Superstar legend Liza Minnelli has faced a number of health woes in her celebrated life,
but none so strange as the time she was nearly paralyzed by a simple mosquito bite.
Keep watching to find out why!
As the daughter of famed songstress Judy Garland and director Vincente Minnelli, Liza Minnelli
grew up surrounded by show business, making her first film appearance as a baby in 1949's
"In the Good Old Summertime."
As Minnelli put it in an interview with Variety,
"I was born and they took a picture."
Since Minnelli was born into a world of fame, she didn't think it was anything out of the
ordinary.
She told Larry King,
"It's like growing up in a coal mining town.
Everybody does what everybody else does.
And that's what all these people did."
Growing up, Minnelli wanted to be an ice skater — but in high school, the young actress
made her stage debut in a school production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."
In an interview with Variety, Minnelli said her delighted mother was crying tears of joy.
By 16, Minnelli had moved to New York City to pursue an acting career and to hone her
dance skills.
While her parents reluctantly approved of her move, they didn't financially support
her.
However, that was fine with Minnelli, who wanted to do things on her own.
According to The Guardian, she even returned money sent by family friend Frank Sinatra,
determined to support herself.
Minnelli's efforts paid off.
At 19, her role in "Flora the Red Menace" made her the youngest-ever Tony winner.
Minnelli didn't let the award make her complacent, though.
She told Variety,
"The best part about winning an award is the night you win it.
And then you have to go back to work."
"'Flora the Red Menace' opened up, and now you are a star!"
While many people might have assumed Judy Garland's own tragic life meant her children
had a difficult childhood, Liza Minnelli has made it clear that nothing could be further
from the truth.
She told Vogue,
"One of the biggest misconceptions about my mama is that she didn't provide me with a
happy childhood."
However, it's also true Minnelli was often more like a mother to Garland than a daughter,
caring for her through her substance addiction and taking charge at home.
But if the responsibility ever felt like a burden, Minnelli doesn't remember it that
way, instead calling her mother her best friend.
Garland died in 1969 from an accidental overdose.
She was just 47 years old.
Liza Minnelli was also very close to her father, Vincente Minnelli, who she credits with bringing
magic to what was often a chaotic childhood.
She told Vogue,
"I got my drive from my mama and my dreams from my father."
Minnelli's father encouraged her love of acting and dancing.
He also may have inspired the pitch-black pixie cut that she sported in the 1972 film
"Cabaret" and has worn for most of her life.
Though Variety reported the haircut was simply the result of having to cut her hair after
she got gum stuck in it, Minelli told Harper's Bazaar that it was a conscious design choice
for the period piece.
She recalled,
"I thought that everybody in the '30s looked like Marlene Dietrich.
I was telling my father, and he goes, 'You know, there were other people who were wonderful,
[like] Louise Brooks, and they all had dark hair.'
So I looked at the pictures and he explained to me about wanting to be different."
Whatever the truth is behind her haircut, what's certain is that Minnelli's father was
devoted to her, and she to him.
She told The Times of Northwest Indiana,
"I loved him so much and I wanted to please him so much [that] I never did anything wrong."
It would be easy for someone unfamiliar with Liza Minnelli's career to assume that her
fame is solely due to nepotism.
Watch her perform just once, though, and it becomes obvious that her success is well-deserved.
Minnelli is a woman of many talents, and they've been rewarded with multiple awards over the
years, including an EGOT — the name given to the rare winning of an Emmy, a Grammy,
an Oscar, and a Tony.
Very few performers have ever accomplished the feat, with the short list of EGOT winners
including Rita Moren, Audrey Hepburn, Andrew Lloyd Weber, and John Legend.
While EGOT purists might argue that her Grammy is a special award and not in a competitive
category, it's impossible to deny her overwhelming talent.
All told, she's won four Tony Awards, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, and an Emmy, as well as
her Grammy Legend Award.
Like her mother, Liza Minnelli has struggled with addiction — and she's been frank about
her battle with alcoholism, telling The Guardian,
"My whole life, this disease has been rampant.
I inherited it, and it's been horrendous, but I have always asked for help."
After her mother's death, Minnelli was prescribed Valium to cope with her grief.
Minnelli then began abusing drugs, until she entered rehab at the Betty Ford Center in
1985.
That wouldn't be her only time in rehab, but Minnelli has been determined not to let her
addiction take over her life.
In 2005, after a relapse, she told Today,
"So what do you do?
You get up and you go on, and you try not to do it again."
Shocking as it may sound, a simple mosquito bite almost paralyzed Liza Minnelli for life
in 2000.
Minnelli contracted a virus called encephalitis, which causes brain inflammation and swelling.
The fact that Minnelli survived the potentially life-threatening virus was a miracle, but
her road to recovery was a long one.
The virus left Minnelli with speech difficulties and unable to walk.
Her doctors told her that she'd be wheelchair-bound from then on, but she refused to accept this
diagnosis.
Minnelli eventually made a full recovery, but it was hard work.
She told The Guardian,
"People don't usually recover like I recovered but I would not give up.
I just couldn't — I don't know how you'd do anything else."
Not only did Liza Minnelli learn to walk again after her bout with encephalitis, but she
also turned to stunt work after the health scare.
