“I’m the queen of the comeback,” said Judy Garland in a 1968 interview. “I’m getting tired of coming back. I really am. I can’t even go to the powder room without making a comeback.”
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A year after she said these words, Garland died at the age of 47. On June 22, 1969, Garland’s husband Mickey Deans found her dead in the bathroom of their London home. Coroner Gavin Thurston revealed that Garland’s death was the result of an accidental overdose of barbiturates.
“This is quite clearly an accidental circumstance to a person who was accustomed to taking barbiturates over a very long time,” said Thurston. “She took more barbiturates than she could tolerate.”
A Long History of Addiction
Born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on June 10, 1922, as Frances Ethel Gumm, Judy Garland was born into entertaining. The daughter vaudeville stars Frank and Ethel Gumm, Garland was already performing on stage by the age of 2 with her sisters Virginia ad Mary Jane, known as The Gumm Sisters.
By the age of 10, Garland’s mother began giving young Judy uppers and downers—pills to help keep up her energy while performing on stage and others to help her come down from it and sleep.
When Garland made her way to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in the mid-1930s, while she was still a teenager, her dependency on pills only worsened due to a demanding schedule. MGM executives, and founder Louis B. Mayer, would reportedly keep the actors medicated to maintain their grueling schedules.
Making $150,000 a film, Garland starred in more than two dozen films with MGA, often alongside Mickey Rooney, from her first major role in Pigskin Parade in 1936 through Summer Stock in 1950, opposite Gene Kelley. Under MGM, Garland also starred in the 1939 hit The Wizard of Oz, which earned her a special Juvenile Award during the Oscars.
Along with a demanding filming schedule, Garland was also battling with negative body image in her teens and had been dieting or on Benzedrine most of her teen and adult life. Garland’s addiction to pills and alcohol only worsened, and her contract with MGM was terminated in 1950.
Her long history of depression also led to several suicide attempts. Her third husband, Sid Luft, said that Garland allegedly tried to take her own life on at least 20 occasions.
A Star Is Born
In 1954, Garland was signed to Warner Bros. and starred in A Star Is Born, which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. By this time, Garland had also released several studio albums, from her 1940 debut, Judy Garland Souvenir Album, to her final record, The Garland Touch, in 1962. At the age of 39, Garland also became the youngest and first female recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry during the 1962 Golden Globe Awards. A year later, Garland starred in her final film role, I Could Go on Singing.
Though she never wanted to do a weekly TV show, Garland turned to television with The Judy Garland Show, to help relieve her of financial troubles. The show was nominated for four Emmys but was cancelled after one season in 1964.
London and Garland’s Final Years
Garland moved back to the stage, performing with her then 18-year-old daughter Liza Minelli at the London Palladium in 1964, while appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and guest hosting other TV shows before going on a tour in Australia.
In 1967, Garland was cast as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls but was dismissed from the filming for her erratic behavior and drinking. Soon after, Garland returned to the stage once again, but by 1969, her health had significantly deteriorated.
She gave her final performance on March 25, 1969, at the Falkoner Centret in Copenhagen, Denmark, just three months before her death.
Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
