, American actress (b. 1870)

March–April[link]

• March 8 – William C. deMille, American screenwriter and director (b. 1878)
• March 9 – Matthew Henson, American explorer (b. 1866)
• March 11 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1881)
• March 12 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist (b. 1920)
• March 16 – Nicolas de Staël, Russian painter (b. 1914)
• March 23 – Artur da Silva Bernardes, President of Brazil (b. 1875)
• March 30 – Ylla, Hungarian photographer (b. 1911) (jeep accident)
• April 13 – Theda Bara, American film actress (b. 1885)
• April 18 – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
• April 25 – Constance Collier, stage & screen actress (b. 1878)

May–June[link]

• May 4 – Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (b. 1881)
• May 10
  • Tommy Burns, American boxer (b. 1881)
  • John Radecki, Australian stained glass artist (b. 1865)
• May 11 – Gilbert Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
• May 14
  • Charles Pelot Summerall, American general (b. 1867)
  • Anwar Wagdi, Egyptian actor and filmmaker (b. 1904)
• May 16 – James Agee, American writer (b. 1909)
• May 18 – Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator (b. 1875)
• May 22 – Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, American actor (b. 1891)
• May 26 – Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1918)
• May 30 – Bill Vukovich, American race car driver (b. 1918)
• June 5
  • Pattillo Higgins, American oil pioneer and businessman (b. 1863)
  • Herbert Stanley, Governor of Northern Rhodesia, Ceylon and Southern Rhodesia (b. 1872)
• June 11 – Walter Hampden, American actor (b. 1879)
• June 17 – Carlyle Blackwell, American actor (b. 1884)
• June 19 – Adrienne Monnier, French poet (b. 1892)
• June 26 – Engelbert Zaschka, German helicopter pioneer (b. 1895)

July–August[link]

• July 3 – Beatrice Chase, British writer (b. 1874)
• July 13 – Stanley Price, American film and television actor (b. 1892)
• July 23 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1871)
• July 20 – Calouste Gulbenkian, Armenian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1869)
• July 31 – Robert Francis, American actor (b. 1930)
• August 2 – Wallace Stevens, American poet (b. 1879)
• August 5 – Carmen Miranda, Portuguese singer and actress (b. 1909)
• August 8 – Grace Hartman, American actress (b. 1907)
• August 12
  • Thomas Mann, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
  • James B. Sumner, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
• August 13 – Florence Easton, English opera soprano (b. 1882)
• August 17 – Fernand Léger, French painter and sculptor (b. 1881)
• August 28 – Emmett Till, American murder victim (b. 1941)

September–October[link]

• September 1 – Philip Loeb, American actor (b. 1891)
• September 20 – Robert Riskin, American screenwriter (b. 1897)
• September 23 – Martha Norelius, American Olympic swimmer (b. 1908)
• September 24 – Ib Schønberg, Danish actor (b. 1902)
• September 30
  • Michael Chekov, Russian actor and writer (b. 1891)
  • James Dean, American actor (b. 1931)
    

    

    Sept.30: James Dean.
• October 1 – Charles Christie, American film studio owner (b. 1880)
• October 8 – Iry LeJeune, Cajun musician (b. 1928)
• October 9
  • Theodor Innitzer, Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna (b. 1875)
  • Alice Joyce, American actress (b. 1890)
• October 18 – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher (b. 1883)
• October 19 – John Hodiak, American actor (b. 1914)
• October 31 – William Woodward, Jr., American banker and horse breeder, shot to death by his wife (b. 1920)

November–December[link]

• November 1 – Dale Carnegie, American writer and lecturer (b. 1888)
• November 4 – Cy Young, American baseball player (b. 1867)
• November 5 – Maurice Utrillo, French artist (b. 1882)
• November 7 – Tom Powers, American actor (b. 1890)
• November 11 – Jerry Ross, American lyricist and composer (b. 1926)
• November 12 – Alfréd Hajós, Hungarian swimmer (b. 1878)
• November 14 – Robert E. Sherwood, American playwright (b. 1896)
• November 15 – Lloyd Bacon, American actor and director (b. 1889)
• November 22 – Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (The Three Stooges) (b. 1895)
• November 27 – Arthur Honegger, French-born Swiss composer (b. 1892)
• December 1 – Chief Thundercloud, American character actor (b. 1899)
• December 6
  • George Platt Lynes, American photographer (b. 1907)
  • Honus Wagner, American baseball player (b. 1874)
• December 13 – Egas Moniz, Portuguese neurologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
• December 21 – Garegin Nzhdeh, Armenian statesman (b. 1886)
• December 25
  • Elizabeth Harrison, daughter of President Benjamin Harrison and Mary Dimmick Harrison (b. 1897)
  • Thomas J. Preston, Jr., professor of Archeology at Princeton University; he married Frances Cleveland, widow of President Grover Cleveland (b. 1862)
• December 27 – Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (b. 1881)

