Me and My Shadows

Background:

Multi-faceted entertainer Lorna Luft, the daughter of Judy Garland and producer Sidney Luft and the half-sister of Liza Minnelli, has embraced almost all fields of entertainment since making her first TV appearance alongside her famous mother on the CBS series “The Judy Garland Show” (1963-1964). A New York Times best-selling author thanks to her noted autobiography, “Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir”(1998), Luft gained attention as the subject of the five-time Emmy Award-winning miniseries, “Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows” (ABC, 2001), which was adapted from her memoir, and the thriving documentary “Somebody's Daughter, Somebody's Son” (BBC, 2004). Also serving as co-executive producer for the first program, she jointly picked up a 2001 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Miniseries. She also celebrated the music of her mother in a highly successful one-woman show called “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” which spawned a soundtrack in 2007.

In show business for over four decades, Luft has collected countless theater credit, has performed in the most prestigious venues and clubs throughout the world and has acted in several TV series and films. She gained praised for her work in the Broadway hit musical “Promises, Promises” (1971) and on the national and world tour of “Guys and Dolls” (1992-1994). On the movie front, Luft is probably best recalled as Pink Lady “Paulette Rebchuck” on the classic “Grease 2” (1982) and for her zany role on “Where the Boys Are '84” (1984). Although she never rose to the same success as her mother and her sister as a professional singer, the California native did release several singles such as “Our Day Will Come,” “Long Time,” “Born Again” and “Where the Boys Are '84,” and has performed for the Royal Family at London’s Royal Albert Hall and for the first President Bush.

Currently married to fame musician Colin R. Freeman, Luft has two children from her 16-year marriage with first husband and her former manager, Jake Hooker (together from 1977 to 1993). She became addicted to cocaine during the 1970s and 1980s, but has since remained sober and is a spokesperson for The Council on Alcohol & Drugs. A supporter of drug rehabilitation, Luft once helped her sister Liza with her drug addiction and sent her to the Betty Ford Center. Luft has also actively taken part in various charities related to AIDS and children issues, including the annual Los Angeles AIDS Walk and The Children's Wish Foundation International.

Garland's Caretaker

Childhood and Family:

Lorna Luft was born on November 21, 1952, in Santa Monica, California, to singer/actress Judy Garland and her third husband, producer Sidney Luft. Not knowing about her mother's problem with drugs and her parents' rocky marriage, she and her younger brother, Joey, enjoyed a perfect upbringing in Bel Air. Eventually, when Lorna was 12, her parents divorced and she chose to live with her mother, which meant she had to cope with her mother's serious addiction. Serving as her mother's caregiver, young Lorna tried to manage the medications her mother took, cautiously observed the amount she took and stayed with her whenever she was out of control. It proved to be a hard duty for Lorna, who then suffered a mental breakdown and decided to leave her mother. Several months after she and her brother lived with their father, Garland was found dead of an overdose.

The childhood friend of Leslie Bogart, the daughter of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, and the goddaughter of Frank Sinatra, Lorna was married to her future manager, rocker Jake Hooker, on February 14, 1977. She gave birth to her first child, Jesse Richards, in April 1984, and her second child, Vanessa Richards, was born in September 1990. Apart from producing two kids, Lorna was unhappy with the marriage and divorced her husband in 1993. She found a new love in her present husband, Colin R. Freeman, a musician whom she married on September 14, 1996. Currently, the couple and Lorna's children reside in Beverly Hills, California.

Lorna is the younger half-sister of Academy Award-winning actress/singer Liza Minnelli, from Garland's second marriage to director Vincente Minnelli.

“Although I loved Liza as a little girl, it would be true to say I really didn't know her.” Lorna Luft

Songs My Mother Taught Me

Career:

Daughter of legendary entertainer Judy Garland, Lorna Luft was exposed to the limelight at age 11 when she sang on her mother's television series, “The Judy Garland Show” (CBS, 1963-1964), and by age 16, she had become a seasoned performer. She joined her mother in a 1967 at New York's Palace Theater on Broadway, which was recorded live and soon released as “Judy Garland At Home At The Palace-Opening Night.” Performing on her own by age 19, Luft found herself landing a starring role on the Neil Simon hit musical “Promises, Promises” on Broadway in the early 1970s and was handed an American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) in the category of Rising Star of the Year for her work in the show. She continued to act in such off-Broadway productions as the musical “Snoopy” (starred as Peppermint Patty) and the drama “Extremities” (with Farrah Fawcett) in the 1980s. She next performed in the regional productions of “Grease,” “Gypsy,” “Girl Crazy,” “Carnival,” “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Mame” and with the national tour of “They're Playing Our Song” (1981).

