What you need to know about Liza, Lorna and Joey

Judy Garland was just a teenager when she starred as Dorothy Gale, a young Kansas girl who fought the Wicked Witch of the West with a trio of unlikely friends in the 1939 Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz.

Both the film and L. Frank Baum’s children’s books, on which the movie “The Wizard of Oz” was based, helped inspire Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” From there, the hit Broadway musical “Wicked” came out in 2003, and now it has a grand Hollywood adaptation.

Born Frances Ethel Gumm, Garland spent her childhood years on stage in a vaudeville family act. She rose to fame starring opposite Mickey Rooney in a string of beloved Hollywood musicals before landing the role of Dorothy.

Garland received one special youth academy award for her portrayal of Dorothy and went on to star in blockbusters such as “Meet Me in St. Louis,” directed by husband-to-be Vincente Minnelli, and “Easter Parade,” which co-starred Fred Astaire. She was later nominated for Oscars for her dramatic performances in “A Star is Born” (1954) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961).

The actress and singer, who struggled with addiction and mental health challenges, welcomed her first child, Liza Minnelli, with director Vincente Minnelli in March 1946.

Garland and her third husband, manager and producer Sidney Luft, welcomed a daughter, Lorna Luft, in November 1952 and a son, Joey Luft, in March 1955.

Read on to learn about Judy Garland’s three children.

Liza Minnelli

Garland welcomed her first child, daughter Liza Minnelli, with her second husband, Vincente Minnelli, in 1946.

Liza Minnelli, who became a stage and screen superstar in her own right, showed talent at a young age. She appeared as an entertainer on her mother’s CBS variety show, “The Judy Garland Show.”

The now 78-year-old Liza Minnelli won several Tony Awards, an Emmy, an honorary Grammy and an Oscar for best actress in the Hollywood adaptation of the musical “Cabaret” (1972).

Over the years, Liza Minnelli has shared childhood memories with her famous mother, who died in 1969 of an apparently accidental barbiturate overdose, according to The Guardian.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about my mother is that she didn’t give me a happy childhood,” Liza Minnelli shared Vogue Arabia in 2019. “There were definitely ups and downs, but I can say that I was very happy. Whether people choose to believe it or not is up to them, but I know I was happy.”

She added: “My fondest memory of my mother was the conversations we had. When I became a teenager, I became her best friend and confidant. We would laugh and talk for hours. Sometimes in person, sometimes on the phone, depending on where we was.”

Minnelli and her half-sister, Lorna Luft, told “Entertainment tonight” in a 2022 joint interview that their family home was visited by Hollywood legends including Humphrey Bogart and Lana Turner.

“But it was so funny that if mom was in the room, nobody cared,” Liza Minnelli said of her mother’s charisma. “She was so funny. She was funny.”

The sisters also objected to the media’s portrayal of Garland as a “tragic” figure.

“That’s what bothers me the most,” Liza Minnelli said. “They’d say tragic Judy Garland, and I’d say, ‘Oh shut up.’ It was her humor and her kindness. … With her family, she was funny.”

When Liza Minnelli was asked in a 2020 interview with Black when asked what her favorite memory of her late mother was, she replied “everything”.

“We had so much fun because she was so funny. She was funny and she loved her kids so much. She was protective and very strict. She wanted you to do the right thing, like any mother. It’s that simple ,” Liza Minnelli shared.

The actor has been married and divorced four times. Her second husband was Jack Haley Jr., son of actor Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Liza Minnelli, who has no children, is the subject of the upcoming documentary, “Liza: A Truly Amazing, Completely True Story,” with a release scheduled for January 2025.

Lorna Luft

Garland’s younger daughter, Lorna Luft, who turned 72 Nov 21also followed in the footsteps of the Hollywood legend to pursue a career in show business.

Lorna Luft, whose father was Garland’s third husband, Sidney Luft, has appeared on the Broadway stage in “Promises, Promises” and toured in the national productions of “Guys and Dolls” and “White Christmas.”

Lorna Luft also appeared in the 1982 film “Grease 2” and appeared as a special star in hit television shows including “Murder, She Wrote,” “Trapper John, MD,” “The Nanny” and “Caroline in the City”.

During their joint interview with “Entertainment Tonight” in 2022, Lorna Luft agreed with sister Liza Minnelli that Garland was a “fun” mother.

“Our mother had such an extraordinary sense of humor, and that was her survival guide. That’s what I can tell, my lifeline has been to find the funny – just find the funny,” explained Lorna Luft. “And we do, 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.”

She wrote lovingly about her life at home with Garland in 1998’s “Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir,” which was adapted into an Emmy-winning TV movie. She also co-authored the 2018 book “A Star is Born: Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away.”

Lorna Luft has a son and daughterboth of which she has written about on social media and is married to a composer Colin Freeman.

Joey Luft

Garland’s only son, Joey Luft, was only 14 when his mother died in 1969.

The son of Garland and Sidney Luft, Joey Luft has lived his life mostly out of the limelight, although he has also dabbled in entertainment.

The Younger Luft appeared on a special holiday episode of Garland’s CBS variety show, “The Judy Garland Show,” in 1963, singing the song “Where Is Love?”

“(Garland) opened the show with ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,'” Joey Luft recalled Los Angeles Times in 2014. “Our living room (in the Luft family house) on Rockingham Avenue was replicated so the Christmas show looked like our living room.”

The youngest Garland child later studied photography and sound, telling the outlet, “I’ve been more behind the camera.”

Joey Luft, his sister Lorna and his half-sister Liza made headlines when they appeared together at the 2014 Academy Awards for a special 75th anniversary tribute to “The Wizard of Oz.”

Like his siblings, Joey Luft has fond memories of growing up with Garland.

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

To honor his mother, Joey Luft collected footage and stories about her to create the stage show “A Judy Garland Concert with Joey Luft,” which premiered in 2014 at the Pasadena Playhouse outside Los Angeles, according to the LA Times.

“It’s just so much fun just to get out there and talk about her and let people know, ‘Here’s what really happened,'” he told the publication.

“(Audiences) know ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ but people don’t even know Judy,” he added. “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.”