Nobel Prizes[link]

• Physics – Willis Eugene Lamb, Polykarp Kusch
• Chemistry – Vincent du Vigneaud
• Physiology or Medicine- Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell
• Literature – Halldór Kiljan Laxness
• Peace – not awarded

References[link]

• 1955 Coin Pictures

Judy Garland
c. 1940
Born	Frances Ethel Gumm (1922-06-10)June 10, 1922 Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Died	June 22, 1969(1969-06-22) (aged 47) Chelsea, London, England
Cause of death	Barbiturate overdose
Resting place	Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	Judy Garland
Occupation	Singer, actress, vaudevillian
Years active	1924-1969 as a singer 1929-1967 as an actress
Spouse	David Rose (m. 1941-1944; divorced) Vincente Minnelli (m. 1945-1951; divorced) Sidney Luft (m. 1952-1965; divorced) Mark Herron (m. 1965-1967; divorced) Mickey Deans (m. 1969, her death)
Children	Liza Minnelli Lorna Luft Joey Luft
Awards	List of awards and honours

Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian. Renowned for her contralto voice, she attained international stardom through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage.^[1] Respected for her versatility, she received a Juvenile Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award, as well as Grammy Awards and a Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born and for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film, Judgment at Nuremberg. At 39 years of age, she remains the youngest recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

After appearing in vaudeville with her two older 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, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

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. She 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 had a long struggle with alcohol and drug use during most of her career, dying 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.^[2]

Early life[link]

Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland was the youngest child of Ethel Marion (née Milne; November 17, 1893–January 5, 1953) and Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm (March 20, 1886–November 17, 1935). Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theatre that featured vaudeville acts.

Garland's ancestry on both sides of her family can be traced back to the early colonial days of the United States. Her father was descended from the Marable family of Virginia, her grandfather from a Milne ancestry from Aberdeen, Scotland^[3] and her maternal grandmother from a Patrick Fitzpatrick, who emigrated to America in the 1770s from Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland.^[4]

Named after both her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church, "Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters, Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm (1915–1964) and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm (1917–1977), on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells".^[5] Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years.

Following rumors that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances toward male ushers, the family relocated to Lancaster, California in June 1926.^[6] Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters into motion pictures.

Early career[link]

The Gumm Sisters[link]

The Gumm Sisters, AKA The Garland Sisters, circa 1935, from left to right: Mary Jane, Frances Ethel (Judy Garland) and Dorothy Virginia Gumm.

In 1928, The Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietress of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. They appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show.^[7] It was through the Meglin Kiddies that they made their film debut, in a 1929 short subject called The Big Revue. This was followed by appearances in two Vitaphone shorts the following year, A Holiday in Storyland (featuring Garland's first on-screen solo) and The Wedding of Jack and Jill. They next appeared together in Bubbles. Their final on-screen appearance came in 1935, in another short entitled La Fiesta de Santa Barbara.^[8]

In 1934, the trio, who by then had been touring the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters" for many years, performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after "Gumm" was met with laughter from the audience. According to theatrical legend, their act was once erroneously billed at a Chicago theater as "The Glum Sisters".^[9]

Several stories persist regarding the origin of the name "Garland". One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century which was then playing at the Oriental; another is that the girls chose the surname after drama critic Robert Garland.^[10] Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, stated that her mother selected the name when Jessel announced that the trio "looked prettier than a garland of flowers".^[11] Another variation surfaced when he was a guest on Garland's television show in 1963. He claimed that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland," and it stuck in his mind.^[12]

By late 1934 the Gumm Sisters had changed their name to the Garland Sisters.^[13] Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.^[14] By August 1935 they were broken up when Suzanne Garland flew to Reno, Nevada and married musician Lee Kahn, a member of the Jimmy Davis orchestra playing at Cal-Neva Lodge, Lake Tahoe.^[15]

Signed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer[link]

Garland with Mickey Rooney in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

