All about Liza, Lorna and Joey

Judy Garland, a screen legend known for her show-stopping voice, was devoted to her children: Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft.

The Wizard of Oz star and her second husband, director Vincente Minnelli, welcomed their daughter Liza on March 12, 1946. After they divorced, Garland remarried producer Sid Luft, with whom she shared a daughter, Lorna, born November 21, 1952, and son Joey, born March 29, 1955.

In total, the actress was married five times, and as adults, her children have fond memories of growing up in Hollywood. Lorna has shared stories about growing up surrounded by movie stars, like the night she woke up to see Marilyn Monroe sitting on her bed checking in on her.

“I know it’s going to sound weird, but I’ve said it so many times that it was our normal,” she shared. Entertainment tonight in 2022. “We didn’t know they were famous; we didn’t know they were different. They were our parents’ friends. It was the neighborhood.”

Sadly, Garland died at the age of 47 from a barbiturate overdose on June 22, 1969. At the time of their mother’s death, Liza was 23, Lorna was 16, and Joey was 14.

While Joey lives a more private life these days, both Liza and Lorna have had amazing careers as performers on both stage and screen. Liza won her first major award aged just 19, and Lorna has honored Garland through music, books and an awards show.

Now, decades later, Garland’s legacy lives on through modern iterations of her work, including Evil live action movie. Ahead of the November 22 premiere, Lorna attended a screening and described it as “everything I wanted it to be.”

Here’s everything to know about Judy Garland’s children: Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft.

They made their Hollywood debut in Garland’s projects

Garland introduced her children to the limelight early in their lives and involved them in her various productions.

Liza’s first film appearance was at the age of 3 in her mother’s 1949 film Good old summer time. When she was 13, Liza sang and danced with Gene Kelly on TV. In the 1960s, she often performed with her mother The Judy Garland Show and joined her during concerts in London.

Lorna’s first appearance was also underway The Judy Garland Show when, at the age of 11, she performed “Santa Claus Comes to Town” in 1963.

She later appeared with Joey at Garland’s 1967 shows at the Palace Theater on Broadway. Both the concerts at the Palace and in London were released as albums.

They carry on Garland’s sense of humor

Despite Garland’s personal struggles and untimely death, Lorna told PEOPLE in 1998 that she was more than her public image. Throughout her career in Hollywood, Garland dealt with drug and alcohol addiction, which began when she was 16.

“People would love for my mother to be unloved and tragic, but she wasn’t,” Lorna said, adding that she saw her mother as a victim of addiction. “No one could have saved her but herself.”

Since then, Liza and Lorna have said their mother’s sense of humor has shaped their coping mechanisms when life gets tough.

“There’s a bright side to it all,” Liza told me The Guardian in 2008. “I think that’s the greatest gift you can have: point of view. You know? I’ve come to believe that if you have a bad memory about something, change it. … Rewrite it to yourself and it will be fun It’s up to you how you feel and what you look at and what you concentrate on.”

Lorna echoed this sentiment during a conversation with Entertainment tonight in 2022.

“Our mother had such an extraordinary sense of humor and that was her survival guide,” she explained. “We just find it funny because I think that’s the way we were brought up and brought up and we saw a woman who found it funny.”

Liza is an EGOT winner

As a child, Liza was well on her way to a career in acting. By the time she was 19 in 1965, Liza had already won a Tony Award for her role in Flora the Red Menace.

She won an Oscar in 1972 for her performance in Cabaret; her performance as Sally Bowles on stage and screen has become one of her most lasting legacies.

The following year, Liza won an Emmy for Liza with a Z. After earning another Tony for The lawshe appeared in modern classic films such as Arthur and released several albums of both Broadway standards and pop music.

After being awarded a Grammy in 1990, she became one of only 27 people to achieve an EGOT for winning each award. In the years that followed, Liza also won another Tony and three Golden Globes.

Lorna is a Broadway star and author

Lorna has also had a successful career on stage and screen, despite the pressures of their family heritage.

“With your mom being the biggest, I mean, it was a little heavy,” Liza told PEOPLE in 1980. “Lorna has to deal with it and with me.”

Since first stepping into the limelight at the age of 11, Lorna has continued to perform in front of diverse audiences.

She made her Broadway debut in Promises, promises in 1971 and followed it up with Grease in 1980. Lorna later joined touring productions of shows such as Guys and Dolls, Gypsies and White Christmas from 1992 to 2007.

In between her live performances, Lorna also got roles in shows like Murder she wrote and Trapper John, MD In addition, she has written books, including the memoir from 1998 Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir.

Joey pursued a career behind the camera

Despite being in front of the camera when he was young, Joey chose a career behind him.

He studied photography and sound and has worked on various film sets. “I’ve been more behind the camera,” he shared Los Angeles Times in 2014.

Still, Joey has childhood memories that have stayed with him. “I have a life that has been fascinating. I can tell stories for days,” he added.

Reflecting on who his mother was, Joey said he wanted to remember her in the good times.

“She was a performer. She was a mother. She loved people,” he said. “She was the most caring person. She had the greatest sense of humor.”

Joey wrote a one-man show about Garland

In 2014, Joey debuted A Judy Garland concert with Joey Luft at the Pasadena Playhouse, outside Los Angeles.

“They know ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ but people don’t even know Judy,” he shared Los Angeles Times. “The show is to educate people and show who she was and what she did and what she was about – one of the world’s greatest entertainers.”

Although it took him until he was 59 to stage the project, he is glad he did.

“It’s just so much fun just to come out and talk about her and tell people, ‘Here’s what really happened,'” Joey explained.