<P> As a child, Garland began performing in vaudeville with her two older sisters, and later signed with Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer as a teenager . She made more than two dozen films with MGM, nine of which with Mickey Rooney, and is perhaps best remembered for her performance as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her other most notable film roles with MGM include appearances in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946), Easter Parade (1948), and Summer Stock (1950). Garland was released from MGM in 1950, after 15 years with the studio, amid a series of personal struggles and erratic behavior that prevented her from fulfilling the terms of her contract . Her film appearances diminished, but she would thereafter go on to receive two Academy Award nominations . She also made record - breaking concert appearances, released eight studio albums, and hosted her own Emmy - nominated television series, The Judy Garland Show (1963--1964). At age 39, Garland became the youngest and first female recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry . In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the 10 greatest female stars of classic American cinema . </P> <P> Despite profound professional success, Garland struggled largely in her personal life from an early age . The pressures of adolescent stardom affected her physical and mental health from the time she was a teenager; her self - image was influenced and constantly criticized by film executives who believed that she was physically unattractive . Those same executives manipulated her onscreen physical appearance . Into her adulthood, she was plagued by alcohol and substance abuse, as well as financial instability; she often owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes . Her life - long addiction to drugs and alcohol ultimately led to her death in London from a barbiturate overdose at age 47 . </P> <P> Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota . She was the youngest child of Ethel Marion (née Milne) and Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm . Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts . She was of Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry, named after both of her parents and baptized at a local Episcopal church . </P> <P> "Baby" (as she was called by her parents and sisters) shared her family's flair for song and dance . Her first appearance came at the age of two - and - a-half, when she joined her older sisters Mary Jane "Suzy / Suzanne" Gumm and Dorothy Virginia "Jimmie" Gumm on the stage of her father's movie theater during a Christmas show and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells". The Gumm Sisters performed there for the next few years, accompanied by their mother on piano . </P>

Who was the actress who played dorothy in the original wizard of oz