In 1935, Garland was signed to a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, supposedly without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. It did not know what to do with her, as at age 13 she was older than the traditional child star but too young for adult roles. Her physical appearance created a dilemma for MGM. At only 4 feet 11.5 inches (151.1 cm), her "nice" or "girl next door" looks did not exemplify the more glamorous persona required of leading ladies of the time. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. "'Judy went to school at Metro with Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, real beauties,' said Charles Walters, who directed her in a number of films. 'Judy was the big money-maker at the time, a big success, but she was the ugly duckling ...I think it had a very damaging effect on her emotionally for a long time. I think it lasted forever, really.'"^[16] Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback".^[17] During her early years at the studio, she was photographed and dressed in plain garments or frilly juvenile gowns and costumes to match the "girl next door" image that was created for her. She was made to wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized disks to reshape her nose.^[18]

She performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical short Every Sunday. The film contrasted her alto vocal range^[19] and swing style with Durbin's operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for the pair, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster.^[20] Mayer finally decided to keep both actresses, but by that time Durbin's option had lapsed and she was signed by Universal Studios.

On November 16, 1935, in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the Shell Chateau Hour, Garland learned that her father, who had been hospitalized with meningitis, had taken a turn for the worse. Frank Gumm died the following morning, on November 17, leaving her devastated. Her song for the Shell Chateau Hour was her first professional rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", a song which would become a standard in many of her concerts.^[21]

Garland next came to the attention of studio executives by singing a special arrangement of "You Made Me Love You" to Clark Gable at a birthday party held by the studio for the actor; her rendition was so well regarded that she performed the song in the all-star extravaganza Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), singing to a photograph of him.^[22]

MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of "backyard musicals".^[23] The duo first appeared together in the 1937 B movie Thoroughbreds Don't Cry. They became a sensation and teamed up again in Love Finds Andy Hardy. She would eventually star with him in nine films.

To keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another, Garland, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly given amphetamines, as well as barbiturates to take before going to bed.^[24] For Garland, this regular dose of drugs led to addiction and a lifelong struggle and contributed to her eventual demise. She later resented the hectic schedule and felt that her youth had been stolen from her by MGM. Despite successful film and recording careers, awards, critical praise and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, she was plagued throughout her life with self-doubt and required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.^[25]

[edit] The Wizard of Oz

Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939)

In 1938, aged 16, she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the children's book by L. Frank Baum. In this film, she sang the song for which she would forever be identified, "Over the Rainbow". She was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her blue gingham dress was chosen for its blurring effect on her figure.^[26]

Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938,^[27] and was completed on March 16, 1939,^[28] with a final cost of more than US$2 million.^[29] With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms. She and Rooney were sent on a cross-country promotional tour, culminating in the August 17 New York City premiere at the Capitol Theater, which included a five-show-a-day appearance schedule for the two stars.^[30]

The Wizard of Oz was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and promotions costs of an estimated $4 million coupled with the lower revenue generated by children's tickets meant that the film did not make a profit until it was re-released in the 1940s.^[31] At the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms.^[32] Following this recognition, she became one of MGM's most bankable stars.

Stardom as an adult[link]

Garland performing "The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

In 1940, she starred in three films: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, and Little Nellie Kelly. In the latter, she played her first adult role, a dual role of both mother and daughter. Little Nellie Kelly was purchased from George M. Cohan as a vehicle for her to display both her audience appeal and her physical appearance. The role was a challenge for her, requiring the use of an accent, her first adult kiss, and the only death scene of her career.^[33] The success of these three films, and a further three films in 1941, secured her position at MGM as a major property.

During this time Garland experienced her first serious adult romances. The first was with the band leader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner.^[34] Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose, and, on her 18th birthday, he gave her an engagement ring. The studio intervened because he was still married at the time to the actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce from her to become final, and were wed on July 27, 1941.^[35] Garland, who had aborted her pregnancy by him in 1942, agreed to a trial separation in January 1943, and they divorced in 1944.^[36] She was noticeably thinner in her next film, For Me and My Gal, alongside Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was top billed over the credits for the first time and effectively made the transition from teenage star to adult actress.

in Presenting Lily Mars (1943)

At the age of 21, she was given the "glamour treatment" in Presenting Lily Mars, in which she was dressed in "grown-up" gowns. Her lightened hair was also pulled up in a stylish fashion. However, no matter how glamorous or beautiful she appeared on screen or in photographs, she was never confident in her appearance and never escaped the "girl next door" image that had been created for her.^[37]

One of Garland's most successful films for MGM was Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door", and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas". Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct and he requested that makeup artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways, including extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.

