Why did Liza's career go straight down the shitter?

Because she's a damn drunk?

Pills and Liquor, OP.

I think Halston was part of her downfall as well.

Liza had an enormously successful career. Liza Minnelli is a national treasure. Stop being so fucking mean.

She did what Judy couldn't do. She got sober and has remained sober for decades. (Aside from a brief slip in the late 90's).

Unfortunately Liza was plagued with health problems. It's a miracle she remained on stage for as long as she did .

They stopped making musicals.

Leave her alone. She was brilliant in every way in Cabaret. Genius.

I got SHOBER and have SHTAYED SHOBER for DECADESH!

Here we see Michael Feinstein committing elder abuse on the stage with Liza in Costa Mesa last summer

This bitch ain't sober.

R9=Lorna

R9 = Reality

Because she easily became out of step with the times (couldn't control *the times*), and because she's a pathetic figure that hasn't appealed to ANYONE since 1979 except gay men. Okay Arthur........but that's it.

"She got sober and has remained sober for decades."

HA HA HA HA. No, she hasn't ever been "sober" as any average person would define it. Sobriety is the exception. Plus her *show biz bombastic diva* shit went out 45 years ago.

Bug eyed women singing tired tunes went out of style.

Really, after her triumphant "Shtepping Out", what else was there to achieve?

I loved her on “Arrested Development”.

She's overcome so much diversity!

Hi, Georgia!

Quick minute mash-up of Liza on Larry.

Too many drugs consumed to mask her mental illness.

I love her though.

Liza never really had a convention career. It was more fits and starts, she really was the Sterile Cuckoo, just an oddball that never quite fit into any conventional role of an actress/singer.

I'll say it again, Liza was Cabaret. Impressive. Bad mood? Watch it for the cure.

After "Cabaret", she had a series of film flops, and after three or four "Lucky Lady"-sized disasters Hollywood decided she wasn't a box-office draw and they weren't paying her millions. They weren't making films to suit her talents anyway, in the mid-seventies gritty realism was in and musicals were out, and so was smiling relentlessly.

So she went back to the stage and endeared herself to a generation of Theater Queens, while the mainstream forgot all about her.

I've heard plenty of stories about Liza being nuts, unstable, drunk or on drugs, but never that she's been unkind or mean to anyone. You do get the sense that she'd chatter away happily with a cab driver or a busboy who approached her nicely.

You do until said cabbie or busboy realized he now had to take her on to a degree far greater than his job ordinarily entails.

Yes...what a shitter... Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy awards....still working in her 70s when she's healthy...Fuck off OP

Who is this Lisa Minnuli?

She was too busy fooling around with clay. Liza makes lots of things with clay.

R23 spill the dirt, please.

She made too many bad film decisions: three flops in a row after Cabaret, then waiting four years to make Arthur, then waiting SEVEN years to star in Rent-a-Cop and Arthur 2, both bombs. I love her, it's amazing she's lived this long.

I love Liza Minnelli!!! For many different reasons. First of all - the Sally Bowles character she portraits in one of the greatest musicals ever comitted to a film. Second being the "Liza with a Z" - one of the grandest Specials ever shown on TV. Her rendition of Aznavour's "What Makes Man A Man" is just another. I don't give crap about her bad decisions, her flops, e.t.c. She is a legend, she is a star!!! It hurts me to see her in a wheel chair starving for little attention. I just wish she learned her lesson from the other Greats .... like Garbo. Keep the mystery along your dignity. I'm sure she can afford and living quite well, without those pityful apperances.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Liza's a crazy drunk who lives in her make-believe world, but I agree with R23 that she seems like someone who'd at least be cordial, if not warm and friendly, with everyone. Even in her interviews she's usually very kind when talking about people and I can't ever recall her being mean and bitchy. Of course I have no idea what she's like in real life. I am not particularly fond of her work, but she's a talented woman who made some very poor career choices after "Arthur".

Liza is pretty fucking brilliant in "Arrested Development". It's very rare to find someone who isn't a joke teller, yet is truly "comic".

I think I wrote this elsewhere on another thread, but she is transcendent in ‘Liza with a Z’, and I don’t think it’s a queeny exaggeration to think of it as a significant work of televisual art.

