Judy Garland, who would have turned 100 on Friday (June 10), made awards show history numerous times. She was the first woman to win a Grammy for album of the year and the first woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes. She was also the first woman to introduce two Oscar-winning songs: “Over the Rainbow” and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.”
Garland won two Grammys, a juvenile Oscar (as those special awards to young performers were then called) and a special Tony. She also received three Emmy nominations. Not a bad showing, to be sure, but less than an artist of her talent and stature deserved.
Garland died in 1969 (at age 47), but she has never really left us. The 2001 TV miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows received top ratings and won five Emmys, including outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or a movie for star Judy Davis and outstanding supporting actress in a miniseries or a movie for co-star Tammy Blanchard as young Judy.
Renée Zellweger won an Oscar for best actress for playing Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy. She paid tribute to the great star in her eloquent acceptance speech: “I have to say that this past year of conversations celebrating Judy Garland across genders and … across generations and across cultures has been a really cool reminder that our heroes unite us. … Miss Garland, you were certainly among the heroes who unite and define us, and this is certainly for you.”
Here’s Garland life and legacy in awards show moments.
