Coordinates | 39°44′21″N104°59′5″N |
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Name | Judy Garland''' |
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Birth name | Frances Ethel Gumm |
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Birth date | June 10, 1922 |
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Birth place | Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S. |
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Death date | June 22, 1969 |
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Death place | Chelsea, London, England, UK |
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Cause death | Drug Overdose |
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Occupation | Actress, singer |
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Years active | |
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Spouse | |
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Children |
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Judy Garland (born
Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned
contralto vocal range, she 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, as well as
Grammy Awards and a
Special Tony Award. She was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in ''
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 was 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 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.
Early life
Born
Frances Ethel Gumm in
Grand Rapids, Minnesota, 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). 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 a Milne from Aberdeen (as she told an audience on May 29, 1951 in Edinburgh), and her mother from Patrick Fitzpatrick, who emigrated to America in the 1770s from Smithtown, County Meath, Ireland.
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 (1915–64) 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". Accompanied by their mother on piano, The Gumm Sisters performed at there for the next few years. Following rumors that Frank Gumm had made sexual advances toward male ushers there, the family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926. Frank purchased and operated another theater in Lancaster, and Ethel, acting as their manager, began working to get her daughters into motion pictures. Garland graduated from Antelope Valley High School shortly after.
Early career
The Gumm Sisters
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. 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''.
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. "The Garland Sisters" was chosen, and Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.
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. 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". 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.
At any rate, by late 1934 the "Gumm Sisters" had changed their name to the "Garland Sisters." They were broken up in August 1935, however, 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.
Signed at MGM
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 , her "cute" 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." Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief
Louis B. Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback". 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. 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 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. 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.
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), in which she sang it to a photograph of him.
MGM hit on a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of "backyard musicals". 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. 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, several 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.
''The Wizard of Oz''
In 1938, at age 16, Garland 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". Although producers
Arthur Freed and
Mervyn LeRoy had wanted her from the start, studio chief Mayer tried first to borrow
Shirley Temple from
20th Century Fox. Her services were denied and Garland was cast. She was initially outfitted in a blonde wig for the part, but Freed and LeRoy decided against it shortly into filming. Her breasts were bound with tape and she was made to wear a special corset to flatten out her curves and make her appear younger; her blue
gingham dress was also chosen for its blurring effect on her figure.
Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938, and was completed on March 16, 1939, with a final cost of more than US$2 million. From the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of ''Babes in Arms''. She and Mickey 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.
On November 17, 1939, Garland's mother, Ethel, married William P. Gillmore in Yuma, Arizona. It was the fourth anniversary of her first husband's death.
''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 rereleased in the 1940s. 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''. Following this recognition, she became one of MGM's most bankable stars.
Stardom as an adult
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. 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. Another failed relationship (and her first failed marriage) included an abortion her mother and husband persuaded her to have in order to continue working. 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.
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.
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 this movie, and he requested that makeup artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to her for the picture. 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.
''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 MGM
During filming for ''The Pirate'' in April 1947, Garland suffered a
nervous breakdown and was placed in a private
sanitarium. 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. During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the
Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts 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''.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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. "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."
Later career
Renewed stardom on the stage
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". Garland was honored for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville with a
Special Tony Award.
Garland's personal and professional achievements during this time were marred by the actions of her mother, Ethel. In May 1952, at the height of her comeback, 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. 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. Garland's sister Virginia denied this, stating "Mama never took a dime from Judy." On January 5, 1953, Ethel was found dead in the Douglas Aircraft parking lot.
''A Star Is Born''
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, through their
production company, Transcona Enterprises, produced the film while Warner Bros. supplied the funds, production facilities, and crew. 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.
Upon its September 29 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. Transcona made no more films with Warner.
Garland was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and, in the run-up to the 27th Academy Awards, was generally expected to be the winner. 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. Garland even made jokes about the incident on her television series, saying "...and nobody said good-bye." Groucho Marx sent her a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss "the biggest robbery since Brinks". To this day, it is still considered to be one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Academy Awards and generally felt that she should have rightly won the Oscar and her performance far exceeded Kelly's. ''TIME'' magazine labeled her performance as "just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history". Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.
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, ''I Could Go On Singing'' (1963), costarring Dirk Bogarde, mirrored her own life with its story of a world famous singing star. Her last screen performance of a song was the prophetic ''I Could Go on Singing'' at the end of the film.
Television, concerts, and Carnegie Hall
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.
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. Despite a brief bout of
laryngitis, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week. 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.
In November 1959 Garland was hospitalized, diagnosed with acute hepatitis. 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. She initially felt "greatly relieved" at the diagnosis. "The pressure was off me for the first time in my life." However, she successfully 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.
Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many "the greatest night in show business history". 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. 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. 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, in the early 1960s she was in a financially precarious situation. Garland was several hundred thousand dollars in debt to the Internal Revenue Service, having failed to pay taxes in 1951 and 1952, and the financial failure of ''A Star is Born'' meant that she received nothing from that investment. 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. ''The Judy Garland Show'' was critically praised, 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 cancelled in 1964 after 26 episodes. Despite its short run, the series was nominated for four Emmy Awards. The demise of the series was personally and financially devastating for Garland, who never fully recovered from its failure.
Final years
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'', guest-hosting an episode of the last one.
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. She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish". A second concert in Sydney was uneventful but the Melbourne appearance garnered her significant bad press. Some of that bad press was deflected by the announcement of a near fatal episode of pleurisy.
