From child star to a gorgeous
beloved actress, Elizabeth Taylor has received 5 Best Actress nominations over the years and has won two Oscars.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London, England on February 27, 1932. Her parents were art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri. Her father went to London to set up a gallery. Taylor lived in London for her first seven years, until a war seemed close to arrival in 1939, and the family moved to Los Angeles, California. A family friend thought Elizabeth strikingly attractive and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. She was quickly signed to a contract with Universal Studios.
Her film debut was in “There’s One Born Every Minute” in 1942, when she was 10 years old. Taylor was switched to an MGM contract and the first production she made with them was “Lassie Come Home” in 1943. She starred in several following that, and soon came the film “National Velvet,” which made Elizabeth a star. She played Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney, and the film was a huge success.
Several successful films followed, including “Life With Father,” which she co-starred in with Irene Dunne, “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” and “Giant,” co-starring James Dean, who died before the film was released. Her next huge hit was when she played the role of Maggie Pollitt in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” which she was nominated for an Academy Award for. In 1959, she again appeared in another Tennessee Williams pieced turned into film, “Suddenly, Last Summer,” which went over very well.
In 1963 Taylor starred in the blockbuster “Cleopatra,” which was the film she met her future (and fifth) husband, Richard Burton, at. The four husbands previous to Burton were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd (who perished in a plane crash), and Eddie Fisher. She divorced Richard Burton in 1974, they remarried in 1975, and divorced for the final time in 1976. Since then she has had two other husbands, Senator John Warner and Larry Fortensky.
A number of her films following “Cleopatra” were mediocre, but Taylor came back with her brilliant, biting performance as Martha in 1966's “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She won her second Oscar for this role. Since then she has appeared in numerous films and television shows, including “General Hospital,” "Days of Our Lives" and “North and South.” Her last film was in 1994’s “The Flinstones.”
In February 1997, Taylor had a brain tumor removed.
Some of her film credits include:
“Ash Wednesday”
“Under Milk Wood”
“Hammersmith Is Out”
“The Only Game in Town”
“Anne of the Thousand Days”
“Reflections in a Golden Eye”
“The Comedians”
“Doctor Faustus”
“The Love Goddesses”
“The Sandpiper”
“The Big Sur”
“Butterfield 8”
“Raintree County”
“Elephant Walk”
“Rhapsody”
“The Girl Who Had Everything”
“Ivanhoe”
“Father of the Bride”
“Little Women”
“Conspirator”
“Cynthia”
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