- Invented the crab dolly, a camera dolly on wheels that can move the camera in any direction.
- Had 2 daughters: Liza Minnelli (b. March 12, 1946) with 1st ex-wife, Judy Garland & Christiane Nina Minnelli (b. May 20, 1955) with 2nd ex-wife, Georgette Martell.
- Directed seven different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Spencer Tracy, Gloria Grahame, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine and Martha Hyer. Grahame and Quinn won Oscars for their performances.
- Owns the record at the Radio City Music Hall. 17 of his films played for a record 85 weeks. Although director John Cromwell had 18 films booked into the prestigious house, his films only played a total of 36 weeks.
- Is portrayed by Hugh Laurie in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001).
- Four of his movies were nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs: The Pirate (1948), Father of the Bride (1950), The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and Designing Woman (1957). 'Father of the Bride' made the list at #83.
- Extremely shy, he had an intense dislike of being interviewed, and was usually terse and monosyllabic in his responses, although almost always polite.
- Insisted on using a shade of yellow in the design of his sets that had to be specially mixed. MGM painters began calling it "Minnelli Yellow."
- Was voted the 20th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- He has directed six films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Cabin in the Sky (1943), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Gigi (1958).
- One of the few Hollywood studio directors who can truly be said to have an unmistakable mise-en-scene. Minnelli was at first a set and costume designer before being allowed to direct by Arthur Freed, head of the MGM musical unit. His visual touch in Technicolor is sometimes garish, some might say close to vulgar, but in his best work (Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)) every visual element is a reflection of his singularly original visual talent.
- Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967.
- When he was signed to MGM, he was allowed to apprentice for a year on the lot. By the time he started directing, he knew every department at the studio.
- He directed two Best Picture Academy Award winners: An American in Paris (1951) and Gigi (1958).
- His widow was his companion for a long time before their 1980 marriage.
- Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Triumphant Faith Terraces area.
- He was the son of Marie Émilie Odile (Lebeau) and Vincent Charles Minnelli. His father was of Italian Sicilian descent on one side, and English and Scottish lineage on the other, and his mother's ancestry was French-Canadian.
- Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 778-787. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 632-633. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
- He and Liza Minnelli are the only father and daughter in films to have worked together,.
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