Lorna Luft is the famous actress singer daughter of the legendary singer Judy Garland and the producer Sidney Luft. Innumerable times all through her life she had been compared with her mother. Lorna Luft started her career as an actress when she was as young as eleven years old. She performed with her mother on a show that was called 'The Judy Garland Show'. From then onwards she performed with her mother so many times on tours and Broadway. She has performed in movies and television, concerts and plays. The famous autobiography written by her 'Me and My Shadows - Living with the Legacy of Judy Garland' (1998) was made a television miniseries. The book is not only on the legendary life of Judy Garland, but also about a daughter who lived in an atmosphere of love, fame, joy as well as addiction. To live under the incredible legacy of her famous mother was a fact Lorna had to face all through her life. Go through the article to know more about the life of Lorna Luft and Judy Garland.
Lorna Luft along with her younger brother, Joey Luft spent a peaceful childhood, despite the grave issues regarding her mother's drug addiction and her parents' divorce. By the time she was 12 years of age, her parents were separated and Lorna was left to face the problem of her mother's drug addiction. However, Lorna stayed with her mother, as she knew the depth of affection and love, her mother had for them when she is not under the influence of drugs. Lorna then, transformed herself to be the caretaker of her mother, taking care of her medications and examining the amount she took. Lorna also had to deal with her behaviour whenever she went out of control. Eventually, when her mother's drug addiction became unmanageable, Lorna had a mental breakdown. As a result, she and her brother went to live with their father. After a few months, Judy garland passed away due to the overdose of drugs.
Depressed and guilty, it took a long term for her to come to terms with her mothers' death. However, Lorna followed her mother's path to become an actress and a professional singer though she never reached the height of success her mother had reached. To an extent, she fulfilled the expectations of her celebrated mother. Though she found it difficult growing up in the shadows of her mother's fame, she reached height of success, mainly due to her own hard work and determination.
Judy Garland was honoured with Oscar for her character of Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939). She also acted in movies such as 'Love Finds Andy Hardy' (1938) and 'Babes in Arms' (1939) in which she was popular for her vibrant and high-end performances. She married almost five times and was notorious and controversial for her relationships. In a career spanned over forty-seven years, she acted in thirty-two feature films, provided the voice-over-work for two and became part of half-dozen short subjects. She acted in thirty of her own television shows and became the guest of a few television shows.
During the time span of 1951 to 1969, Judy garland became part of almost eleven hundred theatre, concert and nightclub performances. Recording nearly one hundred singles and a record number of albums, she sang for many personal performances for military. She was given a special Academy Award, was nominated for few others and received special Antoinette Perry (Tony) Award for record-breaking Broadway engagements.
The relationship that existed between Lorna Luft and Judy Garland is something more than a mother-daughter rapport. It is a testimony of the ways a mother influences the life of a daughter negatively and positively.
As is explicitly told in Lorna Luft's autobiography, her life is closely interrelated and influenced by her legendary mother and singer actress, Judy Garland.