FILM · 1954 · USA
A Star Is Born
- Directed by
- George Cukor
- Runtime
- 176 min
- Studio
- Transcona Enterprises, Warner Bros. Pictures
26 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
Summary: TMDB
All facts (26)
- #001
Judy Garland gave her best behavior in the early days of shooting, but gradually lost control. She first reported being ill on November 9, which kept her away from the film for four days. She fell ill again while shooting on location and missed three more days. In December she was ill again for two days. Later a scene had to be postponed because she disliked her costume. On some days she had to leave early because she was too tired or ill to continue. By February they were 41 days behind schedule. In late March she took two weeks off to stop all prescription medication. In the end, production lasted nine months.
- #002
Because the role of Norman Maine was that of an older actor, it was turned down by Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Ray Milland, Gregory Peck, Tyrone Power, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart and Robert Taylor, and was finally accepted by James Mason. Judy Garland suggested John Hodiak, her former leading man in The Harvey Girls (1946), for the role, but Hodiak was unavailable at the time.
- #003
The film was re-edited several times. After an initial preview at 181 minutes, the studio (Warner Bros.) cut the film by 30 minutes despite objections from director George Cukor and producer Sidney Luft (Judy Garland's husband). In 1983, all but five minutes of the cut footage was found and reinstated, though some shots had to be recreated using production photographs.
- #004
In 1974, film historian Ronald Haver was staging a George Cukor retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For a screening of A Star Is Born he prepared a brochure containing photographs of the intermission sequences and explanations of what was missing. This sparked interest at Warner Bros., where an apprentice film editor discovered the complete three hours of the soundtrack in the sound department's storage vaults. Haver wanted to create a restored version using the soundtrack and photographs to fill in the missing scenes, but he could not raise the budget through the LA County Museum.
- #005
After filming was completed, Judy Garland stole some furniture from the film sets and brought it home. Producer Jack L. Warner found out when he invited her over after the film's premiere.
- #006
The film contained some ironic parallels with the real lives of its two leads. Norman Maine is a former actor who has fallen into substance addiction. This contrasts sharply with James Mason, who worked steadily until his death. In real life it was Judy Garland whose career shared that fate. She even suffered disappointment on Oscar night when she lost the award to Grace Kelly. But like his character, Mason also discovered another actor whose successful career he helped launch: Sam Neill.
- #007
At first the limitations of working in CinemaScope were an obstacle for George Cukor. The new system came with a set of rules about what would and would not work. So-called experts advised against certain camera movements, certain colors, tight close-ups and too much fast cutting. In the end he and his two advisers on the film, production designer Gene Allen and color consultant George Hoyningen-Huene, decided to ignore the rules and invent new ones as they went along. As a result, this was one of the first films to use the CinemaScope process in a genuinely creative way.
- #008
The world premiere of the restored version was held on July 7, 1983, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The audience began applauding the moment the lost musical numbers appeared. In the end the audience gave the film a standing ovation. Judy Garland's daughters Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft were also in the audience. They later had to be taken to a dressing room, where it took them 20 minutes to stop crying.
- #009
Stewart Granger was for a time a leading contender for the role of Norman Maine, but he backed out when he could not get used to George Cukor's habit of acting out scenes as a method of directing.
- #010
Frank Sinatra was considered for the role of Norman Maine but was thought to be box office poison at the time. Only Judy Garland and her husband wanted him in the film.
- #011
Cary Grant initially accepted the role of Norman Maine, then turned it down citing his semi-retirement. After Grant's death, his widow revealed that Garland's drug addiction had caused the actor to think twice and withdraw from the film.
- #012
Judy Garland did not attend the 1955 Oscars, where she was nominated for Best Actress for the role of Vicki Lester, because she was still in the hospital after giving birth to her third child and only son, Joey Luft.
- #013
James Mason on the claim that A Star Is Born (1937) is superior: "Ours got a bit out of balance because it focused on the activities of a musical artist, the less important of the two characters — but ours survived and ours became a classic because Judy Garland was an extraordinary actress… It's a great film and I always watch it when it comes on television."
- #014
After filming the Oscar scene in which Esther/Vicki is accidentally slapped by a drunken Norman Maine, Judy Garland's entire face was bruised.
- #015
Norman Maine gives Esther Blodgett the name 'Ellen Terry.' Ellen Terry (1847-1928, made a Dame in 1925) was an English stage actress who became Britain's leading Shakespearean actress in the late 19th century and also appeared in plays by Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw and many others. She was also the aunt of actor John Gielgud, who worked with Mason in Julius Caesar (1953), with his protégé Sam Neill in Merlin (1998) and, most notably, with Judy Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli in Arthur (1981).
- #016
When Judy Garland was ill, she did not always rest at home. She would take a day off, and then George Cukor would read in Louella Parsons' column that she had spent the night singing at a nightclub. She would leave early and go to the races. None of this reached the press. Instead, the Warners public relations department attributed the delays to Garland's relentless perfectionism.
- #017
Judy Garland and James Mason became such good friends that Liza Minnelli asked him to deliver the eulogy at her mother's funeral in 1969.
- #018
The moment when Esther's widow's veil is torn from her face by a fan at a funeral was imitated in real life in 1958. Elizabeth Taylor was traumatized during the graveside service for her husband Mike Todd (who died in a plane crash) when one of her fans thoughtlessly tore the widow's veil from Taylor's face.
- #019
Judy Garland and Sidney Luft were devastated by the film's box office failure. Both Jack and Harry M. Warner had invested money in Luft in exchange for a share of the profits. When they saw no return of their money from ticket sales, both sued Luft to recover their money, and the Lufts' contract with Warners for future pictures was cancelled.
- #020
The New York premiere was so large that it had to be held in two theaters, the Victoria and the Capitol.
- #021
The film's premiere at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles was the event of the year, attended by Judy Garland, James Mason, studio head Jack L. Warner and Jack Carson (who served as MC of the premiere), along with dozens of A-list stars.
- #022
Judy Garland was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress and James Mason for Best Actor. These two nominations marked the first time in Oscar history that two people in the same film were nominated for roles in which different performers had previously been Oscar-nominated: Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in the 1937 version.
- #023
It would be six years before Judy Garland made another film, an equally acclaimed performance in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).
- #024
George Cukor died before he could see the restored version.
- #025
Montgomery Clift turned down the role of Norman Maine because he felt the subject was too close to him.
- #026
At the age of 20, Judy Garland had first played the role of Vicki Lester/Esther Blodgett in a one-hour "Lux Radio Theatre" adaptation of the original 1937 film. In the songless CBS broadcast of 28 December 1942, she shared the lead with Walter Pidgeon as Norman Maine.
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