Judy Garland
Garland in 1945
Born	Frances Ethel Gumm (1922-06-10)June 10, 1922 Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	June 22, 1969(1969-06-22) (aged 47) Belgravia, London, England
Cause of death	Barbiturate overdose
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Occupations	Actress singer vaudevillian
Years active	1924–1969
Works	Filmography discography
Political party	Democratic
Spouses	David Rose (m. 1941; div. 1944) Vincente Minnelli (m. 1945; div. 1951) Sidney Luft (m. 1952; div. 1965) Mark Herron (m. 1965; div. 1969) Mickey Deans (m. 1969)
Children	3; including Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft
Parents	Francis Avent Gumm Ethel Marion Milne
Awards	Full list
Musical career
Origin	Hollywood, California
Genres	Traditional pop jazz swing vaudeville
Instruments	Vocals piano (occasionally in her films)^[1]
Labels	Capitol Decca
Musical artist
Website	judygarland.com
Signature

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. She possessed a powerful contralto voice and was celebrated for her emotional depth and versatility across film, stage, radio, television and concert performance. Garland achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her recording of "Over the Rainbow" became an enduring song in American popular music. Over a career spanning more than forty-five years, she recorded eleven studio albums, and several of her recordings were later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

At the age of two, Garland began her career by performing with her two sisters as a vaudeville act, The Gumm Sisters. In 1935, she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at thirteen and appeared in supporting roles in ensemble musicals such as Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937). The success of The Wizard of Oz propelled her into leading roles in MGM musicals including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948) and Summer Stock (1950). In the 1950s and early 1960s she expanded her range with dramatic performances in A Star Is Born (1954) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), both of which earned her Academy Award nominations and demonstrated her capacity to convey vulnerability and resilience on screen.

Beyond her film work, Garland cultivated a distinguished career in live performance and recordings. Her 1961 live album Judy at Carnegie Hall won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, capping a series of sold-out engagements at the Hollywood Bowl and concerts. That same year she became the first woman—and, at thirty-nine, the youngest recipient—of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. Her honors also included a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Juvenile Award for her early contributions, and a Special Tony Award for her role in reviving vaudeville. In 1997 she was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked her eighth among the greatest female screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema.

Garland’s personal life was marked by both public fascination and private struggle. She married five times and had three children, including actress and singer Liza Minnelli. From her teenage years onward, she faced health challenges exacerbated by studio pressures on her appearance and performance, and she developed dependencies on prescription medications that affected her physical and mental well-being. Financial difficulties, including substantial tax debts, added to her burdens. She died in London in 1969 from an accidental barbiturate overdose at age forty-seven. Garland’s resilience, artistic range and enduring recordings have ensured her lasting impact on popular culture and her reputation as a cultural icon.

Early life

[edit]

Born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota,^[2]^[3] Garland was the youngest child of vaudevillians Ethel Marion Milne^[4] and Francis Avent Gumm. The family settled in Grand Rapids, where her parents operated a movie theater showcasing vaudeville acts. She was of Irish, English, Scottish,^[5]^[6] and French Huguenot^[7]^[8] ancestry, named after both of her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church.^[9]

"Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters)^[10] shared her family's flair for song and dance. Her first appearance came at the age of two, when she joined her elder sisters Mary Jane "Suzy/Suzanne" Gumm and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells".^[11] The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years, accompanied by their mother on piano.^[10]

Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, is now a museum dedicated to her life and career.

The family relocated to Lancaster, California, in June 1926, following rumors that her father had homosexual inclinations.^[12] Frank bought and operated another theater in Lancaster,^[13] and Ethel began managing her daughters and working to get them into motion pictures.^{[citation needed]}

Career

[edit]

1928–1935: The Gumm/Garland Sisters

[edit]

In 1928, the Gumm Sisters enrolled in a dance school run by Ethel Meglin, proprietor of the Meglin Kiddies dance troupe. They appeared with the troupe at its annual Christmas show.^[14] Through the Meglin Kiddies, they made their film debut in a short subject called The Big Revue (1929), where they performed a song-and-dance number called "That's the Good Old Sunny South". 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 (1930). Their final on-screen appearance was in an MGM Technicolor short entitled La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935).^[15]

The trio had toured the vaudeville circuit as "The Gumm Sisters" for many years by the time they performed in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel in 1934. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after "Gumm" was met with laughter from the audience. According to theater legend, their act was once erroneously billed at a Chicago theater as "The Glum Sisters".^[16]

Several stories persist regarding the origin of their use of the name Garland. One is that it was originated by Jessel after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film Twentieth Century (1934), which was then playing at the Oriental in Chicago; another is that the girls chose the surname after drama critic Robert Garland.^[17] 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".^[18] A TV special was filmed in Hollywood at the Pantages Theatre premiere of A Star Is Born on September 29, 1954, in which Jessel stated:

I think that I ought to tell the folks that it was I who named Judy Garland, "Judy Garland." Not that it would have made any difference – you couldn't have hid[den] that great talent if you'd called her "Tel Aviv Windsor Shell", you know, but her name when I first met her was Frances Gumm and it wasn't the kind of a name that so sensitive a great actress like that should have; ... and so we called her Judy Garland and I think she's a combination of Helen Hayes and Al Jolson and maybe Jenny Lind and Sarah Bernhardt.^[19]

A later explanation surfaced when Jessel was a guest on Garland's television show in 1963. He said that he had sent actress Judith Anderson a telegram containing the word "garland" and it stuck in his mind.^[20] However, Garland asked Jessel just moments later if this story was true and he blithely replied "No".^{[citation needed]}

By late 1934, the Gumm Sisters had changed their name to the Garland Sisters.^[21] Frances changed her name to "Judy" soon after, inspired by a popular Hoagy Carmichael song.^[22] The group broke up by August 1935, when Mary Jane "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.^[23]

1935–1938: Early years at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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In September 1935, Louis B. Mayer asked songwriter Burton Lane to go to the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles to watch the Garland Sisters' vaudeville act and to report to him. A few days later, Garland and her father were brought for an impromptu audition at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City. Garland performed "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" and "Eli, Eli", a Yiddish song written in 1896 and regularly performed in vaudeville.^[24] The studio immediately signed Garland to a contract with MGM, presumably without a screen test, though she had made a test for the studio several months earlier. The studio did not know what to do with her; aged thirteen, she was older than the traditional child star, but too young for adult roles.^[25]

Her physical appearance was a dilemma for MGM. She was only 4 ft 11+1⁄2 in (151 cm) and her "cute" or "girl-next-door" looks did not exemplify the glamorous persona then required of leading female performers. She was self-conscious and anxious about her appearance. Garland 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."^[26] Her insecurity was exacerbated by the attitude of studio chief Mayer, who referred to her as his "little hunchback".^[27]

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 created for her. They had her wear removable caps on her teeth and rubberized discs to reshape her nose.^[28]

On November 16, 1935, 13-year-old Garland was in the midst of preparing for a radio performance on the Shell Chateaux Hour when she learned that her father had been hospitalized with meningitis and his medical condition had taken a turn for the worse. He died the following morning at age 49, leaving her devastated.^{[citation needed]}

Her song for the Shell Chateau Hour was her first professional rendition of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", a song that became a standard in many of her concerts.^[29] Garland performed at various studio functions and was eventually cast opposite Deanna Durbin in the musical short Every Sunday (1936). The film contrasted her vocal range and swing style with Durbin's operatic soprano and served as an extended screen test for them, as studio executives were questioning the wisdom of having two girl singers on the roster.^[30]

Garland's first feature-length film was a loan-out to Fox titled Pigskin Parade, a football-themed musical comedy, where she was billed tenth after Stuart Erwin, Jack Haley, Patsy Kelly, Betty Grable and others. Garland sang three solos, including "The Texas Tornado" and "The Balboa".^{[citation needed]}

Garland and Mickey Rooney in a publicity photo for *Love Finds Andy Hardy* (1938)

Garland came to the attention of studio executives when she sang a special arrangement of "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" to Clark Gable at a birthday party that the studio arranged for the actor. Her rendition was so well regarded that she performed the song in the all-star extravaganza Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), when she sang to a photograph of him.^[31]

MGM hit a winning formula when it paired Garland with Mickey Rooney in a string of what were known as "backyard musicals".^[32] The duo first appeared together as supporting characters in the B movie Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937). Garland was then cast in the fourth of the Hardy Family movies, Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), as a literal girl-next-door to Rooney's character Andy Hardy, although Hardy's love interest was played by Lana Turner. They teamed as lead characters for the first time in Babes in Arms (1939), ultimately appearing in five additional films, including Hardy films Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) and Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941).^{[citation needed]}

Garland stated that she, Rooney and other young performers were constantly prescribed amphetamines to stay awake and keep up with the frantic pace of making one film after another.^[33] They were also given barbiturates to take before going to bed so they could sleep.^[34] This regular use of drugs, she said, led to addiction and a life-long struggle. She later resented the hectic schedule and believed MGM stole her youth. Rooney, however, denied their studio was responsible for her addiction: "Judy Garland was never given any drugs by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Mr. Mayer didn't sanction anything for Judy. No one on that lot was responsible for Judy Garland's death. Unfortunately, Judy chose that path."^[35]

Garland's weight was within a healthy range, but the studio demanded she constantly diet. They even went so far as to serve her only a bowl of chicken soup and black coffee when she ordered a regular meal.^[36] She was plagued with self-doubt throughout her life; despite successful film and recording careers, awards, critical praise and her ability to fill concert halls worldwide, she required constant reassurance that she was talented and attractive.^[37]

