Elizabeth Taylor

For other people named Elizabeth Taylor, see Elizabeth Taylor (disambiguation).

Elizabeth Taylor
From the trailer of Giant, 1956
Born	Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
Other names	Liz Taylor
Years active	1941 - 2001
Spouse(s)	Conrad Hilton Jr. (1950-1951) Michael Wilding (1952-1957) Michael Todd (1957-1958) Eddie Fisher (1959-1964) Richard Burton (1964-1974) Richard Burton (1975-1976) John Warner (1976-1982) Larry Fortensky (1991-1996)
Children	Michael Wilding Jr. (b.1953) Christopher Edward Wilding (b.1955) Liza Todd Burton (b.1957) Maria Burton (b.1961)
Parent(s)	Francis Lenn Taylor (1897-1968) Sara Sothern (1895-1994)
Awards	NYFCC Award for Best Actress 1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? NBR Award for Best Actress 1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actress 1972 Hammersmith Is Out AFI Life Achievement Award 1993 Lifetime Achievement

File:TAYLORF2.jpg

1950's classic Elizabeth Taylor glamour pose publicity shot. Photo:Howard Frank Archives.Template:Unverifiedimage

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (born 27 February 1932) is a two-time Academy Award-winning English American actress. Known for her acting skills and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle including many marriages, she is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood’s golden years, as well as a larger-than-life celebrity.

The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.

Biography

Life and career

Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of north-west London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897 – 1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1896 – 1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929.

Her two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond. Taylor was born both a British subject and an American citizen, the former by being born on British soil under the principle of Jus soli, and the latter through her parents under the principle of Jus sanguinis.

Both of her American parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was Sara Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York. In popular accounts, Taylor's father has been portrayed as a weak figure who always capitulated to her mother.

At the age of three, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. Shortly after the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, while her father remained in London to wrap up matters in the art business. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.

Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine for Universal. They let her contract drop, and she was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first movie with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), which drew favorable attention. That movie starred child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Elizabeth would share a lifelong friendship. After a few more movies, the second on loan-out to 20th Century Fox, she appeared in her first leading role and achieved child star status playing Velvet Brown, a young girl who trains a horse to win the Grand National in Clarence Brown's movie National Velvet (1944) with Mickey Rooney. National Velvet was a big hit, grossing over US$4  million at the box-office, and she was signed to a long-term contract. Gene Tierney originally was offered the role in MGM's National Velvet but production was delayed so Tierney signed with Fox. The rest is Hollywood history.

She attended school on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot and received a diploma from University High School in Los Angeles on January 26, 1950, the same year she was first married at age 18.

Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performances in BUtterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher, and again for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film) (1966), which co-starred then-husband Richard Burton and the Supporting Actress Oscar-winner, Sandy Dennis.

Taylor was nominated for Raintree County (1957) with Montgomery Clift, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.

In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time when she accepted US$1 million to play the title role in the lavish production of Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. It was during the filming of that movie that she worked for the first time with future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony. Movie magazines, the forerunners of today's tabloids, had a field day when Taylor and Burton began an affair during filming; both stars were married to other people at the time. She was even accused by a Vatican newspaper of having descended into "erotic vagrancy." A lot of people thought of Elizabeth Taylor as a "Scarlet Woman." She and many others disagreed with that strongly. Richard Burton was quoted as saying: "You'd be surprised at the morals of many women stars who are regarded by the public as goody-two-shoes. They leap into bed with any male in grabbing distance. That's what makes me mad when I read stuff hinting Liz is a scarlet woman because she's been married five times. She's only had five men in her life whereas those goody-two-shoes have lost count."

She has also appeared a number of times on television, including the 1973 made-for-TV movie with then husband Richard Burton, titled Divorce His - Divorce Hers. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper, and also appeared in the mini-series North and South. In 2001, she played an agent in These Old Broads. She has also appeared on a number of other TV shows, including the soap operas General Hospital and All My Children and the animated The Simpsons; once as herself, and the other as the voice of Maggie.

Taylor has also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton Taylor Theatre in Oxford was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of the Marlowe play. Elizabeth Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by Faustus to 'make [him] immortal with a kiss'.

