Date of Birth 10 June 1922, Grand Rapids, Minnesota

Date of Death 22 June 1969, Chelsea, London, England, UK. (accidental barbiturate overdose)

Birth Name Frances Ethel Gumm

Nickname Baby Gumm, Miss Showbusiness

Height 4' 11½"

Spouses

Mickey Deans (15 March 1969 - 22 June 1969) (her death)

Mark Herron (14 November 1965 - 9 January 1969) (divorced)

Sidney Luft (8 June 1952 - 19 May 1965) (divorced) 2 children

Vincente Minnelli (15 June 1945 - 29 March 1951) (divorced) 1 child

David Rose (28 July 1941 - 8 June 1944) (divorced)

Judy Garland was born on 10th June 1922 as Frances Ethel Gumm, the youngest daughter and child to vaudevillians Frank and Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, America. At just 2-years-old in December 1924, Baby Frances was drafted into the dance act entitled 'The Gumm Sisters', which included her two older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. It was only when she repeatedly sang 'Jingle Bells' and had to be dragged off the stage kicking and screaming by her maternal grandmother Eva Milne that her mother Ethel could see her youngest daughter was going to be the biggest star. Baby Frances' childhood was extremely unhappy as she spent most of it on the road with her mother and sisters looking for nightclubs and hotels to perform in, often living out of their rented automobile. In 1927, Baby Frances and her family moved to Lancaster, California having been run out of Grand Rapids due to her father's homosexuality and sexual advances on teenage boys. In 1932, Baby Frances left Lancaster and her father behind for a new life in Los Angeles with her mother and sisters where, yet again, there were practically living out of their automobile. Eventually in 1933 her father joined them and in September 1935, Frances signed a contract with leading film studio MGM at the age of 13 after singing before movie mogul Louis B. Mayer. She changed her name to Judy Garland, her surname after film critic Robert Garland and her first name after the song 'Judy'. She stubbornly refused to be called anything else, having always hated her given name Frances. She performed on radio, as MGM had nothing else to give its new singing star. However, with her newfound career came tragedy when her father Frank contracted meningitis and sadly passed away on 17th November 1935 whilst Judy was performing on radio. Judy was severely devastated by her father's death, being only 13 at the time, and spent the rest of her life looking for a father figure. The arrival of Deanna Durbin in December 1935 almost cost Judy her career when, having lost the film rights to certain films that both Judy and Deanna were going to star in, MGM found themselves with two teenagers and no prospects for them. A short was set up entitled Every Sunday (1936) which would be the girls' screen test. It was then decided that Deanna should go and Judy should stay. In June 1936, Judy made her film debut with Pigskin Parade (1936) at the age of 14, in which she played a barefoot, pigtailed hillbilly. The film proved to be a success, but Judy's career was left hanging in the balance, especially with Deanna's instant success with Fox Studios in December 1936. It was singing at a birthday party for Clark Gable in February 1937 that saved Judy this time, having sung the song 'You Made Me Love You', which was devised by her singing coach Roger Edens. MGM now found reasons to put Judy into films and throughout 1937 and 1938 she was kept busy. However, despite her film career now booming, the issue of Judy's weight caught serious problems and after trying to starve the poor teenager, they began feeding the girl pills, especially amphetamines, in order to give her the desired streamlined figure of movie stars. In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (1939) at the age of 17, in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry planes of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song 'Over The Rainbow' earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29th February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for more meatier, adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14. She was now taking an interest in men and after starring in her final juvenile performance in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to band leader David Rose in May 1941, just 2 months after his divorce to Martha Raye. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married during the early hours of the morning on 28th July 1941 when Judy was 19, with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her 'inhumane actions'. The couple separated in January 1943 when Judy realized that David was too weak to fight for her and stand up to MGM for doing this to his wife. By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (1942). Within weeks of separation, Judy was soon having an affair with actor Tyrone Power, who was married to French actress Annabella. Their affair ended in May 1943, which was when her affair with producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz kicked off. He introduced her to psychoanalysis and she soon began to make decisions about her career on her own, instead of the influence of the domineering MGM and her mother. Their affair ended in November 1943 and soon afterward, Judy reluctantly began filming Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), which proved to make her a big success. The director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy's beauty for the first time on screen having made the period musical in her color, her first color film since The Wizard Of Oz (1939). He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together. Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945) and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9th January 1945. Judy's divorce from David Rose had been finalized on 8th June 1944 after almost 3 years of marriage and, despite her brief fling with Orson Welles who, at the time, was married to screen sex goddess 'Rita Hayworth', on 15th June 1945, Judy made Vincente her second husband after tying the knot with him that afternoon at her mother's home at the age of 23, with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away and her best friend Betty Asher serving as bridesmaid. They spent 3 months on honeymoon in New York and after wards, Judy discovered that she was pregnant. On 12th March 1946 in Los Angeles, California, Judy gave birth to their daughter Liza Minnelli via Caesarean section. It was a joyous time for the couple, but Judy was out of commission for weeks due to the Caesarean and her postnatal depression, so she spent much of her time re-cooperating in bed. She soon returned to work, but married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy's mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations of people, especially of her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She also began an affair with aspiring Russian actor Yul Brynner, but after the affair ended, Judy soon regained health and tried to salvage her failing marriage. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade (1948), which proved a successful comeback, despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy's health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress. She soon regained strength and was visited frequently by her lover Frank Sinatra, but never such much of Vincente or Liza. On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also her daughter's film debut, albeit Liza had an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again, before making her final film for MGM entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM and her second marriage was soon dissolved. Having taken up with Sidney Luft, Judy traveled to London to star at the legendary Palladium. She was an instant success and after her divorce to Vincente Minnelli was finalized on 29th March 1951 after almost 6 years of marriage, Judy traveled with Sid to New York to make an appearance on Broadway. With her newfound fame on stage, Judy was stopped in her tracks in February 1952 when she fell pregnant by her new lover Sid. She made him her third husband on 8th June 1952 at the age of 30 after tying the knot with him at a friend's ranch in Pasadena. Her relationship with her mother had long since been dissolved by this point and after the birth of her second daughter Lorna Luft on 21st November 1952, she refused her mother Ethel to see her granddaughter. Ethel then died on 5th January 1953 of a heart attack, leaving Judy devastated and guilty about not reconciling with her mother before her untimely demise. After the funeral, Judy signed a film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of A Star Is Born (1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor, who had won the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. Filming soon began and as a result, set off an affair between Judy and her leading man, British star James Mason. She also picked up on her affair with Frank Sinatra and after filming was complete, Judy was yet again immortalized for being a great film star. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but when it came to the Academy Awards, a distraught Judy lost out to Grace Kelly for the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in The Country Girl (1954). It is still argued today that Judy should have won the Oscar over Grace Kelly. Continuing her work on stage, Judy gave birth to her beloved son Joey Luft on 29th March 1955. She soon began to lose her millions of dollars due to her husband's strong gambling addiction and with hundreds of debts to pay, Judy and Sid began a volatile, on-off relationship which resulted in numerous attempts to file for divorce. In 1961, Judy returned to her ailing film career, this time to star in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) at the age of 39, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but this time lost out to Rita Moreno for the coveted Academy Award, due to her performance in West Side Story (1961). Her battles with alcoholism and drugs led to Judy making thousands of headlines in newspapers, but she soldiered on, forming a close friendship with President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Judy and Sid finally separated permanently and on 19th May 1965, their divorce was finalized after almost 13 years of marriage. By this time, Judy had made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963) at the age of 41. She married her fourth husband Mark Herron on 14th November 1965 in Las Vegas, but they separated in April 1966 after 5 months of marriage due to his homosexuality. It was also that year that she began an affair with young journalist Tom Green. She then settled down in London after their affair ended and she began dating disk jockey Mickey Deans in December 1968, before getting engaged once her divorce from Mark Herron was finalized on 9th January 1969 after 3 years of marriage. She married Mickey, her fifth and final husband, in a register office in Chelsea, London on 15th March 1969. She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her her whole life, on 22nd June 1969 at the age of 47. Her daughter Liza Minnelli paid for her funeral and her former lover James Mason delivered her touching eulogy. She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948) and A Star Is Born (1954).