1938–1939: The Wizard of Oz

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In 1938, when Garland was sixteen, she was cast as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939), a film based on the 1900 children's book by L. Frank Baum. In the film, she sang the song with which she would be constantly identified afterward, "Over the Rainbow". Although producers Arthur Freed and Mervyn LeRoy had wanted to cast her in the role from the beginning, studio chief Mayer first tried to borrow Shirley Temple from 20th Century Fox, but they declined. Deanna Durbin was then asked but was unavailable; this resulted in Garland being cast.^[38]

Garland 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, which made her look younger.^[39] Shooting commenced on October 13, 1938,^[40] and it was completed on March 16, 1939,^[41] with a final cost of more than $2 million (equivalent to $34 million in 2023).^[42] With the conclusion of filming, MGM kept Garland busy with promotional tours and the shooting of Babes in Arms (also 1939), directed by Busby Berkeley. 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.^[43]

Garland was reportedly put on a diet consisting of cigarettes, chicken soup, and coffee during filming in a further attempt to minimize her curves.^[44] This may be erroneous, as historians Jay Scarfone and William Stillman clarify that at the time Garland was an anti-smoker and was allowed solid food.^[45] However, her diet was accompanied by swimming and hiking outings, plus games of tennis and badminton with her stunt double Bobbie Koshay.^{[citation needed]}

The Wizard of Oz was a tremendous critical success, though its high budget and estimated promotion costs of $4 million (equivalent to $69 million in 2023^[46]), coupled with the lower revenue that was generated by discounted children's tickets, meant that the film did not return a profit until it was re-released in the 1940s and on subsequent occasions.^[47] At the 1939 Academy Awards ceremony, Garland received her only Academy Award, an Academy Juvenile Award for her performances in 1939, including The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Arms. She was the fourth person to receive the award as well as only one of twelve in history to ever be presented with one.^[48] After the film, Garland was one of the most bankable actresses in the United States.^[49]

1940–1946: Adult stardom

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Garland starred in three films which were released in 1940: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band and Little Nellie Kelly. In the last, 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.^[50] Her co-star George Murphy regarded the kiss as embarrassing. He said it felt like "a hillbilly with a child bride".^[36]

During that time, Garland was still in her teens when she experienced her first serious adult romance with bandleader Artie Shaw. She was deeply devoted to him and was devastated in early 1940 when he eloped with Lana Turner.^[51] In the early 1940s, Garland began a relationship with musician David Rose, 12 years her senior.^[52] On her 18th birthday, he proposed to her. MGM disapproved of the relationship because, at the time, he was married to actress and singer Martha Raye. They agreed to wait a year to allow for his divorce to become final. During that time, Garland had a brief affair with songwriter Johnny Mercer. After her breakup with Mercer, Garland and Rose were wed on July 27, 1941, when Garland was only 19 years old.^[53] The media called the relationship "a true rarity".^[36] Together, they moved into a house in Bel Air, Los Angeles, where Rose had room to build miniature trains in the backyard. Though life together was initially enjoyable, MGM still disapproved of the relationship and allegedly tried to separate them.^[52] They, along with Garland's mother, feared the relationship would ruin Garland's image.^[54] In 1941, while she was pregnant with Rose's child, Garland had an abortion at the insistence of her mother, Rose, and the studio executives, who disapproved of the pregnancy. According to Woman's World, Rose was even hostile toward Garland.^[54] The couple agreed to undergo a trial separation in January 1943 and they divorced in 1944.^[55]

In her next film, For Me and My Gal (1942), Garland performed with Gene Kelly in his first screen appearance. She was given the "glamor treatment" in Presenting Lily Mars (1943), 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 about her appearance and never escaped the "girl-next-door" image that the studio had created for her.^[56] She had a second abortion in 1943 when she became pregnant during an affair with actor Tyrone Power.^[57]

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". This was one of the first films in her career that gave her the opportunity to be the attractive leading lady. Vincente Minnelli was assigned to direct and he requested that make-up artist Dorothy Ponedel be assigned to Garland. Ponedel refined her appearance in several ways which included extending and reshaping her eyebrows, changing her hairline, modifying her lip line and removing her nose discs and dental caps. She appreciated the results so much that Ponedel was written into her contract for all her remaining pictures at MGM.^[58]

Around the same time, Garland had a brief affair with actor and film director Orson Welles, who was then married to actress Rita Hayworth. Garland and Welles ended the affair in early 1945 but remained on good terms afterwards.^[59]

During the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis, Garland and Minnelli had some initial conflicts, but they entered into a relationship and they got married on June 15, 1945.^[60] On March 12, 1946, daughter Liza was born.^[61]

The Clock (1945) was Garland's first straight dramatic film; Robert Walker was cast in the main male role. Though the film was critically praised and earned a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. She did not act again in a non-singing dramatic role for many years. Garland's other 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 Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).^[62]

1947–1950: Last MGM motion pictures

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During the filming of The Pirate, Garland suffered a nervous breakdown and she was placed in a private sanatorium.^[64] She was able to complete filming, but in July 1947 she made her first suicide attempt, making minor cuts to her wrist with a broken glass.^[65] During this period, she spent two weeks in treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, a psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.^[66] The Pirate was released in May 1948 and it was the first film which did not make a profit since Garland had starred in The Wizard of Oz. The main reasons for its failure were not only its cost but also included the increasing expense of the shooting delays while Garland was ill, as well as the general public's unwillingness to accept her in a sophisticated film. Following her work on The Pirate, she co-starred for the first and only time with Fred Astaire (who replaced Gene Kelly after Kelly had broken his ankle) in Easter Parade (1948), which was Hollywood's highest-grossing musical.^[67]

Thrilled by the huge box-office receipts of Easter Parade, MGM immediately teamed Garland and Astaire in The Barkleys of Broadway. During the initial filming, Garland was taking prescription barbiturate sleeping pills along with illicitly obtained pills containing morphine.^[68] 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 in the film by Ginger Rogers.^[69]

When her suspension was over, she was summoned back to work and she ultimately performed two songs as a guest in the Rodgers and Hart biopic Words and Music (1948), which was her last appearance with Mickey Rooney. Despite the all-star cast, Words and Music barely broke even at the box office. Having regained her strength, as well as some needed weight during her suspension, Garland felt much better and in the fall of 1948, she returned to MGM to replace a pregnant June Allyson for the musical film In the Good Old Summertime (1949) co-starring Van Johnson. Although she was sometimes late arriving at the studio during the making of this picture, she managed to complete it five days ahead of schedule. Her daughter Liza made her film debut at the age of two and a half at the end of the film. In the Good Old Summertime was enormously successful at the box office.^[70]

Garland was then 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. Berkeley was severe with Garland's lack of effort, attitude and enthusiasm. She complained to Mayer, trying to have Berkeley fired from the feature. She began arriving late to the set and sometimes failed to appear. At this time, she was also undergoing electroconvulsive therapy for depression.^[71]^[72]^[73] She was fired from the picture on May 10, 1949, and was replaced by Betty Hutton, who stepped in to perform all the musical routines as staged by Robert Alton.^[74]

Garland underwent an extensive hospital stay at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, in which she was weaned off her medication and after a while, was able to eat and sleep normally.^{[citation needed]}

Garland returned to Los Angeles heavier and in the fall of 1949, she was cast opposite Gene Kelly in Summer Stock (1950). The film took six months to complete. To lose weight, Garland went back on the pills and the familiar pattern resurfaced. She began showing up late or not at all. When principal photography on Summer Stock was completed in the spring of 1950, it was decided that Garland needed an additional musical number. She agreed to do it provided the song was "Get Happy". In addition, she insisted that director Charles Walters choreograph and stage the number. By that time, Garland had lost 15 pounds and looked more slender. "Get Happy" was the last segment of Summer Stock to be filmed. It was her final picture for MGM. When it was released in the fall of 1950, Summer Stock drew big crowds and racked up very respectable box-office receipts, but because of the costly shooting delays caused by Garland, the film posted a loss of $80,000 to the studio.^[75] Garland was cast in the film Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire after June Allyson became pregnant in 1950. She 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.^[76] Reputable biographies following her death stated that after this latest dismissal, she slightly grazed her neck with a broken glass, requiring only a Band-Aid, but at the time, the public was informed that a despondent Garland had slashed her throat.^[77] "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."^[78] In September 1950, after 15 years with the studio, Garland and MGM parted company.^[79]^[80]

1950–1952: Radio appearances and stage comeback

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Garland was a frequent guest on Kraft Music Hall, hosted by her friend Bing Crosby. Following Garland's second suicide attempt, Crosby, knowing that she was depressed and running out of money, invited her on his radio show – the first of the new season – on October 11, 1950.^{[citation needed]}

She was standing in the wings of it trembling with fear. She was almost hysterical. She said, "I cannot go out there because they're all gonna be looking to see if there are scars and it's gonna be terrible." Bing said "What's going on?" and I told him what happened and he walked out on stage and he said: "We got a friend here, she's had a little trouble recently. You probably heard about it – everything is fine now, she needs our love. She needs our support. She's here – let's give it to her, OK? Here's Judy." And she came out and that place went crazy. And she just blossomed.
— Hal Kanter, Writer for Bing

Garland made eight appearances during the 1950–51 season of The Bing Crosby – Chesterfield Show, which immediately reinvigorated her career. Soon after, she toured for four months to sell-out crowds in Europe.^[81] In 1951, Garland began a four-month concert tour of Britain and Ireland, where she played to sold-out audiences throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland.^[82] The successful concert tour was the first of her many comebacks, with performances centered on songs by Al Jolson and the revival of vaudevillian "tradition". Garland performed complete shows as tributes to Jolson in her concerts at the London Palladium in April and at New York's Palace Theater later that year.^[83]