Marriages

Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands:

• Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (May 6, 1950 - January 29, 1951) (divorced)

• Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952 - January 26, 1957) (divorced)

• Michael Todd (February 2, 1957 - March 22, 1958) (widowed)

• Eddie Fisher (May 12, 1959 - March 6, 1964) (divorced)

• Richard Burton (March 15, 1964 - June 26, 1974) (divorced)

• Richard Burton (again) (October 10, 1975 - July 29, 1976) (divorced)

• John Warner (December 4, 1976 - November 7, 1982) (divorced)

• Larry Fortensky (October 6, 1991 - October 31, 1996) (divorced)

Relationship with parents

Taylor's mother Sara was a very strong-willed woman who had her own opinions about Elizabeth's life. She had similarly exerted her influence on her husband Francis, a shy and retiring man whom she attempted to mold into a confident, outgoing man. Taylor was never truly allowed to bond with her father, who was by and large a peripheral figure in a life dominated by her mother and her mother's obsession with public image. Even in 1968 when her father died and Taylor began crying at the funeral, her mother intervened. 'But I'm not crying dear. If a man's widow isn't crying it isn't good for others to do so. It makes me seem unfeeling.'

Her mother also exerted influence on Taylor's life well into adulthood. After her marriage to Warner ended, with her weight ballooning she intervened at first with cruel prods and then by arranging a tea party. At this tea party her mother asked each of the elderly guests when they last felt they could've been described as gorgeous.

Finally she turned to her daughter and enquired 'How about you dear?' There was an uncomfortable pause before Taylor replied 'My moment is yet to come, Mother.' Sara Taylor raised her glass and said 'I knew it! You'll be beautiful again! Prove them all fools.' She continued 'And if you avoid letting it slip in the first place you'll save us both a lot of trouble.'

Sara's pride in Taylor though, knew no bounds. Her house was covered with photos of Taylor in her prime and she used to demand of visitors 'Look at my daughter. Now if she is not the most beautiful woman in the world I don't know who is.'

Despite their often difficult relationship, Sara was always her daughter's biggest champion and when she died in 1994, Taylor was devastated. In 2000 when Taylor was made a Dame of the British Empire she raised a glass of sparkling cider and made a toast

There's a woman who deserves our deepest appreciation because if it weren't for her we'd all be somewhere else right now. Let's all drink to my mother Sara Taylor.

A guest shouted 'Hear, hear!'; however, Taylor then commanded

No! Let's drink to two things. To my mother and forgiveness.

Children

Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (b. January 6, 1953), and Christopher Edward Wilding (b. February 27, 1955). She and Todd had one daughter, Elizabeth Frances Todd, called "Liza," (b. August 6, 1957). And in 1964, she and Fisher started adoption proceedings for a daughter, whom Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (b. August 1, 1961). She became a grandmother on August 25, 1971 at age 39.

Other interests

Taylor and Bette Davis on a show that was celebrating Taylor's life, late 1981, image by Alan Light

Taylor has a passion for jewelry. Over the years she has owned a number of well known pieces, two of the most talked about being the 33.19 carat (6.638 g) Krupp Diamond and the 69.42 carat (13.884 g) pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond, which were among many gifts from husband Richard Burton. Taylor also owns the 50 carat La Peregrina Pearl, purchased by Burton as a Valentine's day present in 1969. The pearl was formerly owned by Mary I of England, and Burton sought a portrait of Queen Mary wearing the pearl. Upon the purchase of the painting, the Burtons discovered that the British National Portrait Gallery did not have an original painting of Mary, so they donated the painting to the Gallery . Her enduring collection of jewelry has been eternalized with her book My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002).

In 2005, she partnered with Jack and Monty Abramov of Mirabelle Luxury Concepts in Los Angeles to introduce the House of Taylor Jewelry. In 2005, House of Taylor Jewelry formed a partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a design-and-marketing firm with more than US$1 billion in annual sales. She has also launched three perfumes, "Passion," "White Diamonds," and "Black Pearls," that together earn an estimated US$200 million in annual sales. In the Fall of 2006, Dame Elizabeth Taylor celebrated the 15th anniversary of her White Diamonds perfume, one of the top-10 best selling fragrances for more than the past decade.

Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson. She also created her own AIDS foundation, Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF). By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease.

Recently, in the year 2006, Taylor donated US$40,000 to the AIDS New Orleans Aids task force, a charity designed for the New Orleans population with AIDS and HIV. The NO/AIDS task force estimated that about 7,400 residents were infected with HIV before Hurricane Katrina. Taylor and Macy's donated a 37 ft "CareVa," equipped with examination tables and X-Ray equipment.

In the early 1980s she moved to Bel-Air, which is her current home. The fenced and gated property is on tour maps sold at street corners and is frequently passed by tour guides.

Taylor was also a fan of the soap opera General Hospital. In fact, she was cast as the first Helena Cassadine, matriarch of the Cassadine family.

Taylor is a supporter of Kabbalah and member of the Kabbalah Centre. She encouraged friend Michael Jackson to wear a red string as protection from the evil-eye during his 2005 trial for molestation, where he was eventually cleared of all charges. Back in 1997, Jackson presented Taylor with exclusively written to her epic 'Elizabeth, I Love You' song, performed on the day of her 65th anniversary celebration.

