Vincente Minnelli

Vincente Minnelli (born Lester Anthony Minnelli; February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was an American stage director and film director. For a career spanning over half a century, he is best known for his sophisticated innovation and artistry in musical films. As of 2024, six of his films have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Minnelli made his stage debut as an actor in a production of East Lynne, staged by the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater (co-founded by his father and paternal uncle). After graduating from high school, he worked as an apprentice window designer at Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. There, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago and became a costume designer for the Balaban and Katz theater chain. By the early 1930s, he moved to New York City and served as the art director for the Radio City Music Hall.

In 1935, Minnelli became a theatre director with At Home Abroad (1935), starring Beatrice Lillie and Eleanor Powell. In 1937, Minnelli moved to Hollywood and served a brief stint at Paramount Pictures before returning to Broadway. In 1940, Minnelli was hired by Arthur Freed to work for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he directed sequences in Babes on Broadway (1941) and Panama Hattie (1942). He made his directorial film debut with Cabin in the Sky (1943). A year later, Minnelli directed Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) starring Judy Garland. He married Garland a year later, and their daughter Liza was born in 1946. He subsequently directed Garland in The Clock (1945), Ziegfeld Follies (1945) and The Pirate (1948). He divorced Garland in 1951.

Throughout the 1950s, Minnelli directed numerous comedies, dramas and musicals, including Father of the Bride (1950), An American in Paris (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Lust for Life (1956) and Gigi (1958). An American in Paris and Gigi respectively both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning the Best Director for the latter film. For over 26 years, Minnelli became the longest-tenured film director for MGM.

By 1962, Minnelli's relationship with MGM worsened due to the commercial failures of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Two Weeks in Another Town. He formed his production company called Venice Productions, partnering with MGM and 20th Century Fox on The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963) and Goodbye Charlie (1964). He directed his final film A Matter of Time (1976), starring his daughter Liza. Ten years later, in 1986, Minnelli died at his Beverly Hills residence, at age 83.