Garland said after the Palladium show: "I suddenly knew that this was the beginning of a new life ... Hollywood thought I was through; then came the wonderful opportunity to appear at the London Palladium, where I can truthfully say Judy Garland was reborn."^[83] Her appearances at the Palladium lasted for four weeks, where she received rave reviews and an ovation described by the Palladium manager as the loudest he had ever heard.^[84]^[85]

Garland's engagement at the Palace Theatre in Manhattan in October 1951 exceeded all previous records for the theater and for Garland and was called "one of the greatest personal triumphs in show business history".^[86] Garland was honored with a Special Tony Award for her contribution to the revival of vaudeville.^[87]

Garland divorced Minnelli that same year.^[88] On June 8, 1952, she married Sidney Luft, her tour manager and producer, in Hollister, California.^[89] On November 21, 1952, Garland gave birth to daughter Lorna Luft, who became an actress and singer. On March 29, 1955, she gave birth to her son Joey Luft.^[90]

1954–1963: Hollywood return, concerts, and television

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1954–1963: Hollywood comeback

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Garland appeared with James Mason in the Warner Bros. film A Star Is Born (1954), the first remake of the 1937 film. She and Sidney Luft, her then-husband, produced the film through their production company, Transcona Enterprises, while Warner Bros. supplied finances, production facilities and crew.^[91] Directed by George Cukor, it was a large undertaking to which she initially fully dedicated herself.^[92]

As shooting progressed, however, she began making the same pleas of illness that 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 L. 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.^[93]

Upon its world premiere on September 29, 1954, the film was met with critical and popular acclaim. Before its 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. After its first-run engagements, about 30 minutes of footage were cut, sparking outrage among critics and filmgoers. Although it was still popular, drawing huge crowds and grossing over $6 million (equivalent to $54 million in 2023^[46]) in its first release, A Star is Born did not make back its cost and ended up losing money. As a result, the secure financial position Garland had expected from the profits did not materialize.^[94] Transcona made no more films with Warner.^[95]

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 for A Star Is Born. She could not attend the ceremony because she had just given birth, so a television crew was in her hospital room with cameras and wires to broadcast her anticipated acceptance speech. The Oscar was won, however, by Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). The camera crew packed up before Kelly could even reach the stage. Groucho Marx sent Garland a telegram after the awards ceremony, declaring her loss "the biggest robbery since Brinks".^[96] Time labeled her performance as "just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history".^[97] Garland won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role.^[98]

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),^[99] 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) with Dirk Bogarde.^[100]

1955–1961: Television, concerts and Carnegie Hall

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Garland appeared in a number of television specials beginning in 1955. The first was the 1955 debut episode of Ford Star Jubilee; this 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, US$300,000 (equivalent to $2,660,000 in 2023) contract with the network. Only one additional special was broadcast in 1956, a live concert-edition of General Electric Theater, before the relationship between the Lufts and CBS broke down in a dispute over the planned format of upcoming specials.^[101]

In 1956, Garland performed for four weeks at the New Frontier Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip for a salary of US$55,000 (equivalent to $470,000 in 2023) per week, making her the highest-paid entertainer to work in Las Vegas.^[102] Despite a brief bout of laryngitis, when Jerry Lewis filled in for her for one performance while she watched from a wheelchair, her performances there were so successful that her run was extended an extra week.^[103] 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.^[104]

In November 1959, Garland was hospitalized after she was diagnosed with acute hepatitis.^[105] Over the next few weeks, several quarts of fluid were drained from her body until she was released from the hospital in January 1960, still in a weak condition. She was told by doctors that she probably 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.^[106] She initially felt "greatly relieved" at the diagnosis. "The pressure was off me for the first time in my life."^[77] 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.^[107]

At the beginning of 1960, Garland signed a contract with Random House to write her autobiography. The book was to be called The Judy Garland Story and to be a collaboration with Fred F. Finklehoffe. Garland was paid an advance of US$35,000 (equivalent to $280,000 in 2023) and she and Finklehoffe recorded conversations about her life to be used in producing a manuscript. Garland worked on her autobiography on and off throughout the 1960s, but never completed it. Portions of her unfinished autobiography were included in the 2014 biography, Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters by Randy L. Schmidt.^[108]^[109]

Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961, was a considerable highlight, called by many "the greatest night in show business history".^[110] The two-record album Judy at Carnegie Hall was certified gold, charting for 95 weeks on Billboard, including 13 weeks at number one. It won four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Best Female Vocal of the Year, Best Album Cover, and Best Engineering Contribution.^[111]

1961–1964: The Judy Garland Show

[edit]

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, titled The Judy Garland Show, aired on February 25, 1962,^[112] and featured guests Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.^[113] Following this success, CBS made a $24 million offer (equivalent to $185.1 million in 2023^[46]) 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,^[114] 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.^[115]

Following a third special, Judy Garland and Her Guests Phil Silvers and Robert Goulet, Garland's weekly series debuted September 29, 1963.^[116] The Judy Garland Show was critically praised,^[117]^[118] 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, including Best Variety Series.^[119]

During this time, Garland had a six-month affair with actor Glenn Ford. Garland's biographer Gerald Clarke, Ford's son Peter, singer Mel Tormé, and her husband Sid Luft wrote about the affair in their respective biographies. The relationship began in 1963 while Garland was doing her television show. Ford would attend tapings of the show sitting in the front row while Garland sang. Ford is credited with giving Garland one of the more stable relationships of her later life. The affair was ended by Ford (a notorious womanizer, according to his son Peter) when he realized Garland wanted to marry him.^[120]

Personal life

[edit]

As she rose to fame, Garland's personal life became a complex blend of public adoration and private struggles. Her career, while filled with legendary performances, was often overshadowed by her ongoing battles with self-image, addiction, and mental health, which were exacerbated by Hollywood's grueling expectations.^[121] Garland was married five times and had three children: Liza Minnelli with director Vincente Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft with producer Sidney Luft.^[122] Her relationships were often turbulent, influenced by her intense fame and personal challenges.^[123]

Despite her struggles, Garland had a deep bond with her children, who would each go on to develop a connection to the entertainment industry. Garland's resilience through hardship, paired with her immense talent, secured her a lasting place in popular culture and a legacy that continues.^[124]^[125]

Political views

[edit]

Garland was a life-long and active Democrat. During her lifetime, she was a member of the Hollywood Democratic committee and a financial and moral supporter of various causes, including the Civil Rights Movement. She donated money to the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson II, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace.^[126]^[127]^[128]^[129]

In April 1944, Garland escorted Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis Sr. to a reception honoring the general at the home of Ira Gershwin. Davis, the first black general and highest-ranking black officer in the U.S. military, was in Los Angeles for the premiere of Frank Capra's documentary about black Americans serving in World War II. In September 1947, Garland joined the Committee for the First Amendment, a group formed by Hollywood celebrities in support of the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives led by J. Parnell Thomas. HUAC was formed to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees and organizations suspected of having communist ties. The Committee for the First Amendment sought to protect the civil liberties of those accused.^[130]

Other members included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Dorothy Dandridge, John Garfield, Katharine Hepburn, Lena Horne, John Huston, Gene Kelly and Billy Wilder. Garland took part in recording an all-star radio broadcast on October 26, 1947, Hollywood Fights Back, during which she exhorted listeners to action: "Before every free conscience in America is subpoenaed, please speak up! Say your piece! Write your congressman a letter – air mail special. Let the Congress know what you think of its Un-American Committee."^[130]

Garland was a friend of President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy and she often vacationed in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The house she stayed in during her vacations in Hyannis Port is known today as The Judy Garland House because of her association with the property.^[131] Garland would call Kennedy weekly, often ending her phone calls by singing the first few lines of "Over the Rainbow".^[131]^[132]^[133]

On August 28, 1963, Garland and other celebrities such as James Garner, Josephine Baker, Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Paul Newman, Rita Moreno and Sammy Davis Jr. took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a demonstration organized to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. She had been photographed by the press in Los Angeles earlier in the month alongside Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Charlton Heston as they planned their participation in the march on the nation's capital.^{[citation needed]}

On September 16, 1963, Garland – along with daughter Liza Minnelli, Carolyn Jones, June Allyson and Allyson's daughter Pam Powell – held a press conference to protest the recent bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that resulted in the death of four young African American girls. They expressed their shock and outrage at the attack and requested funds for the families of the victims. Powell and Minnelli both announced their intention to attend the funeral of the victims during the press conference.^[134]^[135]

Final years

[edit]

In 1963, Garland sued Sidney Luft for divorce on the grounds of mental cruelty. 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.^[136] She had filed for divorce from Luft on several previous occasions, even as early as 1956, but they had reconciled each time.^[137]

After her television series was canceled, Garland returned to work on the stage. She returned to the London Palladium performing with her 18-year-old daughter Liza Minnelli in November 1964. The concert was also shown on the British television network ITV and it was one of her final appearances at the venue. She made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. Garland guest-hosted an episode of The Hollywood Palace with Vic Damone. She was invited back for a second episode in 1966 with Van Johnson as her guest. Problems with Garland's behavior ended her Hollywood Palace guest appearances.^[138]

A 1964 tour of Australia ended badly. Garland's first two concerts in Sydney were held in the Sydney Stadium because no concert hall could accommodate the overflow crowds who wanted to see her. Both went well and received positive reviews. Her third performance, in Melbourne, started an hour late. The crowd of 7,000 was angered by her tardiness and believed that she was drunk; they booed and heckled her and she fled the stage after 45 minutes.^[139] She later characterized the Melbourne crowd as "brutish".^[140] Garland's Melbourne appearance gained a negative press response.^[141]