In October 2007, she won a legal battle over a Vincent van Gogh painting in her possession when the US Supreme Court refused to reconsider a legal suit filed by four persons claiming that the artwork belongs to one of their Jewish ancestors.

List of awards and honours for Elizabeth Taylor

1957

• Golden Globe Award, Special Achievement Award

1958

• Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Raintree County

1959

• Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

1960

• Academy Award, Best Actress: Butterfield 8
• Golden Globe Award, Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama): Suddenly, Last Summer
• Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Suddenly Last Summer

1965

• Golden Laurel Award, Female Star

1966

• Academy Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• New York City Film Critics Circle Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1967

• BAFTA Award, Best British Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (UK)
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• National Board of Review, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (USA)

1972

• Silver Berlin Bear Award, Berlin International Film Festival, Best Actress: Hammersmith Is Out (Germany)

• David Di Donatello Award, Best Foreign Actress: Zee and Co. (Italy)

1977

• Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year Award, Harvard University

1985

• Golden Globe Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement
• Golden Apple Award, Female Star of the Year
• Woman In Film Crystal Award

1992

• Academy Award, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

1993

• American Film Institute, Lifetime Achievement Award

1997

• Screen Actors Guild, Lifetime Achievement Award

1999

• declared a Dame Commander of the British Empire (UK)
• awarded Academy Fellowship, British Academy of Film and Television Arts

2000

• The Vanguard Award, GLAAD Media Awards (USA)

2001

• President’s Citizens Medal (USA)
• Maverick Award, Taos Talking Picture Festival (USA)

2002

• Kennedy Center Honoree, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

2005

• BAFTA Award, Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment (UK)

Recent years

In November 2004, Taylor announced that she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart pumps insufficient amounts of blood throughout the body. She has broken her back five times, had both her hips replaced, survived a benign brain tumor operation, skin cancer, and has faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice. She is reclusive and sometimes fails to make scheduled appearances due to illness or other personal reasons. She now uses a wheelchair and when asked about it she said that she has osteoporosis and was born with scoliosis.

In 2005 she was a vocal supporter of her friend Michael Jackson in his trial in California on charges of sexually abusing a child. He was acquitted.

In recent years, Taylor reportedly became closely attached to her pet dog, saying that she went nowhere without her little Maltese named Sugar. In an interview with American magazine W, Taylor said she was happiest while with husbands Todd and Burton, but now has to be content with Sugar for company. She explains, "I've never loved a dog like this in my life. It's amazing. Sometimes I think there's a person in there. There's something to say for this kind of love - it's unconditional." In June 2005, Taylor's beloved dog Sugar died. However, several months later (in September) she purchased a descendant of Sugar which she named Daisy.

It was reported on April 27 2006 that Taylor was close to death. This was quickly denied by Taylor's publicist, Dick Guttman. "Dick Guttman says that he can refute every allegation in these published reports. In fact, he says they didn't get anything right. Guttman says Taylor has a very busy life, with her successful perfume and jewelry lines and the work she does for the fight against AIDS." On May 30, 2006, she appeared on Larry King Live to refute the claims that she has been ill, and denied the allegations that she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was close to death.

In late August 2006 Taylor decided to take a boating trip to help prove that she was not even close to death. She also decided to make Christie's auction house the primary place where she will sell her jewelry, artwork, clothing, furniture, and memorabilia (September 2006).

In October 2006, it was widely reported that Taylor would be marrying her constant companion, artist Firooz Zahedi, 17 years her junior. Taylor responded by asserting that she and Zahedi "never have been and will never be romantically involved."

The February 2007 issue of Interview magazine devoted itself entirely to Elizabeth Taylor--a celebration of her life, career and her upcoming seventy-fifth birthday.

On August 20, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Elizabeth Taylor will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame this December 5, 2007 located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts in Sacramento.

She was in news once more recently for a rumored 9th marriage to her constant companion Jason Winters. This has been dismissed as a rumour. However she is quoted as saying, "Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I've ever known and that's why I love him. He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii and we visit it as often as possible," to celebrated gossip columnist Liz Smith. Jason Winters also accompanied her to Macy's Passport 2007 where she was honored with the Humanitarian Award.

