Judy Garland Biography

Judy Garland’s performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939) won her a special Oscar and gave her a theme song for the rest of her life: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

Judy Garland was, at first, a child star. As a teen she appeared in a series of cheerfully fluffy movies with fellow teen star Mickey Rooney, including Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) and Babes in Arms (1939). In the 1940s she grew into a song-and-dance star in big-time musical dramas and romances like Meet Me in St. Louis (1944).

In the 1950s, Judy Garland began touring as a singer and became famous for her emotional, high-energy live performances. Throughout her last two decades she struggled with addiction to prescription drugs and alcohol, while continuing to perform like a determined trouper on Broadway and in cabarets. She was married five times, including to director Vincente Minnelli from 1945-51; their daughter Liza Minnelli became a star in her own right.

Judy Garland died of an overdose of prescription sleeping pills at age 47; her last husband, Mickey Deans, found her dead in their bathroom. United Press International later reported that the coroner ruled the cause as “incautious self overdosage of the sleeping drug Seconal.” She was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.