Minnelli memorably starred on the comedy "Arrested Development" as Lucille 2, whose extreme vertigo
is a running joke on the series.
Lucille falls down a lot on the show, and every fall you see on screen is Minnelli in
action.
Falling isn't as easy as it looks, either, but Minnelli insisted on doing it herself.
She told The Spokesman Review that they were going to use a stunt double, but she wouldn't
have it.
"I said, 'What do you mean?
I went [...] and worked three hours on how to fall down."
Minnelli did have some previous experience in stunt work, telling Variety,
"I knew all the stuntmen in Hollywood from when I was little and played on the MGM lot,
so I figured out how to make it work."
Unlike Judy Garland, who racked up dozens of film roles during her career, Liza Minnelli
hasn't been as prolific a movie star.
Though she has appeared in a number of films, in many cases they were cameos in which she
plays herself, such as in "Sex and the City 2."
"Oh, that's marvelous!"
"Thank you, Liza Minnelli!"
There's no doubt she could have had her pick of starring roles over the years, but Minnelli
has always been a stage performer at heart.
Simply reciting lines wasn't enough for Minnelli, and film proved to be too impersonal of a
medium for her to want to build her career around.
Instead, she prefers the rush of performing for a packed theater.
When asked why she didn't do more films, she told Larry King,
"I guess the reason is I loved performing so much.
I loved entertaining.
That's a different audience every night."
Sadly, Liza Minnelli's life has echoed her mother's in more ways than one; like Judy
Garland, Minnelli has had a rocky love life.
Garland was married five times, with four of those marriages ending in divorce.
Minnelli, meanwhile, has been married and divorced four times.
The family drama was truly dramatic as well; according to rumor, one of Minnelli's husbands
reportedly cheated on her with her own stepfather.
Minnelli told Larry King that she asked her mom once for marital advice.
"What happens after happily ever after?
And there was this pause and she said, 'you'll find out.'"
Minnelli's most recent marriage, to David Gest, ended in a bitter divorce after just
16 months.
Minnelli swore off marriage after that.
In 2005, she told Today,
"I mean, I most certainly date and go out.
But I don't think there's any reason to get married again, especially after what I've
been through."
Decades of performing have taken a toll on Minnelli's body, leading to numerous ailments
including two hip replacements and a knee replacement.
She joked to Saga,
"I'm Dorothy's daughter up top and the Tin Man down below."
In spite of everything she's been through, though, Minnelli is still thriving.
She may have aged physically, but mentally and emotionally, she's still that starry-eyed
girl taking Broadway and Hollywood by storm.
Indeed, Minnelli is a true pop legend, though she told Jane Pauley that she doesn't think
of herself that way and is always just trying to put on a good show.
The 2019 biopic "Judy," about Minelli's mother Judy Garland, was well-received by both critics
and audiences, holding an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Minnelli herself wanted nothing to do with the Renee Zellweger vehicle though, telling
Variety in February 2020,
"I hope she had a good time making it."
Just a few days later, Zellweger won a best actress Academy Award for the role.
After her win, she told IndieWire that making the film was a "celebration" of Garland's
life, elaborating,
"We just came to work every day and you could feel the love for Miss Garland, and that was
what we hoped."
Minnelli was not alone in her distaste for the biopic, however.
Her sister, Lorna Luft, said on "Britain Today" that she had no interest in seeing it either.
Luft told fans that the best way to learn about Garland's life is to go straight to
the source, saying,
"I feel that if you really want to know about my mom, go see her movies, go listen to her
recordings, and go watch her television shows, and that's how you'll know about her."
Liza Minnelli turned 75 on March 12, 2021, and since the milestone birthday happened
during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, her celebration looked a little different.
Due to social distancing, some of her celebrity pals instead got together for a virtual celebration
called "A Love Letter to Liza," which streamed live on Stellar and was re-aired twice after
Minnelli's birthday.
The event featured big names like Nathan Lane, Barbra Streisand, Carol Burnett, and Joan
Collins, as well as performances from the likes of Seth Sikes.
It also raised money for the Actors Fund, which helps people in show business with things
like monetary aid and health benefits.
The charitable aspect of Minnelli's birthday celebration was a great way for the performer
to give back to the community that has been present throughout her entire life.
While Liza Minnelli remains a major presence in entertainment, eagle-eyed fans have noticed
that, as she's aged, she hasn't been seen as much.
She was at the 2022 Academy Awards, however, co-presenting the best picture Oscar alongside
Lady Gaga at Gaga's personal request.
The duo received a lot of attention for their sweet exchange on stage, with Lady Gaga noting
it was the 50th anniversary of Minelli's Oscar-winning role in "Cabaret."
Minnelli was in a wheelchair and seemed to struggle with her speech as she presented
the award, but Gaga sweetly stepped in to help.
Viewers were quick to applaud the touching moment, especially in contrast to the viral
altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, which resulted in Smith being banned from
the award ceremony and any Academy-related events for the next decade.
One fan tweeted,
"The juxtaposition of two men fighting and two women elevating each other in the same
show is telling of gender roles that still exist in today's society.
Love Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli for their strength, compassion and hope"
Another wrote simply,
"Empowered women empower women."
What a nice way to sum up the legendary life and career of Liza Minnelli.
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