Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and four Tony Awards. She is one of the few performers awarded a non-competitive EGOT having received an honorary Grammy Award. Minnelli is a Knight of the French Legion of Honour.
Minnelli's parents were actress and singer Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli. After moving to New York City in 1961, she began her career as a musical theater actress, nightclub performer, and traditional pop artist. She made her professional stage debut in the Off-Broadway revival of Best Foot Forward (1963).Scott Schechter (2004): The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook, pp. 12–13. She became known for her collaborations with John Kander and Fred Ebb,Scott Schechter (2004): The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook, p. 47. and later won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in the Broadway musicals Flora the Red Menace (1965) and The Act (1978). She was Tony-nominated for The Rink (1984). She won Special Tony Awards for Liza at the Winter Garden (1974) and Liza's at The Palace.... (2009).
On film, Minnelli had her breakthrough performance in the drama film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She later received the award playing Sally Bowles in the musical film Cabaret (1972), which brought her to international prominence. She starred in a string of films, including Golden Globe nominated performances in Lucky Lady (1975), New York, New York (1977) and Arthur (1981).Scott Schechter (2004): The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook, p. 87. On television, she had a career resurgence as a recurring guest star on the sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2013).
Her concert performances at Carnegie Hall in 1979 and 1987 and at Radio City Music Hall in 1991 and 1992 are recognized among her most successful. From 1988 to 1990, she toured with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in Frank, Liza & Sammy: The Ultimate Event. Minnelli is known for her renditions of American standards and is known for her signature songs which include "New York, New York", "Cabaret", and "Maybe This Time".James Leve (2009): Kander and Ebb, p. 20.Scott Schechter (2004): The Liza Minnelli Scrapbook, pp. 13, 127Scott Schechter (2006): The Complete Capitol Collection Throughout her later years, she has suffered serious health problems and avoided huge concerts in favor of small retrospective performances. Her life was profiled in the 2024 documentary, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story and her 2026 memoir Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! which topped the New York Times Best Seller list.
Early life Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Hollywood. She is the daughter of Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli. Her parents named her after Ira Gershwin's song "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)". Minnelli has a half-sister, Lorna, and half-brother, Joey, from Garland's marriage to Sid Luft. She has another half-sister, Christiane Nina Minnelli (nicknamed Tina Nina), from her father's second marriage. Minnelli's godparents were Kay Thompson and Ira Gershwin.Emanuel Levy (2009): Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood′s dark dreamer. New York: St. Martin's Press, p. 156.
Minnelli's first performing experience on film was at age three, appearing in the final scene of the musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949); the film stars Garland and Van Johnson. In 1961, she moved to New York City, attending High School of Performing Arts and later, Chadwick School.
Career Theater During 1961, Minnelli was an apprentice at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She appeared in the chorus of Flower Drum Song and played the part of Muriel in Take Me Along. She began performing professionally at the age of 17 in 1963 in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received the Theatre World Award, and also toured in The Fantasticks, opposite Elliott Gould.
The next year, her mother invited her to perform with her in concert at the London Palladium. Both concerts were recorded and released as an album. Minnelli attended Scarsdale High School for one year, starring in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank that then went to Israel on tour. She turned to Broadway at 19, and won her first Tony Award as a leading actress for Flora the Red Menace. It was the first time that she worked with the musical pair John Kander and Fred Ebb.
Music
Minnelli began as a nightclub singer as a teenager, making her professional nightclub debut at the age of 19 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. That same year she began appearing in other clubs and on stage in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and New York City. Her success as a live performer led her to record several albums for Capitol Records: Liza! Liza! (1964), It Amazes Me (1965), and There Is a Time (1966). In her early years, she recorded traditional pop standards as well as show tunes from various musicals in which she starred. Because of this fact, William Ruhlmann named her "Barbra Streisand's little sister". The Capitol albums Liza! Liza!, It Amazes Me, and There Is a Time were reissued on the two-CD compilation The Capitol Years in 2001, in their entirety.
From 1968 to the 1970s, Minnelli also recorded her albums Liza Minnelli (1968), Come Saturday Morning and New Feelin' (both 1970) for A&M Records. In 1973, Minnelli sang back up with Ronnie Spector for Alice Cooper's song "Teenage Lament '74" from the album Muscle of Love (1973). She released her solo albums The Singer (1973) and Tropical Nights (1977) on Columbia Records.