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

She and her siblings must be making money off her mother estate, no? Especially with the biopic coming up someone made bank paying for the use of her likeness and music.

Sober means no booze or any other mood-altering drug, whether 'doctor-prescribed' or not.

Also, with all her money why has she not had those horrible above the lip lines corrected?

(You would never see Babs with such a thing on her face.)

She was the best part in Arrested Development.

"I've heard plenty of stories about Liza being nuts, unstable, drunk or on drugs, but never that she's been unkind or mean to anyone"

But they are unreliable, and that can be worse. They don't show up, forget where they were supposed to show up, constantly get lost, forgets everyone's name, doesn't return phone calls, calls people at all hours of the night because they can't be alone, begs people to baby sit her when she has a craving for booze, begs people to secretly get her drugs...in other words, a pain in the ass, just like Judy was.

R23, agreed. She’s a mess, but I don’t get the sense that she’s malicious. I think she brings out the protective side of many of us, like Britney Spears. She’s not out to hurt anyone.

She’sh my mentor!

When I was a young gayling I used to love the movie ‘Arthur’. I found her beautiful and still do. IMHO there are very few individuals that possess her charisma.

She's always seemed kind and like she'd be a hoot to be around. She had the same thing Judy had where you wanted to take care of her and make sure no harm came her way.

I think she was born at the wrong time. If she'd done more Broadway, she might still be working like Bernadette Peters or Patti LuPone, but the film industry didn't know what to do with her brand of charisma and talent. I've seen her on stage and she lights the entire thing up in a way that you rarely see.

Her voice is completely gone now unfortunately.

It's telling that she's never been in a serious relationship in her entire life. And of course, she's never had kids. That's a flashing red light for serious emotional issues. She's too crazy for any man.

R42, Liza was too unreliable to do Broadway after 1975. Yeah, I know she did, but there was trouble.

She never had kids because she couldn't stop drinking and doing drugs for five minutes during her child-bearing years.

I don't really by that she couldn't have been a movier star (bar CABARET) in the 1970s. Karen Black was a movie star in that decade. Liza could have done some of the roles that went to Marsha Mason.

*I don't really buy

I have seen Liza in concert at least seven or eight times the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. No one other than maybe her mother can touch Liza before or since. She was the most electrifying performer ever on stage. Liza was loaded with talent, and she was an entertainer extraordinaire.

All of you slinging shit about Liza being a mess probably never experienced Liza in concert. You have no idea what you're talking about. No one was ever better. Liza was the ultimate performer. So she slowed down now. So she didn't fit into the typical movie leading lady roles. BFD. Liza's strength was the stage. She was brilliant. If you missed seeing her, then you missed one of the most electrifying performers ever. Your loss.

"Liza could have done some of the roles that went to Marsha Mason."

HA HA HA. No. Liza doesn't have the depth Marsha Mason had, and Liza could never do a role that's not herself. ALL of them - Pookie Adams, Junie Moon, Sally Bowles, Francine Evans, Linda Marolla and all of the nameless others are ALL Liza. She was unable or unwilling to go further. It's almost like she thought she was at MGM and expected them to write "Liza Minnelli roles" for her to show off her star power and star voice. She was too one dimensional for movies.

R48, you seem unable to comprehend the title of this thread: "Why did Liza's career go straight down the shitter?" That has nothing to do with you experiences seeing her on stage.

Liza's a great comedic actress. She was great on AD, but perhaps by now it's difficult to insure her.

Movies schmovies.

Liza on stage is where she belongs. Brilliant.

See link. Liza "owns" this song. No offense to Sinatra, but THIS is how it's done. And New York, New York was written for Liza.

Not to mention winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and four Tonys (two wins and two honoring her) including Best Special Theatrical Event for "Liza at the Palace" in 2009. An outstanding career. Well done, Liza!

Her style of music was incredibly dated. That’s why her “Results” album was such a success - she was finally trying something new and up to date. Then after that album she went right back to her typical showtunes type shit and her releases were again poor sellers.

All in all, she didn’t take enough risks in her music or movies.

Liza's career did not go straight down the shitter. It rose to glorious heights. No one comes close to Liza.

