You’re a star,
CELEBRITIES AND THEIR FAMOUS MOTHERS
ROWING up in Hollywood it seemed like every kid was the child of some star,” Liza Minnelli once said.
The daughter of Wizard Of Oz star Judy Garland and leading film director Vincente Minnelli was a true Tinseltown toddler and spent many of her early days playing on the sets of her mother’s movies.
She was even named after the Gershwin song Liza, and American composer Ira Gershwin and celebrity Kay Thompson were her godparents.
Liza was about two when she made her acting debut in her mother’s 1949 movie In The Good Old Summertime and appeared in the final scene alongside Judy and co-star Van Johnson.
“It was no great tragedy being Judy Garland’s daughter. I had tremendously interesting childhood years – except they had little to do with being a child,” said Liza.
She was appearing on stage with her mother by the time she was a teenager and was 18 when she filmed the 1964 gala Judy And Liza At The Palladium for British television.
“So I would dance and she would sing, and it was kind of a family thing,” the Cabaret and Arthur film star once said.
“Performing was part of our world.” The late Carrie Fisher also spent her childhood in the shadow of the Hollywood sign. “I was street smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive,” the daughter of film stars Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher once quipped.
“In the 50s, my parents were known as America’s sweethearts,” said the Star Wars actress. “Their pictures graced the covers of all the newspapers. They were the Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston of their day.”
Debbie used to say “Singin’ In The Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things I ever had to do in my life’, but she was proud of Carrie’s career and said: “People used to call her ‘Debbie Reynolds’ daughter’, now they call me ‘Princess Leia’s mother.’”
Tippi Hedren found movie fame in director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 movie The Birds and brought her eightyear-old daughter Melanie Griffith with her when she headed to the UK three years later to work with silent movie legend Charlie Chaplin and Sophia Loren on the film A Countess Of Hong Kong.
The young Melanie, who went on to appear in movie comedy
Working Girl with Harrison Ford, joined her mother and the rest of the cast when they celebrated Chaplin’s 77th birthday during filming at Pinewood.
Melanie’s own daughter Dakota Johnson has inherited the acting gene and appeared in the film version of best-seller 50 Shades Of Grey. She once said: “I grew up around really not normal people. My family is general Hollywood. They’re all artists. They’re creative people who are advocates for expressing themselves.”
X Factor judge, reality TV star and music manager Sharon Osbourne brought up three children with her husband Black Sabbath star Ozzy.
Kelly, Jack and Aimee were born 13 months apart from each other and have all gone on to carve out careers in the entertainment industry.
Sharon said she was in labour for 18 hours with Kelly and it was the most difficult of all the three births.
Reality TV series The Osbournes let cameras capture their home life and ran for four seasons. “We are a very colourful family,” Sharon pointed out. “Everybody knows our mistakes, but I think that people can relate to all of our mistakes and all our good and bad points.”
Almost Famous and You, Me And Dupree film actress Kate Hudson is the daughter of comedy movie star
Goldie Hawn and was brought up by her mum and her longtime partner actor Kurt Russell, who recently appeared in Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 2.
Kate says: “I have zero problems when people say ‘God, you look like your mother’. I go ‘Well, great! Thanks!’”
Swedish-born Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman was 36 when she had twin daughters – Isotta and Isabella – with film director Roberto Rosellini.
Isotta became a professor of literature while Isabella – 34 minutes older than her twin – followed in her mother’s acting footsteps appearing in movies like Blue Velvet and White Nights. She made her film debut alongside her mother in the 1976 movie A Matter Of Time and the Casablanca star’s acting advice was “Keep it simple. Make a blank face and the music and the story will fill it in.”
Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor has five sons with bass guitarist husband Richard Jones, of The Feeling, and has said that working makes her a better mother as it gives her another purpose.
Her mother Janet Ellis was a familiar face on TV as a Blue Peter presenter and Sophie says it was occasionally awkward and often frustrating having a mother on TV, but she says her mum still gives her great advice.
“What springs to mind is trusting your instinct,” she says. “It can be hard to navigate things if you’re doing things that don’t feel right.”