During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, after some initial conflict between them, Garland and Minnelli entered a relationship. They were married June 15, 1945,^[38] and on March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born.^[39] In 1951, they divorced.^[40]

The Clock (1945) was her first straight dramatic film, opposite Robert Walker. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. It would be many years before she acted again in a non-singing dramatic role. Garland's other famous films of the 1940s include The Harvey Girls (1946), in which she introduced the Academy Award-winning song "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe", and The Pirate (1948).

Leaving Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer[link]

During filming for The Pirate in April 1947, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and was placed in a private sanitarium.^[41] She was able to complete filming, but in July she undertook her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass.^[42] During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts^[43] Following her work on The Pirate, she completed three more films for MGM: Easter Parade (in which she danced with Fred Astaire), In the Good Old Summertime, and her final film with MGM, Summer Stock.

Garland in Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Because of her mental condition, Garland was unable to complete a series of films. During the filming of The Barkleys of Broadway, she was taking prescription sleeping medication along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine. It was around this time she also developed a serious problem with alcohol. These, in combination with migraine headaches, led her to miss several shooting days in a row. After being advised by her doctor that she would only be able to work in four-to-five-day increments with extended rest periods between, MGM executive Arthur Freed made the decision to suspend her on July 18, 1948. She was replaced by Ginger Rogers.^[44]

Garland was cast in the film adaptation of Annie Get Your Gun in the title role of Annie Oakley. She was nervous at the prospect of taking on a role strongly identified with Ethel Merman, anxious about appearing in an unglamorous part after breaking from juvenile parts for several years and disturbed by her treatment at the hands of director Busby Berkeley. She began arriving late to the set and sometimes failed to appear. She was suspended from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton.^[45]

Garland was next cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She again failed to report to the set on multiple occasions and the studio suspended her contract on June 17, 1950. She was replaced by Jane Powell.^[46] Reputable biographies following her death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken water glass, requiring only a Band-Aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat.^[47] "All I could see ahead was more confusion," Garland later said of this suicide attempt. "I wanted to black out the future as well as the past. I wanted to hurt myself and everyone who had hurt me."^[48]

Later career[link]

Renewed stardom on the stage[link]

In October 1951, Garland opened in a vaudeville-style, two-a-day engagement at Broadway's newly refurbished Palace Theatre. Her 19-week engagement exceeded all previous records for the theater, and was described as "one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history".^[49] Garland was honored for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville with a Special Tony Award.^[50]

In May 1952, at the height of Garland's comeback, her mother Ethel was featured in a Los Angeles Mirror story in which she revealed that while Garland was making a small fortune at the Palace, Ethel was working a desk job at Douglas Aircraft Company for $61 a week.^[51] They had been estranged for years, with Garland characterizing her mother as "no good for anything except to create chaos and fear" and accusing her of mismanaging and misappropriating her salary from the earliest days of her career.^[52] Garland's sister Virginia denied this, stating "Mama never took a dime from Judy."^[53] On January 5, 1953, Ethel Gumm was found dead in the Douglas Aircraft parking lot. She was 59 years old.^[54]

[edit] A Star Is Born

Garland in A Star Is Born (1954)

In 1954, Garland filmed a musical remake of the 1937 film A Star is Born for Warner Bros. She and her third husband, Sid Luft (whom she had married in 1952) produced the film through their production company, Transcona Enterprises, while Warner Bros. supplied the funds, production facilities, and crew.^[55] Directed by George Cukor and costarring James Mason, it was a large undertaking to which she initially fully dedicated herself.

As shooting progressed, however, she began making the same pleas of illness which she had so often made during her final films at MGM. Production delays led to cost overruns and angry confrontations with Warner Bros. head Jack Warner. Principal photography wrapped on March 17, 1954. At Luft's suggestion, the "Born in a Trunk" medley was filmed as a showcase for her and inserted over director Cukor's objections, who feared the additional length would lead to cuts in other areas. It was completed on July 29.^[56]

Upon its September 29, 1954 world premiere, the film was met with tremendous critical and popular acclaim. Before release, it was edited at the instruction of Jack Warner; theater operators, concerned that they were losing money because they were only able to run the film for three or four shows per day instead of five or six, pressured the studio to make additional reductions. About 30 minutes of footage was cut, sparking outrage among critics and filmgoers. A Star is Born ended up losing money, and the secure financial position Garland had expected from the profits did not materialize.^[57] Transcona made no more films with Warner.^[58]

Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and, in the run-up to the 27th Academy Awards, was generally expected to win. She could not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth to her son, Joseph Luft, so a television crew was in her hospital room with cameras and wires to televise her anticipated acceptance speech. The Oscar was won, however, by Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). The camera crew was packing up before Kelly could even reach the stage. Groucho Marx sent her a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss "the biggest robbery since Brinks". TIME magazine labeled her performance as "just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history".^[59] Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.^[60]

Garland's films after A Star Is Born included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) (for which she was Oscar- and Golden Globe-nominated for Best Supporting Actress), the animated feature Gay Purr-ee (1962), and A Child Is Waiting (1963) with Burt Lancaster. Her final film was I Could Go On Singing (1963), costarring Dirk Bogarde.

