Liza Minnelli The Making of an Icon

THE DEATH OF HER LEGENDARY MOTHER PROMPTED THE PERFORMER TO REINVENT HERSELF By Loulse a. BARILE

- Loulse a. BARILE

When Judy Garland died in London on June 22, 1969, Liza Minnelli reacted with disbelief. “My mother? She’s never going to pass. And I believed it,” Liza recalls. “I started to cry and didn’t stop for about eight days.”

A new documentary, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, shares how Liza rebounded from her mother’s untimely death and forged her own path in the entertainment industry. “For Liza to become Liza, she had to let go of Judy,” the film’s director, Bruce David Klein, explains to Closer. In addition to interviews with Liza and many of her famous friends — including Ben Vereen, Mia Farrow (a pal since preschool!) and Michael Feinstein — the film also shares never-before-seen footage of the performer. “It captures how Liza became the It girl of the 1970s and the biggest star in the world,” says Klein about the documentary, which opens in theaters on Jan. 24 in New York and Jan. 31 in Los Angeles, with a national rollout to follow.

Of course, Liza, 78, inherited talent. Judy’s daughter also got her drive and ambition from her mother and a perfectionist streak from her acclaimed film director father, Vincente Minnelli. “The expectations were so high,” notes Klein. “People were always comparing Liza to her mother. In many ways, that made it harder for her to become her own person.”

At 3, Liza made her big-screen debut in Judy’s 1949 musical