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Liza Minnelli
In 1972, Liza Minnelli became a superstar. The film of Kander and Ebb's Broadway hit, Cabaret, won nine Oscars, including Best Film, and for her role as Sally Bowles, Minnelli was named Best Actress and appeared on the front covers of Newsweek and Time magazines in the same week. She also won an Emmy for her television special Liza With A Z, directed by Bob Fosse. Her concerts were sell-outs; when she played the Olympia, Paris, they dubbed her 'la petite Piaf Americano'. In 1973 she met producer/director Jack Haley JR. while contributing to his film project That's Entertainment! Haley's father had played the Tin Man in Judy Garland's most famous picture, The Wizard Of Oz. Haley JR and Minnelli married in 1974, and in the same year she broke Broadway records and won a special Tony Award for a three-week series of one-woman shows at the Winter Garden. Her next two movies, Lucky Lady and A Matter Of Time received lukewarm reviews, but she made up for these in 1977,with her next film project, New York, New York. Co-starring with Robert DeNiro, and directed by Martin Scorsese, Minnelli's dramatic performance as a young band singer in the period after World War II was a personal triumph. This was the last film she made until Arthur (1981), in which she played a supporting role to Dudley Moore. The musical theme for Arthur, 'Best You Can Do', was co-written by her ex-husband, Peter Allen. A renewed association with Kander and Ebb for the Broadway musical The Act (1977), was dismissed by some critics as being little more than a series of production numbers displaying the talents of Liza Minnelli. In brought her another Tony Award, but she collapsed from exhaustion during the show's run. In 1979, she was divorced from Jack Haley JR., and married Italian sculptor, Mark Gero. Rumours were appearing in the press speculating about her drug and alcohol problems, and for a couple of years she was virtually retired. In 1984 she was nominated for yet another Tony for her performance on Broadway in The Rink, with Chita Rivera, but dropped out of the show to seek treatment for drug and alcohol abuse at the Betty Ford Clinic in California. She started her comeback in 1985, and in the following year, on her 40th birthday, opened to a sold-out London Palladium, the first time she had played the theatre since that memorable occasion in 1964; she received the same kind of reception that her mother did then. In the same year, back in the USA, Minnelli won the Golden Globe Award as Best Actress in A Time To Live, a television adaptation of the true story, Intensive Care, by Mary-Lou Weisman. During the late 80s she joined Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis JR. for a world tour, dubbed The Ultimate Event!, and in 1989 collaborated with the UK pop group, the Pet Shop Boys, on the album Results. A single from the album, Stephen Sondheim 's 'Losing My Mind', gave Liza Minnelli her first UK chart entry, at number 6. She also appeared with Dudley Moore in the film Arthur 2: On The Rocks. In 1991 her marriage to Mark Gero ended. In the same year, after co-starring with Julie Walters in the British musical comedy Stepping Out, Minnelli used the film's title for a series of concerts she gave at Radio City Music Hall in New York which broke the venue's 59-year box office record. She later took the show to London's Royal Albert Hall, where she returned a year later for a one-off gala charity concert dedicated to the memory of her late friend Sammy Davis JR. Her other work in the early 90s included concerts with Charles Aznavour at the Palais des Congress and Carnegie Hall, and serving as host for the 1993 Tony Awards ceremony, during which she sang a medley of Broadway songs with her step-sister Lorna Luft. In June 1994 Minnelli was in Moscow, giving shows as part of the D-Day commemorations. Later in the year she underwent surgery to replace her right hip, after 'being in pain for 10 years'. Gently was her first 'proper' album in years, and it featured some lush duets with Donna Summer and Johnnny Mathis. Her career in film and music has enabled her to transcend the title, 'Judy Garland's daughter'.
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