During that same period, Luft also built a reputation as an accomplished concert artist. First performing at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, she has since played at many major nightclubs around the globe like the Grand Finale, the Eden Roc, the Maisonnette, the Playboy Club, the Cinegrill, Talk of the Town, the Latin Casino, Studio One, Feinstein's, and the Imperial Room, and has worked in some of the world's most celebrated venues such as Madison Square Garden, The Hollywood Bowl, The London Palladium, Carnegie Hall, and L'Olympia in Paris. One memorable moment came when she had the opportunity to perform for the Royal Family in concerts honoring Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ira Gershwin at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Still in the U.K., she also had two successful tours of her own shows, “Hollywood & Broadway” and “The Magical World of Musicals.”

Also a recording artist, Luft has produced several singles and contributed to soundtracks and compilation albums. Through Epic Records, she released her first single called “Our Day Will Come.” This was followed by two European singles, “Long Time” and “Born Again,” and the title song “Where the Boys Are '84,” from the 1984 beach party film of the same name where Luft also starred as Carole Singer. It was Luft's second big screen outing after the fatal installment “Grease 2” (1982), in which she played the supporting role of Paulette Rebchuck. Luft also appeared on the 1979 “Eat to the Beat” album from the rock group Blondie, took part in the original soundtrack to George and Ira Gershwin's “Girl Crazy,” teamed up with such artists as Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick and Reba McEntire for an all-star album called “The Christmas Album... A Gift of Hope,” and recorded the classic “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” a duet sang with her mother, among other projects.

In addition to her film roles, Luft has acted in several other projects. She played the supporting role of Nurse Libby Kegler during the 1985-1986 season of the sitcom “Trapper John, M.D.” and was cast alongside Jill Clayburgh and Stephen Macht in the made-for-TV film “Fear Stalk” (1979). She has also had guest starring roles in such series as “Love American Style,” “McCloud,” “Tales from the Darkside,” “Murder She Wrote,” “The Nanny,” “Caroline in the City” and “Style Court.” She appeared as Joanne in the comedy “My Giant” (1998), starring Billy Crystal, and in the history film “Studio 54” (1998), alongside Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, Mike Myers and Sela Ward. A regular guest on TV talk shows, Luft has also taken up hosting gigs on various morning and afternoon shows, including “Loose Women” (2004-2007).

In 2001, Luft gained a degree of prominence when ABC turned her critically hailed memoir, “Me and My Shadows,” into a miniseries titled “Life with Judy Garland: Me & My Shadows,” starring Judy Davis and Tammy Blanchard as Judy Garland and directed by Robert Allan Ackerman. The biopic, in which she also served as co-executive producer, became the network's most watched program of the season and collected a number of honors, including five Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Three years later, Luft became the subject of the successful BBC documentary “Somebody's Daughter, Somebody's Son.”

It was also in 2004 that Luft's one woman show, “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” premiered at the West End. It received two Los Angeles Theatre Alliance Ovations for Best World Premiere Musical and Best Musical Direction and Luft's performance has been cited by the “LA Times” as “heart-stopping and thrilling... an incandescent revelation not to be missed.” A soundtrack based on the show was released in October 2007. Her more recent theatrical credits include Irving Berlin's “White Christmas: The Musical” (2006) and “Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms.” (2007)

In 2007, Luft provided the voice of Joanna on the Logo Network new animated series “Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World.” Other talented cast members included Alan Cumming, Margaret Cho, Liza Del Mundo and Wilson Cruz.

Awards:

• Carbonell: Best Supporting Actress, “Guys and Dolls,” 1990s

• American Guild of Variety Artists: Rising Star of the Year, “Promises, Promises,” 1971