Judy Garland's daughter won her first Tony at 19 and later an Oscar for Cabaret
Liza Minnelli first appeared on film at three, in the closing scene of one of her mother Judy Garland's musicals. By 19 she had won a Tony, and at 26 she took the Oscar for Sally Bowles in Cabaret. She holds an honorary version of the EGOT, the rare grand slam of showbusiness awards.
Minnelli arrived on March 12, 1946, at a Hollywood hospital, the daughter of Garland and the director Vincente Minnelli. Her name came from an Ira Gershwin song, and Gershwin was also her godfather alongside the entertainer Kay Thompson. In 1961 she moved to New York to attend the High School of Performing Arts and spent a summer apprenticing at a Cape Cod theatre, singing in the chorus of Flower Drum Song.
Her professional stage career began at 17 with an off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward, which earned a Theatre World Award. The following year Garland invited her to share the stage at the London Palladium, and the concerts were released as an album. At 19 she starred on Broadway in Flora the Red Menace, her first project with the songwriting team John Kander and Fred Ebb, and won the Tony for leading actress; a second came for The Act in 1978. The same year as Flora she made her nightclub debut in Washington and recorded a run of Capitol albums of standards and show tunes, leading one critic to dub her Barbra Streisand's little sister.
Film stardom arrived with The Sterile Cuckoo in 1969, which brought a Best Actress nomination, and then Cabaret in 1972, which made her an international name. Golden Globe nominations followed for New York, New York and Arthur, among others, and decades later she enjoyed a comeback as a recurring guest on Arrested Development. Her signature songs remain New York, New York, Cabaret and Maybe This Time.
Her biggest concert triumphs came in two Carnegie Hall seasons, 1979 and 1987, and at Radio City in 1991 and 1992, and from 1988 to 1990 toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Serious health problems later pushed her toward smaller retrospective shows. Her 2026 memoir topped the New York Times best-seller list, and France has made her a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Source: Liza Minnelli
