Judy Garland was born on June 10th, 1922, and was an American actress and singer. Along with the sign and acting, she was also vaudevillian and a dancer. She was one of the few actresses who had a long career. Her career went on for more than 45 years which is considered too good. There were many international movies she did and people from all over the world adored her a lot when it comes to acting and also as a role model.
Early Life
Garland was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Her birth name was Frances Ethel Gumm and she was the youngest child. Her father’s name was Ehtel Marion and her mother was Francis Frank Gumm. Her parents were Vaudeville which is why it was quite easy for her to take the break into Hollywood as well. Her first performance came when she was very young. Just at the age of two, she gave the first performance which was too early.
She was featured in various acts from the start. She was Irish, English, and Scottish. Later on, her family was relocated to Lancaster in California. That’s where the rumor began of her father saying he had homosexual inclinations. Her father bought a new theatre and her mother started preparing her daughters for Hollywood.
The Beginning Career
Their group was known as The Gumm Sisters. Later on, the Gumm sisters got transformed into Garland’s sister when they were performing fr the fair in Chicago. The year was 1934. In the same year, she did a lot of solo acts and also signed a contract with a studio.
At the age of just 13 years old, she signed a contract at MGM. The contract was done when the songwriter’s Burton came to Orpheum theatre to watch the act. When he was watching the act, he found and saw the sisters.
Later on, she got the audition and it was successful. This is when she was all set to rock the world as she signed the contract with MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer). It was not for movies but for the songs. There was a radio broadcast going on at that time and she had signed the contract for the same. When the contract started, after a couple of times, she lost her father which moved her a lot.
She then started playing various roles in various films in the same company. MGM even used to criticize her when it comes to the looks and height. She was short in height then due to which there were many times when she was referred to as Girl next door. Also, she had to dress like the same thing when it came to the film.
The weight of Judy was in the range. However, the studio still wanted her to diet to stay fit for the role which was also good for her health. There were many times when she only got a bowl of soup and a place of lettuce as a meal.
Breakout and Success
She was surely trying hard to fit in every role she got and wanted to make it a big breakout of her life. This moment came when she was offered her role in Pigskin Parade. Talking about the main role, it was the first big role she did in the film. It was a girl-next-door type of role in the movie. She got very much popular after that as people loved the acting. The girl was surely beautiful but she needed constant reassurance. This was the same reason why the MGM studio used to put her on a diet when she was starting to gain a little weight.
She was under a lot of pressure when it came to looks and weight. Of course, the studio wants them to be fit and fine. That’s why she had to do a lot of things to maintain everything properly. She also had a drug problem and started medication because of the same thing.
Later on, she got one of the best gifts of her life that were a role in “The Wizard of the Oz”. To date, the movie is popular and one of the best movies. She was one of the on-screen successes in this particular movie. There were many awards nominations for this movie and she also scored a special academy award here. She was playing Dorothy in this movie.
Garland didn’t plan to stop anytime soon. She even created some of the best musicals after the success of her film which turned out pretty well. Not to mention, she was also seen in some of the roles as well.
Being versatile and also being under pressure, she gave her best every single time. That’s why her career is one of the biggest.
Final Days
In the end days, she did a television series which was loved by many people. Even after the series came to an end, the magic of her presence was there. She got various gigs in the world due to the same thing.
However, her personal life was exactly reversed. Garland already had divorced twice (from Rose and Vincente). Thereafter, she married Luft. She got divorced in 1965 from Luft and had to put a lot of effort into the custody. Later on, she married Mark (Actor). Even this didn’t turn out well and the couple got divorced.
Later on, she went to London. Despite being such a big film star, she was facing many financial as well as personal problems. By the time, she was also addicted to drugs. In one of her performances in London, the crowd could see that Garland was not in good shape at that time.
Judy met Mickey deans and married her. He was a bandleader as well as a club manager. In few months after that, she died due to an accidental overdose. The date was June 22, 1969. She had a total of 3 children. She had decent devoted followers even after her death.