Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an Ac… Read Full Bio ↴Liza May Minnelli (born March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and singer. She is the daughter of legendary entertainer Judy Garland and her second husband, acclaimed film director Vincente Minnelli (who was of Italian and French descent).

Minnelli's first film appearance was at the age of three in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime, starring her mother and Van Johnson. Minnelli started performing at age 16, in 1963, in an Off-Broadway revival of the musical Best Foot Forward, for which she received good notices. The next year, her mother invited Minnelli to perform with her at the London Palladium. The audience loved her, launching her musical career. She returned to Broadway at 19, and won a 1965 Tony Award for Flora the Red Menace. Minnelli would also receive Tony Awards for The Act in 1978 and a special Tony in 1974. She was nominated in 1984 for The Rink but lost to her costar, Chita Rivera.

The film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), in which Minnelli starred as a love-seeking teenage misfit, garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination. In 1972, Minnelli won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Sally Bowles in the movie version of Cabaret, along with Joel Grey who won an Oscar reprising his role from the original Broadway production (that of the Emcee).

Minnelli has the distinction of being one of the few Academy Award winners whose parents are both Academy Award nominees. She has also won an Emmy Award for the 1972 TV special Liza with a Z. Minnelli received a 1990 Grammy Legend Award. She received Golden Globe Awards for Cabaret and for the TV movie A Time to Live.

Minnelli, like her mother, is known for her powerful vocal style, as in her trademark songs "Cabaret" and "Theme from New York, New York". Minnelli's original version of the latter, for the film in which she was a co-star with Robert DeNiro, preceded Frank Sinatra's successful cover version (for his Trilogy album), by two years.

After her performance as leading lady to Dudley Moore in 1981's Arthur, Minnelli made fewer, and fewer successful, film appearances.

She returned to Broadway in 1997, taking over the title role in the musical Victor/Victoria, replacing Julie Andrews. In his review, New York Times critic Ben Brantley commented, "her every stage appearance is perceived as a victory of show-business stamina over psychic frailty... She asks for love so nakedly and earnestly, it seems downright vicious not to respond."

Following her 2002 wedding to David Gest, Minnelli and Gest signed with the American cable network VH1 to star in their own reality series, but production of the series was cancelled at the last minute.

In 2004 and 2005 she appeared as a recurring guest star on the critically acclaimed TV sitcom Arrested Development as the lover of sexually and socially awkward Buster Bluth.

On January 1, 2006, she sang "New York, New York" at the second inauguration of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Other famous performances were at the 1978 Studio 54 party honoring New York City's revival, at which a guest was Mayor Ed Koch; the reopening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4, 1986; and at a 2001 New York Mets baseball game that was the metro area's first major sporting event after the September 11 attacks.

In 2013, she guest-starred on the NBC musical drama Smash, where she performed the number A Love Letter From the Times. She also reprised her role in the fourth season of Arrested Development.

Something Wonderful
Liza Minnelli Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

He may not always say
What you would have him say
But now and then he'll say something wonderful
The thoughtless things he'll do
Will hurt and worry you
Then all at once he'll do something wonderful
He has a thousand dreams that won't come true
You know that he believes in them

And that's enough for you
You'll always go along with
Defend him when he's wrong
And tell him when he's strong
He is wonderful
He'll always need your love
And so you'll get you're love

A man who needs your love
Can be wonderful

Overall Meaning

The lyrics in Liza Minnelli's song Something Wonderful are about a man who is flawed but also capable of doing things that are truly amazing. The song acknowledges that he may not always use the right words or make the best decisions, but occasionally he will do or say something that is truly wonderful. Despite his imperfections and the fact that his dreams may not come true, the woman singing the song is willing to stand by him, defend him when he's wrong, and encourage him when he's strong. She recognizes that a man who needs her love can be truly wonderful.

Line by Line Meaning

He may not always say
He may not express his feelings always

What you would have him say
He may not say things as per your wish

But now and then he'll say something wonderful
But sometimes he surprises you by saying wonderful things

The thoughtless things he'll do
Sometimes, he may do things that seem senseless

Will hurt and worry you
These actions might hurt and concern you

Then all at once he'll do something wonderful
But then he suddenly surprises you by doing something wonderful

He has a thousand dreams that won't come true
He has many aspirations that may not come true

You know that he believes in them
But you know that he believes in his dreams

And that's enough for you
And this belief is enough for you to support him

You'll always go along with
You will always stand with him

Defend him when he's wrong
You will defend him even if he is wrong