Garland's tour promoter Mark Herron announced that they had married aboard a freighter off the coast of Hong Kong. However, she was not officially divorced from Luft at the time the ceremony was performed.^[142] The divorce became final on May 19, 1965,^[136] and she and Herron did not legally marry until November 14, 1965; they separated five months later.^[143] During their divorce, Garland testified that Herron had beaten her. Herron claimed that he "only hit her in self defense".^[144]

For much of her career throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, husband Sidney Luft had been her manager. However, Garland eventually parted ways with Luft professionally, signing with agents Freddie Fields and David Begelman. By the fall of 1966, Garland had also parted ways with Fields and Begelman. Fields's and Begelman's mismanagement of Garland's money, as well as their embezzlement of much of her earnings, resulted in her owing around US$500,000 (equivalent to $3,590,000 in 2023) in total in personal debts and in debts to the IRS. The IRS placed tax liens on her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, her recording contract with Capitol Records, and any other business deals from which she could derive an income.^[145]

Garland was left in a desperate situation that saw her sell her Brentwood home at a price far below its value. She was then cast in February 1967 in the role of Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls by 20th Century Fox.^[146] According to co-star Patty Duke, Garland was treated poorly by director Mark Robson on the set of Valley of the Dolls and was primarily hired to augment publicity for the film.^[147] After Garland's dismissal from the film, author Jacqueline Susann said in the 1967 television documentary Jacqueline Susann and the Valley of the Dolls, "I think Judy will always come back. She kids about making a lot of comebacks, but I think Judy has a kind of a thing where she has to get to the bottom of the rope and things have to get very, very rough for her. Then with an amazing inner strength that only comes of a certain genius, she comes back bigger than ever".^[148]

Returning to the stage, Garland made one of her last U.S. appearances at New York's Palace Theatre in July 1967, a 27-show stand, performing with her children Lorna and Joey Luft. She wore a sequined pantsuit on stage for this tour; the pantsuit was part of the original wardrobe for her character in Valley of the Dolls.^[149] Garland earned more than US$200,000 (equivalent to $1,390,000 in 2023) from her final run at New York's Palace Theatre from her 75% share of the profits generated by her engagement there. On closing night at the Palace, federal tax agents seized the majority of her earnings.^[150]

By early 1969, Garland's health had deteriorated. She performed in London at the Talk of the Town nightclub for a five-week run^[151] in which she was paid £2,500 per week,^[108] and made her last concert appearance in Copenhagen during March 1969.^[152] After her divorce from Herron had been finalized on February 11, she married her fifth and final husband, nightclub manager Mickey Deans, at Chelsea Register Office, London, on March 15.^[153]

Death

[edit]

Garland was found dead by her husband Mickey Deans in the bathroom of her rented house in Cadogan Lane, Belgravia, London, on June 22, 1969, at age 47. At the inquest, Coroner Gavin Thurston 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.^[154] Thurston stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and no evidence suggested that she had intended to kill herself. Garland's autopsy showed no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue in her stomach, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in a single dose. Her death certificate stated that her death was "accidental".^[155] Supporting the accidental cause, Garland's physician noted that a prescription of 25 barbiturate pills was found by her bedside half-empty and another bottle of 100 barbiturate pills was still unopened.^[156]

A British specialist who had attended Garland's autopsy stated that she had nevertheless been living on borrowed time owing to cirrhosis, although a second autopsy conducted later reported no evidence of alcoholism or cirrhosis.^[157]^[158] Her Wizard of Oz co-star Ray Bolger commented at her funeral, "She just plain wore out."^[159]

After Garland's body had been embalmed and clothed in the same gray, silk gown she wore at her wedding to Deans, Deans traveled with her remains to New York City on June 26, 1969, where an estimated 20,000 people lined up to pay their respects at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan, which remained open all night long to accommodate the overflowing crowd. On June 27, 1969, James Mason gave a eulogy at the funeral, an Episcopal service led by the Rev. Peter Delaney of St Marylebone Parish Church, London, who had officiated at her marriage to Deans, three months earlier.^[160] "Judy's great gift", Mason said in his eulogy, "was that she could wring tears out of hearts of rock ... She gave so richly and so generously, that there was no currency in which to repay her."^[161] The public and press were barred. She was interred in a crypt in the community mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, a town 24 miles (39 km) north of midtown Manhattan.^[162]

Upon Garland's death, despite having earned millions during her career, her estate came to US$40,000 (equivalent to $250,000 in 2023). Years of criminal mismanagement of her financial affairs by her representatives and staff, along with her generosity toward her family and various causes, resulted in her poor financial situation at the end of her life. In her last will, signed and sealed in early 1961, Garland made many generous bequests that could not be fulfilled because her estate had been in debt for many years. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, worked to pay off her mother's debts with the help of family friend Frank Sinatra.^[163] In 1978, a selection of Garland's personal items was auctioned off by her ex-husband Sidney Luft with the support of their daughter Lorna and their son Joey. Almost 500 items, ranging from copper cookware to musical arrangements, were offered for sale. The auction raised US$250,000 (equivalent to $920,000 in 2023) for her heirs.^[164]

At the request of her children, Garland's remains were disinterred from Ferncliff Cemetery in January 2017 and re-interred 2,800 miles (4,500 km) across the country at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.^[165]

Artistry and recognition

[edit]

Garland possessed a contralto singing voice,^[166]^[167]^[168] described as brassy,^[16] powerful, effortless and resonant,^[169] often demonstrating a tremulous,^[170] powerful vibrato.^[171] Although her range was comparatively small, Garland was capable of alternating between female and male-sounding timbres with little effort.^[172] The Richmond Times-Dispatch correspondent Tony Farrell wrote she possessed "a deep, velvety contralto voice that could turn on a dime to belt out the high notes".^[168] Ron O'Brien, producer of tribute album The Definitive Collection – Judy Garland (2006), wrote the singer's combination of natural phrasing, elegant delivery, mature pathos "and powerful dramatic dynamics she brings to ... songs make her [renditions] the definitive interpretations".^[173]

The Huffington Post writer Joan E. Dowlin called the period of Garland's music career between 1937 and 1945 the "innocent years", during which the critic believes the singer's "voice was vibrant and her musical expression exuberant", taking note of its resonance and distinct, "rich yet sweet" quality "that grabs you and pulls you in".^[173] Garland's voice would often vary to suit the song she was interpreting, ranging from soft, engaging and tender during ballads to humorous on some of her duets with other artists.^[173] Her more joyful, belted performances have been compared to entertainers Sophie Tucker, Ethel Merman and Al Jolson.^[172] Although her musical repertoire consisted largely of cast recordings, show tunes and traditional pop standards,^[174] Garland was also capable of singing soul, blues and jazz music, which Dowlin compared to singer Elvis Presley.^[173]

Garland always claimed that her talent as a performer was inherited, saying: "Nobody ever taught me what to do onstage."^[175] Critics agree that, even when she debuted as a child,^[174] Garland had always sounded mature for her age,^[176] particularly on her earlier recordings.^[173] From an early age, Garland had been billed as "the little girl with the leather lungs",^[175] a designation the singer later admitted to having felt humiliated by because she would have much preferred to have been known to audiences as a "pretty" or "nice little girl".^[177]

Jessel recalled that, even at only 12 years old, Garland's singing voice resembled that of "a woman with a heart that had been hurt".^[175] The Kansas City Star contributor Robert Trussel cited Garland's singing voice among the reasons why her role in The Wizard of Oz remains memorable, writing that although "She might have been made up and costumed to look like a little girl ... she didn't sing like one" due to her "powerful contralto command[ing] attention".^[169]

Camille Paglia, writing for The New York Times, joked that even in Garland's adult life, "her petite frame literally throbbed with her huge voice", making it appear as though she were "at war with her own body".^[172] Musical theater actress and director Donna Thomason opined that Garland was an "effective" performer because of her ability to make her singing voice "a natural extension of [her] speaking voice", an asset that Thomason believed all musical theater actors should at least strive to achieve.^[169] Trussel agreed that "Garland's singing voice sounded utterly natural. It never seemed forced or overly trained."^[169]

Writing for Turner Classic Movies, biographer Jonathan Riggs observed that Garland had a tendency to imbue her vocals with a paradoxical combination of "fragility and resilience" that eventually became a signature trademark of hers.^[170] This signature style of her performances used to be marked with power in her voice, pronounced enunciation and projecting a sense of vulnerability through her singing and body language.^[178] Michael Bronski writes in his book, Culture Clash,

There was a hurt in her voice and an immediacy to her performance that gave the impression that it was her pain.^[179]

Louis Bayard of The Washington Post described Garland's voice as "throbbing", believing it to be capable of "connect[ing] with [audiences] in a way no other voice does".^[180] Bayard also believes that listeners "find it hard to disentwine the sorrow in her voice from the sorrow that dogged her life",^[180] while Dowlin argued that, "Listening to Judy sing ... makes me forget all of the angst and suffering she must have endured."^[173]

The New York Times obituarist in 1969 observed that Garland, whether intentionally or not, "brought with her ... all the well-publicized phantoms of her emotional breakdown, her career collapses and comebacks" on stage during later performances.^[16] The same writer said that Garland's voice changed and lost some of its quality as she aged, although she retained much of her personality.^[16] Contributing to the Irish Independent, Julia Molony observed Garland's voice, although "still rich with emotion", had finally begun to "creak with the weight of years of disappointment and hard-living" by the time she performed at Carnegie Hall in 1961.^[181]

Similarly, the live record's entry in the Library of Congress wrote that "while her voice was still strong, it had also gained a bit of heft and a bit of wear"; author Cary O'Dell believes Garland's rasp and "occasional quiver" only "upped the emotional quotient of many of her numbers", particularly on her signature songs "Over the Rainbow" and "The Man That Got Away".^[182] Garland stated that she always felt most safe and at home while performing onstage, regardless of the condition of her voice.^[183] Her musical talent has been commended by her peers; opera singer Maria Callas once said that Garland possessed "the most superb voice she had ever heard", while singer and actor Bing Crosby said that "no other singer could be compared to her" when Garland was rested.^[176] Aretha Franklin praised Garland as "one of the greatest singers there was."^[184]