In February 1967, Garland had been cast as Helen Lawson in ''Valley of the Dolls'' for 20th Century Fox. The character of Neely O'Hara in the book by Jacqueline Susann was rumored to have been based on her. The role of O'Hara in the film was played by Patty Duke. During the filming, she missed rehearsals and was fired in April. She was replaced by Susan Hayward. 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.''
Marriages
David Rose
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. Garland, who had aborted her pregnancy by him in 1942, agreed to a
trial separation in January 1943, and they divorced in 1944.
Vincente Minnelli
During the filming of ''Meet Me in St. Louis'', after some initial conflict between them, Garland and
Vincente Minnelli entered a relationship together. They were married June 15, 1945, and on March 12, 1946, daughter
Liza was born. In 1951, they divorced.
Sid Luft
She engaged
Sid Luft as her manager the same year. He arranged a four-month concert tour of the United Kingdom, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland. It included her first appearances at the renowned
London Palladium, for a four-week stand in April. Although some in the British press chided her before her opening for being "too plump", she received rave reviews and the ovation was described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.
Garland and Luft were married on June 8, 1952, in Hollister, California, and she gave birth to their first child, Lorna, on November 21 and her third one, Joey, on March 29 1955
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. She had filed for divorce more than once previously, including as early as 1956.
Mark Herron
Garland's fourth marriage was to tour promoter
Mark Herron. They announced that their marriage had taken place aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong; however, she was not legally divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed. It became final on May 19, 1965, but she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965 and then separated six months later.
Mickey Deans
By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the
Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run and made her last concert appearance in
Copenhagen during March 1969. She married her fifth and final husband,
Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15, 1969, her divorce from Herron having been finalized on February 11.
Death
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
Seconal capsules. 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 in 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." Even so, a British specialist who had attended her said she had been living on borrowed time due to
cirrhosis of the liver. She had turned 47 just 12 days prior to her death. Her ''Wizard of Oz'' costar
Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out." An estimated 20,000 people lined up for hours at the
Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel to view her body.
James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, which was an
Episcopalian service led by the Rev. Peter A. Delaney of
Marylebone Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans. She was
interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at
Ferncliff Cemetery, in
Hartsdale, New York.
Legacy
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. 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 multiple award-winning 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). English actress
Tracie Bennett portrayed Garland to critical acclaim in a dramatization of her eventual decline and months preceding her death in a play titled ''
End of the Rainbow'' at London's
Trafalgar Studios. Both the play and Bennett received
Laurence Olivier Award nominations.
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", 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). She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy) and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from ''A Star Is Born''). She is mentioned in the 1998 horror film ''I Still Know What You Did Last Summer'' when the hotel clerk is explaining the history of the hotel in the Bahamas where the film takes place.
Gay icon
Garland always had a large base of fans in the
gay community and has become a gay icon. 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. When asked about how she felt about being a gay icon, she responded, "I couldn't care less. I sing to people."
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, which started in the early hours of June 28.
Filmography and performances
Film and TV portrayals
Garland has been portrayed in film 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)
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.
Garland has also been impersonated in several TV shows as well.
Discography
Awards
See also
List of Judy Garland biographies
Notes
References
Bianco, David. ''Gay Essentials: Facts For Your Gay Brain''. Alyson Publications. Los Angeles, 1999. ISBN 1-55583-508-2.
Clarke, Gerald (2001). ''Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland''. New York, Random House. ISBN 0-375-50378-1.
DiOrio, Jr., Al. ''Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland''. Manor Books. New York, 1973.
Duberman, Martin (1993). ''Stonewall''. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-525-93602-5.
Edwards, Anne. ''Judy Garland''. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-671-80228-3 (paperback edition).
Finch, Christopher. ''Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland''. Ballantine Books. 1975. ISBN 0-345-25173-3 (paperback edition).
Frank, Gerold. ''Judy''. Harper & Row. New York, 1975. ISBN 0-06-011337-5.
Juneau, James. ''Judy Garland: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies''. Pyramid Publications. 1974, New York. ISBN 0-515-03482-7.
Luft, Lorna. ''Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir''. Simon & Schuster. New York, 1999. ISBN 0-283-06320-3.
Sanders, Coyne Steven. ''Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show''. Zebra Books. 1990 ISBN 0-8217-3708-2 (paperback edition).
Seaman, Barbara. ''Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann''. Seven Stories Press. 1996, New York. ISBN 0-9658770-6-X (1996 edition).
Shipman, David. ''Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend''. Hyperion. New York, 1992. ISBN 0-7868-8026-0 (paperback edition).
Steiger, Brad (1969). ''Judy Garland''. New York, Ace Books.
Wayne, Jane Ellen (2003). ''The Golden Girls of MGM''. New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1303-8.
External links
Judy Garland at TV Guide
The Judy Room Celebrating the life and career of Judy Garland
The Judy Garland Birthplace and Museum in Grand Rapids, MN
The Judy Garland Club official international fan club
American Masters special">''Judy Garland: By Myself'' – American Masters special
Judy Garland's Film "The Wizard of Oz" Film site on Judy and Oz
Judy Garland at The Biography Channel
Category:1922 births
Category:1969 deaths
Category:People from Grand Rapids, Minnesota
Category:Academy Juvenile Award winners
Category:Accidental deaths in England
Category:Actors from Minnesota
Category:University High School (Los Angeles, California) alumni
Category:American people of English descent
Category:American child actors
Category:American child singers
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Category:American film actors
Category:American voice actors
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Category:American people of Irish descent
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Category:American radio personalities
Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery
Category:Capitol Records artists
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Category:Drug-related deaths in England
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Category:Tony Award winners
Category:Traditional pop music singers
Category:Vaudeville performers
Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom
Category:Real people associated with Oz
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