Television, concerts, and Carnegie Hall[link]

Garland before a concert, circa 1957

Garland engaged Sid Luft as her manager the same year she divorced Minnelli.^[61] He arranged a four-month concert tour of the United Kingdom, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland.^[62] It included her first appearances at the renowned London Palladium, for a four-week stand in April.^[63] Although some in the British press chided her before her opening for being "too plump",^[64] she received rave reviews and the ovation was described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.^[65]

Garland and Luft were married on June 8, 1952, in Hollister, California.^[66] Garland gave birth to Lorna Luft, herself a future actress and singer, on November 21, 1952, and to Joey Luft on March 29, 1955.^[67]

Beginning in 1955, Garland appeared in a number of television specials. The first, the 1955 debut episode of Ford Star Jubilee, was the first full-scale color broadcast ever on CBS and was a ratings triumph, scoring a 34.8 Nielsen rating. She signed a three-year, $300,000 contract with the network. Only one additional special, a live concert edition of General Electric Theater, was broadcast in 1956 before the relationship between the Lufts and CBS broke down in a dispute over the planned format of upcoming specials.^[68] In 1956, Garland performed four weeks at the New Frontier Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a salary of $55,000 per week, making her the highest-paid entertainer to work in Las Vegas.^[69] Despite a brief bout of laryngitis, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week.^[70] Later that year she returned to the Palace Theatre, site of her two-a-day triumph. She opened in September, once again to rave reviews and popular acclaim.^[71]

In November 1959 Garland was hospitalized, diagnosed with acute hepatitis.^[72] Over the next few weeks several quarts of fluid were drained from her body until, still weak, she was released from the hospital in January 1960. She was told by doctors that she likely had five years or less to live, and that even if she did survive she would be a semi-invalid and would never sing again.^[73] She initially felt "greatly relieved" at the diagnosis. "The pressure was off me for the first time in my life."^[47] However, she recovered over the next several months and, in August of that year, returned to the stage of the Palladium. She felt so warmly embraced by the British that she announced her intention to move permanently to England.^[74]

Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many "the greatest night in show business history".^[75] The two-record Judy at Carnegie Hall was certified gold, charting for 95 weeks on Billboard, including 13 weeks at number one. The album won four Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year.^[76] The album has never been out of print.

In 1961, Garland and CBS settled their contract disputes with the help of her new agent, Freddie Fields, and negotiated a new round of specials. The first, entitled The Judy Garland Show, aired in 1962 and featured guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.^[77] Following this success, CBS made a $24 million offer to her for a weekly television series of her own, also to be called The Judy Garland Show, which was deemed at the time in the press to be "the biggest talent deal in TV history". Although she had said as early as 1955 that she would never do a weekly television series,^[78] in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. She was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952, and the failure of A Star is Born meant that she received nothing from that investment.^[79] A successful run on television was intended to secure her financial future.

Following a third special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, Garland's weekly series debuted September 29, 1963.^[80] The Judy Garland Show was critically praised,^[81][82] but for a variety of reasons (including being placed in the time slot opposite Bonanza on NBC) the show lasted only one season and was canceled in 1964 after 26 episodes. Despite its short run, the series was nominated for four Emmy Awards.^[83] The demise of the series was personally and financially devastating for Garland.

Garland sued Luft for divorce in 1963, claiming "cruelty" as the grounds. She also asserted that he had repeatedly struck her while he was drinking and that he had attempted to take their children from her by force.^[84] She had filed for divorce from Luft more than once previously, including as early as 1956, but had reconciled.^[85]

Final years[link]

Mickey Deans and Garland, at their wedding in March 1969, only three months before her death

With the demise of her television series, Garland returned to the stage. Most notably, she performed at the London Palladium with her then 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert, which was also filmed for British television network ITV, was one of her final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Merv Griffin Show, on which she guest-hosted an episode.^[86]

Garland was a lifelong Democrat and was active in both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and attended many of the Democratic National Conventions. In 1960 she was in attendance at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles with John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, and Lyndon B. Johnson.^[87][88][89]

A 1964 tour of Australia was largely disastrous. Garland's first concert in Sydney, held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the crowds who wanted to see her, went well and received positive reviews. Her second performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000, angered by her tardiness and believing her to be drunk, booed and heckled her, and she fled the stage after just 45 minutes.^[90] She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish".^[52] A second concert in Sydney was uneventful but the Melbourne appearance garnered her significant bad press.^[91] Some of that bad press was deflected by the announcement of a near fatal episode of pleurisy.

