From the Archives: Judy Garland Dies in London at 47; Tragedy Haunted Star

Times Staff Writer Judy Garland, who paid a tragic price for the life of the show-business superstar, died in London Sunday. “She evokes pity and sorrow like no other superstar.” Her best known role was that of Dorothy, at 17, in the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz” — in which she sang the song which became her trademark: “Over the Rainbow.” A wistful teen-ager with a turned-up nose, brown eyes, brown hair and a rich, full voice, she became a top star in the big-star days of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s golden age. But the feeling she put into songs like her perennial “Over the Rainbow” made up for what one critic referred to as “a tremolo which at times can suggest a fly-wheel about to tear loose.” Nervous, fidgety, seemingly fighting for control, she would come on stage almost tentatively — and then, after a few songs, burst forth into the old Garland style that had made her a star. A fellow trouper, George Jessel, suggested she change her name — and she became Judy Garland, “The Little Girl with the Big Voice.” Recalls Jessel: “She was only 11—but sang like a woman three times her age, with a broken heart.” An MGM scout spotted her, she was signed up, and, in 1935, made her first film, a two-reel short. “There should be a time in your life when you can go home at night and forget about show business, but Judy Garland never got to that point.” news.obits@latimes.com MORE ARCHIVAL OBITUARIES Former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto Dies John Wayne Dies at 72 of Cancer Playwright August Wilson Distilled Black America Ex-Chief Justice Rose Bird Dies of Cancer at 63 Jazz Great Duke Ellington Dies in New York Hospital at 75