Commenting on co-starring with Judy Garland, Fred Astaire later said: 'Judy's the greatest entertainer who ever lived - or probably will ever live - an amazing girl. "She could do things - anything - without rehearsing and come off perfectly.'^[185]

Garland was known for interacting with her audiences during live performances; The New York Times obituarist wrote that Garland possessed "a seemingly unquenchable need for her audiences to respond with acclaim and affection. And often, they did, screaming, 'We love you, Judy – we love you.'"^[16] Garland herself explained in 1961: "A really great reception makes me feel like I have a great big warm heating pad all over me ... I truly have a great love for an audience and I used to want to prove it to them by giving them blood. But I have a funny new thing now, a real determination to make people enjoy the show."^[186]

The New York Times writer described her as both "an instinctive actress and comedienne". The anonymous contributor commented that Garland's performance style resembled that of "a music hall performer in an era when music halls were obsolete".^[16] Close friends of Garland's insisted that she never truly wanted to be a movie star and would have much rather devoted her career entirely to singing and recording records.^[177] AllMusic biographer William Ruhlmann believes that Garland's ability to maintain a successful career as a recording artist even after her film appearances became less frequent was unusual for an artist at the time.^[174]

Garland has been identified as a triple threat due to her ability to sing, act and dance,^[187] arguably equally well.^[188] Doug Strassler, a critic for the New York Press, described Garland as a "triple threat" who "bounced between family musicals and adult dramas with a precision and a talent that remains largely unmatched".^[189] In terms of acting, Peter Lennon, writing for The Guardian in 1999, identified Garland as a "chameleon" due to her ability to alternate between comedic, musical and dramatic roles, citing The Wizard of Oz, The Clock, A Star is Born and I Could Go On Singing – her final film role – as prominent examples.^[190] Michael Musto, a journalist for W magazine, wrote that, in her film roles, Garland "could project decency, vulnerability and spunk like no other star and she wrapped it up with a tremulously beautiful vocal delivery that could melt even the most hardened troll".^[191]

Filmography

[edit]

Discography

[edit]

Studio albums

The Wizard of Oz (with Victor Young and his orchestra) (1939)
Girl Crazy (1944)
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Miss Show Business (1955)
Judy (1956)
Alone (1957)
Judy in Love (1958)
The Letter (1959)
That's Entertainment! (1960)
The Garland Touch (1962)

Public image and reputation

[edit]

Garland was nearly as famous for her personal struggles in everyday life as she was for her entertainment career.^[172] She has been closely associated with her carefully cultivated girl next door image.^[181] Early in her career during the 1930s, Garland's public image had earned her the title "America's favorite kid sister",^[175] as well as the title "Little Miss Showbusiness".^[192]^[193]

In a review for the Star Tribune, Graydon Royce wrote that Garland's public image remained that of "a Midwestern girl who couldn't believe where she was", despite having been a well-established celebrity for over 20 years.^[183] Royce believes that fans and audiences insisted on preserving their memory of Garland as Dorothy no matter how much she matured, calling her "a captive not of her own desire to stay young, but a captive of the public's desire to preserve her that way".^[183] Thus, the studio continued to cast Garland in roles that were significantly younger than her actual age.^[183]

According to Malony, Garland was one of Hollywood's hardest-working performers during the 1940s, which Malony claims she used as a coping mechanism after her first marriage imploded.^[181] However, studio employees recall that Garland had a tendency to be quite intense, headstrong and volatile;^[175] Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend author David Shipman claims that several individuals were frustrated by Garland's "narcissism" and "growing instability", while millions of fans found her public demeanor and psychological state to be "fragile",^[192]^[181] appearing neurotic in interviews.^[183]

MGM reports that Garland was consistently tardy and demonstrated erratic behavior, which resulted in several delays and disruptions to filming schedules until she was finally dismissed from the studio, which had deemed her unreliable and difficult to manage.^[181] Farrell called Garland "A grab bag of contradictions" which "has always been a feast for the American imagination", describing her public persona as "awkward yet direct, bashful yet brash".^[168] Describing the singer as "Tender and endearing yet savage and turbulent", Paglia wrote that Garland "cut a path of destruction through many lives. And out of that chaos, she made art of still-searing intensity."^[172] Calling her "a creature of extremes, greedy, sensual and demanding, gluttonous for pleasure and pain",^[175] Paglia also compared Garland to entertainer Frank Sinatra due to their shared "emblematic personality ... into whom the mass audience projected its hopes and disappointments", while observing that she lacked Sinatra's survival skills.^[172]

Despite her success as a performer, Garland suffered from low self-esteem, particularly with regard to her weight, which she constantly dieted to maintain at the behest of the studio and Mayer;^[175]^[181]^[191] critics and historians believe this was a result of having been told that she was an "ugly duckling" by studio executives.^[173] Entertainment Weekly columnist Gene Lyons observed that both audiences and fellow members of the entertainment industry "tended either to love her or to hate her".^[192]

At one point, Stevie Phillips, who had worked as an agent for Garland for four years, described her client as "a demented, demanding, supremely talented drug-addict".^[181] Royce argues that Garland maintained "astonishing strength and courage", even during difficult times.^[183] English actor Dirk Bogarde once called Garland "the funniest woman I have ever met".^[180] Ruhlmann wrote that the singer's personal life "contrasted so starkly with the exuberance and innocence of her film roles".^[174]

Despite her personal struggles, Garland disagreed with the public's opinion that she was a tragic figure.^[183]^[190] Her younger daughter Lorna agreed that Garland "hated" being referred to as a tragic figure, explaining, "We all have tragedies in our lives, but that does not make us tragic. She was funny and she was warm and she was wonderfully gifted. She had great highs and great moments in her career. She also had great moments in her personal life. Yes, we lost her at 47 years old. That was tragic. But she was not a tragic figure."^[190] Ruhlmann argues that Garland actually used the public's opinion of her tragic image to her advantage towards the end of her career.^[174]

Honors and legacy

[edit]

By the time of her death in 1969, Garland had appeared in more than 35 films.^[16] She has been called one of the greats of entertainment and her reputation has endured.^[194]^[195]^[196]^[197] In 1992, Gerald Clarke of Architectural Digest dubbed Garland "probably the greatest American entertainer of the twentieth century".^[176] O'Brien believes that "No one in the history of Hollywood ever packed the musical wallop that Garland did", explaining, "She had the biggest, most versatile voice in movies. Her Technicolor musicals... defined the genre. The songs she introduced were Oscar gold. Her film career frames the Golden Age of Hollywood musicals."^[173]

Turner Classic Movies dubbed Garland "history's most poignant voice".^[170] Entertainment Weekly's Gene Lyons dubbed Garland "the Madonna of her generation".^[192] The American Film Institute named her eighth among the Greatest female stars of Golden Age Hollywood cinema.^[198] In June 1998, in The New York Times, Camille Paglia wrote, "Garland was a personality on the grand scale who makes our current crop of pop stars look lightweight and evanescent."^[172]

In recent years, Garland's legacy has maintained fans of all different ages, both younger and older.^[190] In 2010, The Huffington Post contributor Joan E. Dowlin concluded that Garland possessed a distinct "it" quality by "exemplif[ying] the star quality of charisma, musical talent, natural acting ability and, despite what the studio honchos said, good looks (even if they were the girl next door looks)".^[173]

AllMusic's biographer William Ruhlmann said that "the core of her significance as an artist remains her amazing voice and emotional commitment to her songs" and believes that "her career is sometimes viewed more as an object lesson in Hollywood excess than as the remarkable string of multimedia accomplishments it was".^[174] In 2012, Strassler described Garland as "more than an icon... Like Charlie Chaplin and Lucille Ball, she created a template that the powers that be have forever been trying, with varied levels of success, to replicate."^[189]

Garland's live performances towards the end of her career are still remembered by fans who attended them as "peak moments in 20th-century music".^[175] She has been the subject of over thirty 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 who portrayed her (Tammy Blanchard and Judy Davis).^[199] Strassler observed that Garland "created one of the most storied cautionary tales in the industry, thanks to her many excesses and insecurities that led to her early death by overdose".^[189]

Garland was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.^[200] Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[201] 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" (No. 76), "Get Happy" (No. 61), "The Trolley Song" (No. 26) and "The Man That Got Away" (No. 11).^[202]

She has twice been honored on U.S. postage stamps, in 1989 (as Dorothy)^[203] and again in 2006 (as Vicki Lester from A Star Is Born).^[204] While on tour in 1964, Garland identified "Over the Rainbow" as her favorite of all the songs she had ever recorded, to which Trussel observed that "Her career would remain inextricably linked".^[169] Garland would frequently use an overture from "Over the Rainbow" as her entrance music during concerts and television appearances.^[169]

According to Paglia, the more Garland performed "Over the Rainbow", the more it "became her tragic anthem ... a dirge for artistic opportunities squandered and for personal happiness permanently deferred".^[172] In 1998, Carnegie Hall hosted a two-concert tribute to Garland, which they promoted as "a tribute to the world's greatest entertainer".^[172]

Subsequent celebrities who have suffered from personal struggles with drug addiction and substance use disorder have been compared to Garland, particularly Michael Jackson.^[173] Garland's elder daughter Liza Minnelli had a personal life that was almost parallel to that of her mother's, having struggled with substance use disorder and several unsuccessful marriages.^[181] Paglia observed that actress Marilyn Monroe would exhibit behavior which was similar to that which Garland had exhibited a decade earlier in Meet Me in St. Louis, particularly tardiness.^[175]