"It rose to glorious heights"

It did! Then it went straight down the shitter.

No. George Lazenby's career went straight down the shitter.

Liza had plenty of triumphs over the years.

A few of Liza's triumphs were out of pity.

[quote]Her style of music was incredibly dated. That’s why her “Results” album was such a success

That album was a flop, just like all her other albums. I think she only had about 4 albums total in her entire career because she couldn't get a record deal.

[Quote] I think she only had about 4 albums total in her entire career because she couldn't get a record deal.

Why post what can easily be disproved?

Eleven studio albums, dozens more she's on...

Liza's voice is strange in a studio. Her live albums are great, but she never had a studio voice. It was just too much. She's like Ethel Merman or Patti LuPone that way. Not pretty voices in the traditional sense, but they could sell a song and you'd hear every lyric in the back of the house.

Liza's more of a shouter than a belter. Lyrical, she ain't. Listen to some of her Bacharach covers.

She used what she had very well, but her style was already dated when she arrived on the scene. I do still mourn that she never got to play Rose in Gypsy on stage or on film. I think she'd have been excellent. I've heard her sing all three of Rose's main songs and she nailed each one of them.

She has an STD in the poussay.

Wasn't that a disco act? And I don't mean the act(s) Liza would perform in a disco...

You see, dahling...this is how it's done:

Liza Minnelli in 1980 performing the best rendition ever of "Some People" from "Gypsy."

Electrifying!

I liked Liza in the late 1960s when she was all over TV and recorded for Herb Albert's label A&M. I'm not saying she could have continued having a career like that, but it wasn't until Cabaret that she turned into a grotesque drag queen imho.

Head voice Liza... Ugh.

Was Liza a good actress?

I think she's a good actress who has rarely been able to find good material.

Stop hating on Liza.

I still have a soft spot for this song! It was a big hit in the gay bars in London in 89/90 when I was all of 18 and just moved to the city for uni!

Liza's stardom and standing must have been some kind of collective insanity - like Multiple Personality Disorder or Satanic ritual abuse of children. When the HYSTERIA ended - there was nothing left to see but a most ordinary talent, so what? Liza WAS theatrical. Not a great singer, dancer or actress.

Liza was able to keep people awake and that's a great skill. Some actors these days put me right to sleep after their first two lines. She walks on stage and immediately holds the entire audience in the palm of her hand. She did the same thing in Cabaret, but roles like Sally Bowles are so rare to begin with and she never found another movie role worthy of her talents.

R72 It was huge in the gay party scene even in Canada, but for some reason the song never got a wide release in North America.

"Was Liza a good actress?"

NO.

The "Results" may have been a flop in the US, but I do remember "Loosing My Mind" being constantly played at European discos clubs around 1989 and to this day I still enjoy this album.

They should have done a whole album with Dusty, not Liza.

BOO!

^^^^

Yeah, they would .... but Dusty was far and long (mentaly) gone by then. Liza was much more reliable source ...

Do you think Tim Rice had her Evita screen test burned?

She was only talented in the minds of uber queens.

At least she flushed the drugs straight down the shitter.

She was on the right track doing pop with the Results album, but then didn’t do anymore pop after that. She should have tried a dance record. Her other songs are very dated and showtunes sounding.

Poor Liza, she really did get a bit of her mother's talent, just not all of it.

You're all nuts. As a singer, Liza has always been a "performer", but as an actress she's always been very good, even exceptional.

It's been said, but her Lucille on "Arrested Development" is fucking brilliant, and even guest-starring on a late in the run episode of "Law & Order: CI, she wiped the floor with them! She was heartbreaking, committed and real. I think she is as talented an actress as was Lynn Redgrave, certainly as interesting.

"I think she's a good actress who has rarely been able to find good material."

A typical excuse. A good actor can be good with any material.

The " Jump the Shark" moment. Everyone knew it was finally over.

IT NEVER DID!

There's a lot of vertigo showing in OP's pic!

[quote] A typical excuse. A good actor can be good with any material.

And some material is no good with any actor.

It's not about the material, R91, it's about the ACTOR.

If that was true, Lawrence Olivier’s late-period career would have played out a lot differently.