Judy Garland

Judy Garland
born: 10-06-1922
birth place: Minnesota, USA
died: 22-06-1969


Frances Ethel Gumm made her stage debut at the age of two, at her father's movie house and theatre. Judy's parents were small-time Vaudevillians, and they and their daughters would perform almost nightly.


After the family moved to California, Judy and her sisters began performing as 'The Gumm Sisters', and were enrolled in a show business agency for children.

She was signed by MGM in 1936, but unsure about Garland, she was loaned to 20th Century Fox where, ninth-billed in 'Pigskin Parade', she stole the show, and returned to MGM in triumph, and was cast as Dorothy.

'The Wizard of Oz' made Garland a star, but MGM couldn't see beyond the little-girl image, and insisted upon casting her as a child until her marriage to composer David Rose in 1941.

Unfortunately, Garland developed an increasing prescription drug dependency, which affected her work. She also began drinking heavily, and her marriage to Rose deteriorated.

In 1945, she married director Vincente Minnelli, with whom she had a daughter, Liza, but in 1950 Garland attempted suicide and, after recovering, was fired by MGM.

Garland and Minnelli divorced in 1951. She had a daughter, Liza Minnelli, with Vincente. Her third husband, Sid Luft, choreographed Garland's triumphant comebacks at the London Palladium, and New York's Palace Theatre. 1954’s 'A Star Is Born', was Garland's best film, earning her an Oscar nomination.

But Garland lost the Oscar and became depressed; her acting was increasingly inconsistent.A long period of inactivity ended when she began the weekly 'The Judy Garland Show' in 1963, but its success was short-lived, and it was cancelled after a year.

Garland's marriage to Sid Luft, which produced her daughter Lorna, ended in divorce in 1965, and Garland's life and career went into freefall.

A further brief marriage and a stint at a London nightclub were both disastrous and, in June 1969, Judy Garland was found dead in her London apartment, the result of an overdose of barbiturates.

Steve Coats looks at the lives and loves of the legend that is Judy Garland, as well as getting to the bottom of those Munchkin rumours.