On June 10, 2022, the centennial of her birth, she was honored with a perfume named after her entitled "Judy — A Garland Fragrance" created by Vincenzo Spinnato.^[205]

Gay icon

[edit]

Garland had a large fan base in the gay community and became a gay icon.^[206] Reasons given for her standing among gay men are the admiration of her ability as a performer, the way her personal struggles mirrored those of gay men in the United States during the height of her fame and her value as a camp figure.^[207] In 1965, a reporter asked how she felt about having a large gay following. She replied, "I could care less. I sing to people!"^[208]

Portrayals in fiction

[edit]

Garland has been portrayed on television by Andrea McArdle in Rainbow (1978),^[209] Tammy Blanchard (young Judy) and Judy Davis (older Judy) in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001),^[210] and Sigrid Thornton in Peter Allen: Not The Boy Next Door (2015).^[211] Harvey Weinstein optioned Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland and a stage show and film based on it were slated to star Anne Hathaway.^[212] Renée Zellweger portrayed Garland in the biopic Judy (2019) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress.^[213]

On stage, Garland is a character in the musical The Boy from Oz (1998), portrayed by Chrissy Amphlett in the original Australian production^[214] and by Isabel Keating on Broadway in 2003.^[215] End of the Rainbow (2005) featured Caroline O'Connor as Garland and Paul Goddard as Garland's pianist.^[216] Adrienne Barbeau played Garland in The Property Known as Garland (2006)^[217] and The Judy Monologues (2010) initially featured male actors reciting Garland's words before it was revamped as a one-woman show.^[218]

In music, Garland is referenced in the 1992 Tori Amos song "Happy Phantom", in which Garland is imagined to be taking Buddha by the hand. Amos also refers to Garland as "Judy G" in her 1996 song "Not the Red Baron". Garland is also the titular subject of Frog's "Judy Garland" single from 2015.^[219]^[220]^[221]

See also

[edit]

List of recordings by Judy Garland

Notes

[edit]

^ This particular scene was filmed in 1947.^[63]

References

[edit]

^ Peter (January 10, 2023). "Judy Garland: A Life In Performance". Mozart Project. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
^ "Judy's Life - ~1920S~". judygarlandmuseum.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2020. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
^ "Minnesota Birth Records, Minnesota Historical Society People Search". Retrieved November 18, 2024.
^ "Ethel Marion Milne death pt 1 of 2". Los Angeles Times. January 6, 1953. p. 1. Archived from the original on February 16, 2021. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
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Bibliography

[edit]

Clarke, Gerald (2001). Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. New York City: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50378-8.
DiOrio, Al Jr. (1973). Little Girl Lost: The Life and Hard Times of Judy Garland. New York City: Manor Books. ISBN 978-0-375-50378-8.
Edwards, Anne (1975). Judy Garland. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-80228-8.
Finch, Christopher (1975). Rainbow: The Stormy Life of Judy Garland. New York City: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-345-25173-2.
Frank, Gerold (1975). Judy. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-011337-7.
Juneau, James (1974). Judy Garland: A Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies. New York City: Pyramid Publications. ISBN 978-0-515-03482-0.
Luft, Lorna (1999). Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-283-06320-6.
Sanders, Coyne Steven (1990). Rainbow's End: The Judy Garland Show. New York City: Zebra Books. ISBN 978-0-8217-3708-8.
Seaman, Barbara (1996). Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann. New York City: Seven Stories Press. ISBN 978-0-9658770-6-0.
Shipman, David (1992). Judy Garland: The Secret Life of an American Legend. New York City: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-8026-3.
Wayne, Jane Ellen (2003). The Golden Girls of MGM. New York City: Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7867-1303-5.

Further reading

[edit]

Steiger, Brad (1969). Judy Garland. London: Ace. p. 88. OCLC 2577482.

External links

[edit]

Listen to this article (58 minutes)

This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 17 June 2018, and does not reflect subsequent edits.

Official website
The Judy Room
Judy-Garland.org Archived December 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
Judy Garland Museum
Judy Garland at the American Film Institute Catalog
Judy Garland at IMDb
Judy Garland at The Biography Channel
Judy Garland at the TCM Movie Database
Judy Garland at the Internet Broadway Database
Judy Garland: By Myself Archived November 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine American Masters special

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Ella Fitzgerald for Ella in Berlin: Mack the Knife	Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance 1962 for Judy at Carnegie Hall	Succeeded by Ella Fitzgerald for Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson
Preceded by Dave Brubeck, Marvin Gaye, Georg Solti, Stevie Wonder	Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 1997	Succeeded by Bo Diddley, Mills Brothers, Roy Orbison, Paul Robeson

Judy Garland

Studio albums

Selections from films	The Wizard of Oz (with Victor Young and his orch.) Girl Crazy Meet Me in St. Louis The Harvey Girls

Soundtrack albums

Till the Clouds Roll By

The Pirate

Words and Music

Easter Parade

Summer Stock

A Star Is Born

The Wizard of Oz (1956 album)

Compilations

Live albums

Other

v t e Judy Garland songs
1930s	"Good Morning" "Over the Rainbow" "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)"
1940s	"Among My Souvenirs" "Be a Clown" "The Boy Next Door" "A Couple of Swells" "Easter Parade" "F.D.R. Jones" "For Me and My Gal" "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" "How About You?" "I Wish I Were in Love Again" "It's a Great Day for the Irish" "Johnny One Note" "Journey to a Star" "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" "On the Sunny Side of the Street" "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" "The Wearing of the Green" "The Trolley Song"
1950s	"April Showers" "Carolina in the Morning" "Confessin'" "Day In, Day Out" "Get Happy" "How About Me?" "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" "I Concentrate on You" "I Hadn't Anyone Till You" "Just You, Just Me" "Last Night When We Were Young" "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" "More Than You Know" "The Man That Got Away" "Swanee" "Stormy Weather" "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" "Theme from San Francisco" "What'll I Do"
1960s	"After You've Gone" "Almost Like Being in Love" "Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)" "Down with Love" "Do It Again" "Fly Me to the Moon" "A Foggy Day" "Hey, Look Me Over" "I Happen to Like New York" "If Love Were All" "Moon River" "Oh Shenandoah" "Somewhere" "That's Entertainment!" "This Can't Be Love" "You Go to My Head"

Awards for Judy Garland

v t e Academy Honorary Award
1928–1950	Warner Bros. / Charlie Chaplin (1928) Walt Disney (1932) Shirley Temple (1934) D. W. Griffith (1935) The March of Time / W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson (1936) Edgar Bergen / W. Howard Greene / Museum of Modern Art Film Library / Mack Sennett (1937) J. Arthur Ball / Walt Disney / Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney / Gordon Jennings, Jan Domela, Devereaux Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith, Farciot Edouart, Loyal Griggs, Loren L. Ryder, Harry D. Mills, Louis Mesenkop, Walter Oberst / Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey / Harry Warner (1938) Douglas Fairbanks / Judy Garland / William Cameron Menzies / Motion Picture Relief Fund (Jean Hersholt, Ralph Morgan, Ralph Block, Conrad Nagel) / Technicolor SA (1939) Bob Hope / Nathan Levinson (1940) Walt Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company / Leopold Stokowski and his associates / Rey Scott / British Ministry of Information (1941) Charles Boyer / Noël Coward / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1942) George Pal (1943) Bob Hope / Margaret O'Brien (1944) Republic Studio, Daniel J. Bloomberg, and the Republic Studio Sound Department / Walter Wanger / The House I Live In / Peggy Ann Garner (1945) Harold Russell / Laurence Olivier / Ernst Lubitsch / Claude Jarman Jr. (1946) James Baskett / Thomas Armat, William Nicholas Selig, Albert E. Smith, and George Kirke Spoor / Bill and Coo / Shoeshine (1947) Walter Wanger / Monsieur Vincent / Sid Grauman / Adolph Zukor (1948) Jean Hersholt / Fred Astaire / Cecil B. DeMille / The Bicycle Thief (1949) Louis B. Mayer / George Murphy / The Walls of Malapaga (1950)
1951–1975	Gene Kelly / Rashomon (1951) Merian C. Cooper / Bob Hope / Harold Lloyd / George Mitchell / Joseph M. Schenck / Forbidden Games (1952) 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation / Bell & Howell Company / Joseph Breen / Pete Smith (1953) Bausch & Lomb Optical Company / Danny Kaye / Kemp Niver / Greta Garbo / Jon Whiteley / Vincent Winter / Gate of Hell (1954) Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1955) Eddie Cantor (1956) Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers / Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson / Charles Brackett / B. B. Kahane (1957) Maurice Chevalier (1958) Buster Keaton / Lee de Forest (1959) Gary Cooper / Stan Laurel / Hayley Mills (1960) William L. Hendricks / Fred L. Metzler / Jerome Robbins (1961) William J. Tuttle (1964) Bob Hope (1965) Yakima Canutt / Y. Frank Freeman (1966) Arthur Freed (1967) John Chambers / Onna White (1968) Cary Grant (1969) Lillian Gish / Orson Welles (1970) Charlie Chaplin (1971) Charles S. Boren / Edward G. Robinson (1972) Henri Langlois / Groucho Marx (1973) Howard Hawks / Jean Renoir (1974) Mary Pickford (1975)
1976–2000	Margaret Booth (1977) Walter Lantz / Laurence Olivier / King Vidor / Museum of Modern Art Department of Film (1978) Hal Elias / Alec Guinness (1979) Henry Fonda (1980) Barbara Stanwyck (1981) Mickey Rooney (1982) Hal Roach (1983) James Stewart / National Endowment for the Arts (1984) Paul Newman / Alex North (1985) Ralph Bellamy (1986) Eastman Kodak Company / National Film Board of Canada (1988) Akira Kurosawa (1989) Sophia Loren / Myrna Loy (1990) Satyajit Ray (1991) Federico Fellini (1992) Deborah Kerr (1993) Michelangelo Antonioni (1994) Kirk Douglas / Chuck Jones (1995) Michael Kidd (1996) Stanley Donen (1997) Elia Kazan (1998) Andrzej Wajda (1999) Jack Cardiff / Ernest Lehman (2000)
2001–present	Sidney Poitier / Robert Redford (2001) Peter O'Toole (2002) Blake Edwards (2003) Sidney Lumet (2004) Robert Altman (2005) Ennio Morricone (2006) Robert F. Boyle (2007) Lauren Bacall / Roger Corman / Gordon Willis (2009) Kevin Brownlow / Jean-Luc Godard / Eli Wallach (2010) James Earl Jones / Dick Smith (2011) D. A. Pennebaker / Hal Needham / George Stevens Jr. (2012) Angela Lansbury / Steve Martin / Piero Tosi (2013) Jean-Claude Carrière / Hayao Miyazaki / Maureen O'Hara (2014) Spike Lee / Gena Rowlands (2015) Jackie Chan / Lynn Stalmaster / Anne V. Coates / Frederick Wiseman (2016) Charles Burnett / Owen Roizman / Donald Sutherland / Agnès Varda (2017) Marvin Levy / Lalo Schifrin / Cicely Tyson (2018) David Lynch / Wes Studi / Lina Wertmüller (2019) Samuel L. Jackson / Elaine May / Liv Ullmann (2021) Euzhan Palcy / Diane Warren / Peter Weir (2022) Angela Bassett / Mel Brooks / Carol Littleton (2023) Quincy Jones / Juliet Taylor (2024)

