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Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969) was an American film actress considered by many to be one of the greatest singing stars of Hollywood's Golden Era of musical film. She was known for her intense acting, charming wit, and great sense of humor. Garland also excelled in the ability to depict emotion in a song, and maintain her amazingly strong, quivering voice.

in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, on the 10th of June, 1922, Judy Garland began life as part of a family of vaudeville players. In one of her earliest performances, her parents and her two older sisters were performing in a Christmas show. Frances took to the stage and stole the show with a rendition of at the age of two and a half years. The family soon thereafter moved to Lancaster, California and the Gumm Sisters began work on stage and in short films. Frances was soon to be known as Gumm. Judy would, later in life, speak of her father's Irish charm, and would star as an Irish lass in the film , accounting for the widespread perception that she was of Irish descent. In fact, biographies that carefully researched Judy's geneology (including those written by Gerold Frank and David Shipman, give her ancestry as English, Scottish and German on her paternal Gumm side, her Irish ancestry was on her maternal side which was Irish (Fitzpatrick family name) and Scottish (Milne family name) this Dublin, Ireland ancesty is detailed in the biography The Golden Years by Rita Piro as well as in the comprehensive one by Gerold Frank which is the only biography that had the cooperation of Garland's family.

In 1934, the Gumm Sisters were performing in Chicago at the Oriental Theater with George Jessel. He encouraged the group to choose a more appealing name after their surnames got laughs from the crowd. They settled on the Garland Sisters, and young Frances picked the name Judy after a popular song of the day by Hoagy Carmichael. Another rumor persists that Jessel came up with the last name Garland after Carole Lombard's character Lily Garland in the film , which was currently playing at the Oriental.

In 1935, at the age of 13, Garland was signed to a contract with MGM, allegedly without a screen test. In fact, she actually had done a test for the studio several months earlier. Garland's first notice by studio executives came after singing "You Made Me Love You" to Clark Gable at a birthday party held by the studio for the King of Hollywood. Her rendition proved so popular that MGM placed Garland and the song in their all-star extravaganza (1937).

After a string of minor roles, at the age of sixteen she landed the role of "Dorothy" in the MGM film , Garland became one of MGM's most bankable stars, proving particularly popular when teamed with Mickey Rooney in a string of "let's put on a show!" musicals. The duo first appeared together in the 1937 b-movie . Garland eventually would star with Rooney in nine films.

To keep up with the frantic pace of making one movie after another, Garland, Rooney, and other young performers were constantly given amphetamines, as well as barbiturates to take before bedtime. This constant dose of drugs would lead to addiction and a lifelong struggle for Garland as well as her eventual demise. In her later life, she would resent the hectic work and she felt that her youth was stolen from her by MGM. She was plagued with self-doubt throughout her life and needed constant reassurance that she was talented, despite her ability to fill concert halls with fans eager to hear her, high critical praise, and several awards.

Throughout the 1940s her films increased in popularity, making her the most critically and financially successful female musical star of the time. Among her most successful 1940s films is the 1944 classic , in which she introduced three standards: "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Her other famous films include (1961).

The Clock (1945) was her first straight dramatic film opposite Robert Walker. Though the film was critically praised and did earn a profit, most movie fans expected her to sing. Therefore, it would be many years before she acted again in a non-singing dramatic role. Nevertheless, The Clock has become increasingly popular among Garland fans and is considered to be a true War. Many fans hold that Judy was robbed of her Oscar, and should have won for Best Actress of 1954 instead of Grace Kelly.

When her MGM contract was terminated in 1950 (depending upon the source, she either asked to be released from the contract, or she was fired due her unreliability on the set of the musical ), Garland turned to television and live concert appearances.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she made enormously successful appearances in both media. Her concert appearance at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961 was a considerable highlight, called by many the "greatest single night in show business." The live recording made of the concert was a best seller (certified gold), charting for 73 weeks on (13 weeks at number one), and won five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Female Vocal of the Year.

After hugely successful television specials and guest appearances in the early 1960s, CBS made a $24 million offer to Garland for a weekly television series of her own, , which was deemed at the time in the press to be "the biggest talent deal in TV history." The television series was critically praised, but, for a variety of reasons, including the fact it was placed in the same time slot as , lasted only one season, and went off the air in 1964, after 26 episodes. Despite this, the show won four Emmy nominations. The demise of the series was personally and financially devastating for Garland. [1]

The shortcomings of Garland's childhood years became more apparent as she struggled to overcome various personal problems, including weight gain and drug addiction. Sadly, Garland did not bow out gracefully. She was found dead, sitting on the closed-lid toilet by her last husband, Mickey Deans, on June 22, 1969. The exact cause of death was from an accidental overdose of barbiturates. Garland was just 47 years old. She was residing in the Chelsea section of London at the time of her death.

Upon Garland's inevitable premature passing,

Always highly-charged and emotional, Garland had sought solace in alcohol and, to a greater degree, preion sedatives and stimulants. It is generally agreed that MGM first introduced the young, chubby Garland to appetite suppressants and sleeping pills in an effort to transform her into the sleek American standards of beauty of the period. It is also well documented that Judy adopted these habits as her own and procured medication for herself. For intermittent periods during her life, Garland attempted detoxifaction at a private hospital or sanitarium, but these "clean" periods were short-lived. Her addictions reached the point where they paralleled those of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, wherein their tolerances to medications was such that they worked in reverse; diet pills made them fat, sleeping pills made them wake up. Photographs taken near the end of Judy's life show a nearly skeletal shell of her former self, and it is possible that anorexia nervosa would play a part in Judy's demise (although no evidence has proven this). It is also a point of contention whether liver disease was a factor. Some reports stated the coroner said at the time of Garland's death that "there is no evidence of alcoholism," whereas others stated that "there is no question of alcoholism."

Garland is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery, in Hartsdale, New York.

Of Garland's five marriages, the first four ended in divorce. Her children are Liza Minnelli (now a legendary singer and actress in her own right), Lorna Luft (also an acclaimed singer), and Joey Luft (a scenic photographer).

A gay icon, Garland always had a large base of fans in the gay community. Her funeral in Manhattan resulted in an outpouring of New York City fans, with more than 20,000 coming to view her , including 12,000 gay men. Five days after her death, mourning gay fans fought back against police during a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village, which set off several days of "gay liberation" riots. Garland's death is often noted as a cause of one of the key events of the modern gay rights movement. See also Friends of Dorothy.

4) Mark Herron (1928-1996); married (1964-1967) (might not have been a legal marriage, as it is unsure whether the divorce from Luft was yet effective and the marriage was under dubious circumstances)

Although she had recorded singles of her hit songs for Decca Records, Garland began recording albums for Capitol Records in the 1950's. Her first album reached number 3 on the Billboard 200 and was very successful. Many regard Garland's Capitol recordings as her best vocal work. With each volume she perfected her craft and was praised by critics for the quality of her performances and vocal abilities. Capitol Records has recently re-released many of the albums on CD and they have proven to be a popular item for many a Garland fan.

table The Judy Garland Club: established 1963; official international Club supported by Judy during her lifetime