When MGM were unable to borrow Shirley Temple from Twentieth Century Fox to play the lead in their production of The Wizard of Oz, they turned to Judy Garland. It was a role which was to define the young star's career. A string of hugely successful musicals followed, teaming up with the likes of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and peaking again with a show-stopping performance in 1954's A Star Is Born, for which she was nominated an Oscar. But off screen Garland's life was one of constant rebellion against both the tight control of the movie studios and her mother, whom she often described as "the real-life Wicked Witch of the West." She soon fell into a cycle of substance abuse: pills to get through the day and downers to sleep at night were combined with alcohol, and in 1950 she attempted to commit suicide by slitting her throat with a piece of glass. In her later years she continued to work infrequently, returning to the stage whenever she started to run out of money. But the raw emotion and vulnerability which made her presence on screen so memorable was sadly apparent in her personal life, and the addiction which had arisen from her insecurities ultimately led to her death in 1969.