Cecil B. DeMille Award

Cecil B. DeMille (1951)
Walt Disney (1952)
Darryl F. Zanuck (1953)
Jean Hersholt (1954)
Jack L. Warner (1955)
Mervyn LeRoy (1956)
Buddy Adler (1957)
Maurice Chevalier (1958)
Bing Crosby (1959)
Fred Astaire (1960)
Judy Garland (1961)
Bob Hope (1962)
Joseph E. Levine (1963)
James Stewart (1964)
John Wayne (1965)
Charlton Heston (1966)
Kirk Douglas (1967)
Gregory Peck (1968)
Joan Crawford (1969)
Frank Sinatra (1970)
Alfred Hitchcock (1971)
Samuel Goldwyn (1972)
Bette Davis (1973)
Hal B. Wallis (1974)
No Award (1975)
Walter Mirisch (1976)
Red Skelton (1977)
Lucille Ball (1978)
Henry Fonda (1979)
Gene Kelly (1980)
Sidney Poitier (1981)
Laurence Olivier (1982)
Paul Newman (1983)
Elizabeth Taylor (1984)
Barbara Stanwyck (1985)
Anthony Quinn (1986)
Clint Eastwood (1987)
Doris Day (1988)
Audrey Hepburn (1989)
Jack Lemmon (1990)
Robert Mitchum (1991)
Lauren Bacall (1992)
Robert Redford (1993)
Sophia Loren (1994)
Sean Connery (1995)
Dustin Hoffman (1996)
Shirley MacLaine (1997)
Jack Nicholson (1998)
Barbra Streisand (1999)
Al Pacino (2000)
Harrison Ford (2001)
Gene Hackman (2002)
Michael Douglas (2003)
Robin Williams (2004)
Anthony Hopkins (2005)
Warren Beatty (2006)
No Award (2007)
Steven Spielberg (2008)
Martin Scorsese (2009)
Robert De Niro (2010)
Morgan Freeman (2011)
Jodie Foster (2012)
Woody Allen (2013)
George Clooney (2014)
Denzel Washington (2015)
Meryl Streep (2016)
Oprah Winfrey (2017)
Jeff Bridges (2018)
Tom Hanks (2019)
Jane Fonda (2020)
No Award (2021)
Eddie Murphy (2022)
No Award (2023)
Viola Davis (2024)

v t e Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
1950–1975	Judy Holliday (1950) June Allyson (1951) Susan Hayward (1952) Ethel Merman (1953) Judy Garland (1954) Jean Simmons (1955) Deborah Kerr (1956) Kay Kendall / Taina Elg (1957) Rosalind Russell (1958) Marilyn Monroe (1959) Shirley MacLaine (1960) Rosalind Russell (1961) Rosalind Russell (1962) Shirley MacLaine (1963) Julie Andrews (1964) Julie Andrews (1965) Lynn Redgrave (1966) Anne Bancroft (1967) Barbra Streisand (1968) Patty Duke (1969) Carrie Snodgress (1970) Twiggy (1971) Liza Minnelli (1972) Glenda Jackson (1973) Raquel Welch (1974) Ann-Margret (1975)
1976–2000	Barbra Streisand (1976) Diane Keaton / Marsha Mason (1977) Ellen Burstyn / Maggie Smith (1978) Bette Midler (1979) Sissy Spacek (1980) Bernadette Peters (1981) Julie Andrews (1982) Julie Walters (1983) Kathleen Turner (1984) Kathleen Turner (1985) Sissy Spacek (1986) Cher (1987) Melanie Griffith (1988) Jessica Tandy (1989) Julia Roberts (1990) Bette Midler (1991) Miranda Richardson (1992) Angela Bassett (1993) Jamie Lee Curtis (1994) Nicole Kidman (1995) Madonna (1996) Helen Hunt (1997) Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) Janet McTeer (1999) Renée Zellweger (2000)
2001–present	Nicole Kidman (2001) Renée Zellweger (2002) Diane Keaton (2003) Annette Bening (2004) Reese Witherspoon (2005) Meryl Streep (2006) Marion Cotillard (2007) Sally Hawkins (2008) Meryl Streep (2009) Annette Bening (2010) Michelle Williams (2011) Jennifer Lawrence (2012) Amy Adams (2013) Amy Adams (2014) Jennifer Lawrence (2015) Emma Stone (2016) Saoirse Ronan (2017) Olivia Colman (2018) Awkwafina (2019) Rosamund Pike (2020) Rachel Zegler (2021) Michelle Yeoh (2022) Emma Stone (2023) Demi Moore (2024)

v t e Grammy Award for Album of the Year
1950s	The Music from Peter Gunn – Henry Mancini (1958) Come Dance with Me! – Frank Sinatra (1959)
1960s	The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart – Bob Newhart (1960) Judy at Carnegie Hall – Judy Garland (1961) The First Family – Vaughn Meader (1962) The Barbra Streisand Album – Barbra Streisand (1963) Getz/Gilberto – Stan Getz & João Gilberto (1964) September of My Years – Frank Sinatra (1965) A Man and His Music – Frank Sinatra (1966) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1967) By the Time I Get to Phoenix – Glen Campbell (1968) Blood, Sweat & Tears – Blood, Sweat & Tears (1969)
1970s	Bridge over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel (1970) Tapestry – Carole King (1971) The Concert for Bangladesh – George Harrison & Friends (1972) Innervisions – Stevie Wonder (1973) Fulfillingness' First Finale – Stevie Wonder (1974) Still Crazy After All These Years – Paul Simon (1975) Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder (1976) Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1977) Saturday Night Fever – Various Artists (1978) 52nd Street – Billy Joel (1979)
1980s	Christopher Cross – Christopher Cross (1980) Double Fantasy – John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1981) Toto IV – Toto (1982) Thriller – Michael Jackson (1983) Can't Slow Down – Lionel Richie (1984) No Jacket Required – Phil Collins (1985) Graceland – Paul Simon (1986) The Joshua Tree – U2 (1987) Faith – George Michael (1988) Nick of Time – Bonnie Raitt (1989)
1990s	Back on the Block – Quincy Jones and Various Artists (1990) Unforgettable... with Love – Natalie Cole (1991) Unplugged – Eric Clapton (1992) The Bodyguard – Whitney Houston (1993) MTV Unplugged – Tony Bennett (1994) Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1995) Falling into You – Celine Dion (1996) Time Out of Mind – Bob Dylan (1997) The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill (1998) Supernatural – Santana (1999)
2000s	Two Against Nature – Steely Dan (2000) O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Various Artists (2001) Come Away with Me – Norah Jones (2002) Speakerboxxx/The Love Below – Outkast (2003) Genius Loves Company – Ray Charles & Various Artists (2004) How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2 (2005) Taking the Long Way – Dixie Chicks (2006) River: The Joni Letters – Herbie Hancock (2007) Raising Sand – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (2008) Fearless – Taylor Swift (2009)
2010s	The Suburbs – Arcade Fire (2010) 21 – Adele (2011) Babel – Mumford & Sons (2012) Random Access Memories – Daft Punk (2013) Morning Phase – Beck (2014) 1989 – Taylor Swift (2015) 25 – Adele (2016) 24K Magic – Bruno Mars (2017) Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves (2018) When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Billie Eilish (2019)
2020s	Folklore – Taylor Swift (2020) We Are – Jon Batiste (2021) Harry's House – Harry Styles (2022) Midnights – Taylor Swift (2023) Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé (2024)