Garland's tour promoter Mark Herron announced that they had married aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong; however, she was not legally divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed.^[92] It became final on May 19, 1965,^[84] but she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965 and then separated six months later.^[93]

In February 1967, Garland was cast as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls for 20th Century Fox.^[94] During the filming, she missed rehearsals and was fired in April, replaced by Susan Hayward.^[95] Her prerecording of the song "I'll Plant My Own Tree" survived, along with her wardrobe tests.

Returning to the stage, Garland made her last appearances at New York's Palace Theatre in July, a 16-show tour, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. She wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour, which was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.^[96]

By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run^[97] and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969.^[98] She married her fifth and final husband, musician Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15, 1969,^[99] her divorce from Herron having been finalized on February 11.^[100]

Death[link]

Garland's crypt at the Ferncliff Mausoleum.

On June 22, 1969, Garland was found dead by Deans in the bathroom of their rented house in Chelsea, London. At the subsequent inquest, coroner Gavin Thursdon stated that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten 1.5-grain (97 mg) Seconal capsules.^[101] Thursdon stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and that there was no evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Her autopsy showed that there was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue there, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one dose. Her death certificate stated that her death had been "accidental".^[102] Even so, a British specialist who had attended her said she had been living on borrowed time due to cirrhosis of the liver.^[103] She had turned 47 just twelve days prior to her death. Her Wizard of Oz costar Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out."

On June 26, Deans took Garland's remains to New York City, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan to pay their respects. On June 27, James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, an Episcopal service led by the Rev. Peter A. Delaney of Marylebone Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans.^[104] The public and press were barred. She was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York.^[105]

Legacy[link]

Star for recognition of film work at 1715 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has another for recording at 6764 Hollywood Blvd.

Rooney watches Garland put her handprint into cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 1939.

Garland's legacy as a performer and a personality has endured long after her death. The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.^[106] She has been the subject of over two dozen biographies since her death, including the well-received Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir by her daughter, Lorna Luft, whose memoir was later adapted into the television miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows, which won Emmy Awards for the two actresses portraying her (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).^[107]

Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.^[108] Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[109] These include "Over the Rainbow", which 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" (#76), "Get Happy" (#61), "The Trolley Song" (#26), and "The Man That Got Away" (#11).^[110] She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy)^[111] and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).^[112]

Gay icon[link]

Garland always had a large base of fans in the gay community and has become a gay icon.^[113] Reasons often given for her standing, especially among gay men, are admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in America during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure.^[114] When asked about how she felt about having a large gay following, she responded, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people."^[115]

Some have also suggested a connection between the date of Garland's death and funeral on June 27, 1969 and the Stonewall riots, the flashpoint of the modern Gay Liberation movement,^[116][117] which started in the early hours of June 28.^[116] However, in a 2009 interview gay historian David Carter stated that this connection is untrue, and based on a mocking reference to the riot by an anti-gay writer in the Village Voice the next day.^[118]

Filmography and performances[link]

Portrayals in fiction[link]

Garland has been portrayed on television by Andrea McArdle in Rainbow (1978), Tammy Blanchard (young Judy) and Judy Davis (older Judy) in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) and Elizabeth Karsell in James Dean (2001). Anne Hathaway is set to play Garland in a biopic titled Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland which is in production and is set to be released in either 2012 or 2013.

On stage, Garland is a character in the musical The Boy from Oz (1998), portrayed by Chrissy Amphlett in the original Australian production and by Isabel Keating on Broadway in 2003. End of the Rainbow (2005) featured Caroline O'Connor as Garland and Michael Cumpsty as Garland's pianist. Adrienne Barbeau played Garland in The Property Known as Garland (2006) and The Judy Monologues (2010) featured Kimberly Roberts as Garland. Garland was briefly mentioned in the biopic film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge for the 1954 Academy Awards for A Star Is Born.

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

Biography portal

Notes[link]