Check Out New Images From ‘Judy,’ the Renée Zellweger-Starring Biopic of Judy Garland

Mickey Deans was a Manhattan nightclub piano player who met Judy in 1966 at her New York hotel. According to reports, a friend had asked him to bring some stimulants to her, which is how they first got to know each other.

Judy’s marriage to husband No. 4, Mark Herron, was in the decline when she and Mickey began to date off and on. They would eventually be married in London on March 15, 1969.

Biography.com paints a sad portrait of Judy at that time, noting, “Deans, 12 years Garland’s junior, was a musician and former disco manager. At the time of their marriage Garland told reporters, ‘Finally, finally, I am loved.’ In her book Me and My Shadows: Living With the Legacy of Judy Garland, daughter Lorna writes that when her mother married Deans, she was in the final stages of prescription drug addiction and ‘was dying in front of his eyes.’ [She] describes Deans as the ‘dreadful man who became her husband. … I mean if she put an advertisement in a newspaper for the most unsuitable person to take care of her, she wouldn’t have had a better response. … I don’t know what possessed… well, I know what possessed her, because he gave in to her and he fed her all the things she wanted.”

It was Mickey who would ultimately find Judy’s lifeless body on June 22, 1969, in the house they were renting in London, the coroner ruling her death an accidental overdose. Whether or not Judy will go that far in the story is unknown, though it is not expected to.

Finn, the actor bringing Mickey to life on screen, was born October 28, 1984 as Peter “Finn” Wittrock Jr. He has an extensive background of stage, film and television appearances, though, interestingly, he learned quite a bit from the soap opera he costarred on, All My Children.

“You learn a lot about acting and being physical and being on stage,” the American Horror Story star told Interview, “but there is technical stuff on camera that you can’t learn until you do it. I became pretty diligent about watching myself on a soap opera and it was an education. You have 35 scenes to shoot a day and you also don’t have very much time to learn your lines, so you’re making a choice, you’re following your instinct, you’re doing it, you’re hitting your mark, and if nothing fucks up — if there’s no boom in the shot — then you basically move on. You have to learn how to make a choice and commit to it, and also how to work on the go.  I think it was a really valuable thing for me starting in the film and television world.”

Look for Judy in theaters beginning September 27.