v t e Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
1963–1990	1963 Bing Crosby 1965 Frank Sinatra 1966 Duke Ellington 1967 Ella Fitzgerald 1968 Irving Berlin 1971 Elvis Presley 1972 Louis Armstrong Mahalia Jackson 1984 Chuck Berry Charlie Parker 1985 Leonard Bernstein 1986 Benny Goodman The Rolling Stones Andrés Segovia 1987 Roy Acuff Benny Carter Enrico Caruso Ray Charles Fats Domino Woody Herman Billie Holiday B. B. King Isaac Stern Igor Stravinsky Arturo Toscanini Hank Williams 1989 Fred Astaire Pablo Casals Dizzy Gillespie Jascha Heifetz Lena Horne Leontyne Price Bessie Smith Art Tatum Sarah Vaughan 1990 Nat King Cole Miles Davis Vladimir Horowitz Paul McCartney
1991–2000	1991 Marian Anderson Bob Dylan John Lennon Kitty Wells 1992 James Brown John Coltrane Jimi Hendrix Muddy Waters 1993 Chet Atkins Little Richard Thelonious Monk Bill Monroe Pete Seeger Fats Waller 1994 Bill Evans Aretha Franklin Arthur Rubinstein 1995 Patsy Cline Peggy Lee Henry Mancini Curtis Mayfield Barbra Streisand 1996 Dave Brubeck Marvin Gaye Georg Solti Stevie Wonder 1997 Bobby "Blue" Bland The Everly Brothers Judy Garland Stéphane Grappelli Buddy Holly Charles Mingus Oscar Peterson Frank Zappa 1998 Bo Diddley The Mills Brothers Roy Orbison Paul Robeson 1999 Johnny Cash Sam Cooke Otis Redding Smokey Robinson Mel Tormé 2000 Harry Belafonte Woody Guthrie John Lee Hooker Mitch Miller Willie Nelson
2001–2010	2001 The Beach Boys Tony Bennett Sammy Davis Jr. Bob Marley The Who 2002 Count Basie Rosemary Clooney Perry Como Al Green Joni Mitchell 2003 Etta James Johnny Mathis Glenn Miller Tito Puente Simon & Garfunkel 2004 Van Cliburn The Funk Brothers Ella Jenkins Sonny Rollins Artie Shaw Doc Watson 2005 Eddy Arnold Art Blakey The Carter Family Morton Gould Janis Joplin Led Zeppelin Jerry Lee Lewis Jelly Roll Morton Pinetop Perkins The Staple Singers 2006 David Bowie Cream Merle Haggard Robert Johnson Jessye Norman Richard Pryor The Weavers 2007 Joan Baez Booker T. & the M.G.'s Maria Callas Ornette Coleman The Doors The Grateful Dead Bob Wills 2008 Burt Bacharach The Band Cab Calloway Doris Day Itzhak Perlman Max Roach Earl Scruggs 2009 Gene Autry The Blind Boys of Alabama The Four Tops Hank Jones Brenda Lee Dean Martin Tom Paxton 2010 Leonard Cohen Bobby Darin David "Honeyboy" Edwards Michael Jackson Loretta Lynn André Previn Clark Terry
2011–2020	2011 Julie Andrews Roy Haynes Juilliard String Quartet The Kingston Trio Dolly Parton Ramones George Beverly Shea 2012 The Allman Brothers Band Glen Campbell Antônio Carlos Jobim George Jones The Memphis Horns Diana Ross Gil Scott-Heron 2013 Glenn Gould Charlie Haden Lightnin' Hopkins Carole King Patti Page Ravi Shankar The Temptations 2014 The Beatles Clifton Chenier The Isley Brothers Kraftwerk Kris Kristofferson Armando Manzanero Maud Powell 2015 Bee Gees Pierre Boulez Buddy Guy George Harrison Flaco Jiménez The Louvin Brothers Wayne Shorter 2016 Ruth Brown Celia Cruz Earth, Wind & Fire Herbie Hancock Jefferson Airplane Linda Ronstadt Run-DMC 2017 Shirley Caesar Ahmad Jamal Charley Pride Jimmie Rodgers Nina Simone Sly Stone The Velvet Underground 2018 Hal Blaine Neil Diamond Emmylou Harris Louis Jordan The Meters Queen Tina Turner 2019 Black Sabbath George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic Billy Eckstine Donny Hathaway Julio Iglesias Sam & Dave Dionne Warwick 2020 Chicago Roberta Flack Isaac Hayes Iggy Pop John Prine Public Enemy Sister Rosetta Tharpe
2021–present	2021 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Lionel Hampton Marilyn Horne Salt-N-Pepa Selena Talking Heads 2022 Bonnie Raitt 2023 Bobby McFerrin Nirvana Ma Rainey Slick Rick Nile Rodgers The Supremes Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson 2024 Laurie Anderson The Clark Sisters Gladys Knight N.W.A Donna Summer Tammy Wynette 2025 Frankie Beverly The Clash Bobby Jones Taj Mahal Prince Roxanne Shante Frankie Valli

v t e Special Tony Award
1947–1975	Dora Chamberlain / Ira and Rita Katzenberg / Jules Leventhal / Burns Mantle / P. A. MacDonald / Vincent Sardi Sr. (1947) Vera Allen / Paul Beisman / Joe E. Brown / Cast of The Importance of Being Earnest / Robert W. Dowling / Experimental Theatre Inc. / Rosalind Gilder / June Lockhart / Mary Martin / George Pierce / James Whitmore (1948) No award (1949) Maurice Evans / Philip Faversham / Brock Pemberton (1950) Ruth Green (1951) Charles Boyer / Judy Garland / Edward Kook (1952) Danny Kaye / Beatrice Lillie (1953) No award (1954) Proscenium Productions (1955) Fourth Street Chekov Theatre / City Center / The New York Public Library Theatre Collection / The Shakespearewrights / The Threepenny Opera (1956) American Shakespeare Festival / Jean-Louis Barrault / Robert Russell Bennett / William Hammerstein / Joseph Harbuck / Paul Shyre (1957) Mrs. Martin Beck / New York Shakespeare Festival (1958) Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay / John Gielgud / Cast of La Plume de Ma Tante (1959) Burgess Meredith and James Thurber / John D. Rockefeller III (1960) David Merrick / The Theatre Guild (1961) Brooks Atkinson / Richard Rodgers / Franco Zeffirelli (1962) Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore / Irving Berlin / W. McNeil Lowry (1963) Eva Le Gallienne (1964) Gilbert Miller / Oliver Smith (1965) Helen Menken (1966) No award (1967) APA-Phoenix Theatre / Pearl Bailey / Carol Channing / Maurice Chevalier / Marlene Dietrich / Audrey Hepburn / David Merrick (1968) Leonard Bernstein / Carol Burnett / Rex Harrison / The National Theatre Company of Great Britain / The Negro Ensemble Company (1969) Noël Coward / Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt / New York Shakespeare Festival / Barbra Streisand (1970) Ingram Ash / Elliot Norton / Playbill / Roger L. Stevens (1971) Fiddler on the Roof / Ethel Merman / Richard Rodgers / The Theatre Guild-American Theatre Society (1972) The Actors Fund of America / John Lindsay / Shubert Organization (1973) Actors' Equity Association / A Moon for the Misbegotten / Candide / Peter Cook and Dudley Moore / Harold Friedlander / Bette Midler / Liza Minnelli / Theatre Development Fund / John F. Wharton (1974) Al Hirschfeld (1975)
1976–2000	George Abbott / Richard Burton / Circle in the Square Theatre / Thomas H. Fitzgerald / Mathilde Pincus (1976) Cheryl Crawford / Equity Liberty Theatre / Barry Manilow / National Theatre of the Deaf / Diana Ross / Lily Tomlin (1977) Irving Berlin / Stan Dragoti and Charles Moss (1978) Walter F. Diehl / Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center / Henry Fonda / Richard Rodgers (1979) Richard Fitzgerald / Helen Hayes / Mary Tyler Moore / Hobe Morrison (1980) Lena Horne (1981) Radio City Music Hall / The Actors Fund of America / Warner Communications (1982) No award (1983) A Chorus Line / Peter Feller / La Tragedie de Carmen (1984) Yul Brynner / New York State Council on the Arts (1985) No award (1986) George Abbott / Jackie Mason (1987) Brooklyn Academy of Music (1988) No award (1989) No award (1990–1992) Oklahoma! (1993) Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy (1994) Carol Channing / National Endowment for the Arts / Harvey Sabinson (1995) No award (1996) Bernard B. Jacobs (1997) Edward E. Colton / Ben Edwards (1998) Uta Hagen / Arthur Miller / Isabelle Stevenson (1999) Dame Edna: The Royal Tour / T. Edward Hambleton (2000)
2001–present	Paul Gemignani (2001) Julie Harris / Robert Whitehead (2002) Cy Feuer / Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway (2003) James M. Nederlander (2004) Edward Albee (2005) Sarah Jones / Harold Prince (2006) No award (2007) Robert Russell Bennett / Stephen Sondheim (2008) Jerry Herman (2009) Alan Ayckbourn / Marian Seldes (2010) Athol Fugard / Philip J. Smith (2011) Actors' Equity Association / Hugh Jackman (2012) Bernard Gersten / Ming Cho Lee / Paul Libin (2013) Jane Greenwood (2014) John Cameron Mitchell / Tommy Tune (2015) Sheldon Harnick / Marshall W. Mason / National Endowment for the Arts / Miles Wilkin (2016) James Earl Jones (2017) John Leguizamo / Andrew Lloyd Webber / Chita Rivera / Bruce Springsteen (2018) Rosemary Harris / Marin Mazzie / Terrence McNally / Sonny Tilders and Creature Technology Company / Jason Michael Webb / Harold Wheeler (2019) The Broadway Advocacy Coalition / David Byrne's American Utopia / Freestyle Love Supreme / Graciela Daniele (2020/21) Angela Lansbury / James C. Nicola (2022) Joel Grey / John Kander (2023) Alex Edelman / Abe Jacob / Nikiya Mathis / Jack O'Brien / George C. Wolfe (2024)

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