In 1989, Minnelli collaborated with the Pet Shop Boys on Results, an electronic dance-style album. The release hit the top 10 in the UK and charted in the U.S., spawning four singles: "Losing My Mind"; "Don't Drop Bombs"; "So Sorry, I Said"; and "Love Pains". Later that year, she performed "Losing My Mind" live at the Grammy Awards ceremony before receiving a Grammy Legend Award (the first Grammy Legend Awards were issued in 1990 to Minnelli, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Smokey Robinson, and Willie Nelson). With this award, she became one of only 16 people—a list that includes composer Richard Rodgers, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, and John Gielgud and others—to win an Emmy, Grammy, Tony Award and Academy Award.
In April 1992, Minnelli appeared at the tribute concert for her late friend Freddie Mercury, performing "We Are the Champions" with the surviving members of the rock band Queen at Wembley Stadium in London. In 1996, Minnelli released a studio album titled Gently. It was a recording of jazz standards and included contemporary songs such as the cover of Does He Love You which she performed as a duet with Donna Summer. This album brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance.
In 2006, Minnelli appeared on My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade (2006), providing backing vocals and singing a solo part with Gerard Way on the track "Mama". Minnelli was nominated in 2009 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her studio recording Liza's at the Palace...!, based on her hit Broadway show. Minnelli released an album on the Decca Records label titled Confessions on September 21, 2010.
Film
Minnelli's first appearance on film is as the baby in the final shot of her mother's film In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Her first credited film role was as the love interest in Charlie Bubbles (1967), Albert Finney's only film as director and star, although four years earlier, she did voiceover work for the animated film Journey Back to Oz, a sequel to The Wizard of Oz. Minnelli was the voice of Dorothy (a character played in the earlier film by her mother, Judy Garland) in what would have been her first credited film role had it been released in 1964 as planned—the Filmation production was delayed, eventually being released in the UK during 1972.
Minnelli appeared in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), Alan J. Pakula's first feature film as Director, as Pookie Adams, a needy, eccentric teenager. Her performance was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She played another eccentric character in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970), directed by Otto Preminger. A nude scene in that film, filmed in a Massachusetts cemetery, resulted in a misdemeanor complaint by family of those buried there, and a "Liza Minnelli Bill" was introduced the following year to penalise filming in Massachusetts cemeteries without permission.
Minnelli appeared in her best-known film role, Sally Bowles, in the film version of Cabaret (1972). She said that one of the things she did to prepare was to study photographs of actresses Louise Glaum and Louise Brooks and the dark-haired women of the era in which the film is set. Minnelli won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance, along with a Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, and also Sant Jordi Award and David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress.
Following the success of Cabaret, Bob Fosse and Minnelli teamed for Liza with a "Z", a concert for television that aired twice, then was not seen again until a 2005 restoration.
Minnelli appeared in three expensive flops in three years, with Variety suggesting by 1978 that she was the number-one choice for box office poison. First was Lucky Lady (1975), then she worked with her father in A Matter of Time (1976), co-starring Ingrid Bergman and then New York, New York (1977), which gave Minnelli her best known signature song. She sometimes performed duets on stage with Frank Sinatra, who recorded a cover version (for his Trilogy: Past Present Future album).
Minnelli made fewer film appearances from then on, but her next film, Arthur (1981), where she starred as Dudley Moore's love interest, was a big hit. She returned to film for and Arthur 2: On the Rocks (both 1988) and Stepping Out (1991), a musical comedy drama. She later appeared in The Oh in Ohio in 2006, which received only a limited release in theaters.
Television
During the 1950s, Minnelli appeared as a child guest on Art Linkletter's show and sang and danced with Gene Kelly on his first television special in 1959. She was a guest star in one episode of Ben Casey and was a frequent guest on chat shows of the day, including making numerous appearances on shows hosted by Jack Paar, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Joe Franklin, Dinah Shore and Johnny Carson. During the 1960s, she made several guest appearances on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In as well as other variety shows such as The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace, and The Judy Garland Show.
In 1964, Minnelli appeared as Minnie in her first television dramatic role in the episode "Nightingale for Sale" on Craig Stevens's short-lived series Mr. Broadway. In 1965, she starred in the television special, The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood. A soundtrack was released to coincide with the specials. In 1970, she headlined her first television special, entitled Liza, with guest stars Anthony Newley, and Randy Newman. In 1972, she starred in the Bob Fosse-directed Liza with a Z.
In 1980, she made two television specials, Goldie and Liza Together, with Goldie Hawn, and An Evening with Liza Minnelli. In 1984, she made a guest appearance as Princess Alecia in "The Princess and the Pea" episode of Faerie Tale Theatre. In 1985, she starred in a made-for-TV movie, A Time to Live, and in 1988, she appeared in Sam Found Out: A Triple Play.