On December 1, 2007, Taylor and James Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of the the A.R. Gurney play Love Letters, to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500 and more than 500 people attended. This event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot that night, to allow for the performance.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1942	There's One Born Every Minute	Gloria Twine
1943	Lassie Come Home	Priscilla
1944	Jane Eyre	Helen Burns	uncredited
	The White Cliffs of Dover	Betsy	uncredited
	National Velvet	Velvet Brown
1946	Courage of Lassie	Katherine Eleanor Merrick
1947	Life with Father	Mary Skinner
	Cynthia	Cynthia Bishop
1948	A Date with Judy	Carol Pringle
	Julia Misbehaves	Susan Packett
1949	Little Women	Amy
	Conspirator	Melinda Greyton
1950	The Big Hangover	Mary Belney
	Father of the Bride	Kay Banks
1951	Father's Little Dividend	Kay Dunstan
	A Place in the Sun	Angela Vickers
	Quo Vadis	Christian prisoner in arena	uncredited
1952	Love Is Better Than Ever	Anastacia "Stacie" Macaboy
	Ivanhoe	Rebecca
1953	The Girl Who Had Everything	Jean Latimer
1954	Rhapsody	Louise Durant
	Elephant Walk	Ruth Wiley
	Beau Brummell	Lady Patricia Belham
	The Last Time I Saw Paris	Helen Ellswirth/Willis
1956	Giant	Leslie Lynnton Benedict
1957	Raintree County	Susanna Drake	Academy Award nomination - Best Actress
1958	Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	Maggie the Cat	Academy Award nomination - Best Actress
1959	Suddenly Last Summer	Catherine Holly	Academy Award nomination - Best Actress
1960	Scent of Mystery	The Real Sally	uncredited
	Butterfield 8	Gloria Wandrous	Academy Award - Best Actress
1963	Cleopatra	Cleopatra
	The V.I.P.s	Frances Andros
1965	The Sandpiper	Laura Reynolds
1966	Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?	Martha	Academy Award - Best Actress
1967	The Taming of the Shrew	Katharina
	Doctor Faustus	Helen of Troy
	Reflections in a Golden Eye	Lenora Penderton
	The Comedians	Martha Pineda
1968	Boom!	Flora 'Sissy' Goforth
	Secret Ceremony	Lenora
1969	Anne of the Thousand Days	Courtesan	uncredited
1970	The Only Game in Town	Fran Walker
1972	X,Y, and Zee	Zee Blakely
	Under Milk Wood	Rosie Probert
	Hammersmith Is Out	Jimmie Jean Jackson
1973	Divorce His - Divorce Hers	Jane Reynolds
	Night Watch	Ellen Wheeler
	Ash Wednesday - film	Barbara Sawyer
1974	Identikit	Lise	Also known as The Driver's Seat
1976	The Blue Bird	Queen of Light/Mother/Witch/Maternal Love
	Victory at Entebbe	Edra Vilonfsky
1977	A Little Night Music	Desiree Armfeldt
1978	Return Engagement	Dr. Emily Loomis
1979	Winter Kills	Lola Comante	uncredited
1980	The Mirror Crack'd	Marina Rudd
1981	General Hospital	Helena Cassadine	cameo appearance coinciding with the wedding of Luke and Laura
1983	Between Friends	Deborah Shapiro
1985	Malice in Wonderland	Louella Parsons
	North and South	Madame Conti
1986	There Must Be a Pony	Marguerite Sydney
1987	Poker Alice	Alice Moffit
1988	Young Toscanini	Nadina Bulichoff
1989	Sweet Bird of Youth	Alexandra Del Lago
1994	The Flintstones	Pearl Slaghoople
2001	These Old Broads	Beryl Mason

Other appearances

Other appearances have included: Elizabeth Taylor in London in 1963, Around the World of Mike Todd in 1968, an episode of Here's Lucy, interviews with David Frost, Barbara Walters, Phil Donahue and Larry King, various profiles of Michael Jackson, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.She did the voice of Maggie Simpson in Lisa's First Word, and also did an appearance in the episode Krusty gets Kancelled

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See also

• List of notable brain tumor patients

References

• "Ailing Liz Taylor is 'close to death'". Retrieved April 27 2006, since refuted by publicist
• Diamond Bug. "Elizabeth Taylor's life-long love affair with Jewelry". Retrieved May 15 2005.
• "Liz takes centre stage". (6 November 2005). New Sunday Times, p. 29.
• "Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Kors talk fashion". (August 2006) [Harper's Bazaar], , pg. 116.

External links

• Elizabeth Taylor at the Internet Broadway Database
• Elizabeth Taylor at IMDb
• Elizabeth Taylor at the TCM Movie Database
• Profile @ Turner Classic Movies
• Elizabeth Taylor Fan
• Elizabeth Taylor Resource Extensive biography, separate entries for each film, TV, stage, news archive, photographs, etc.
• Kennedy Center bio. for Elizabeth Taylor
• American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)
• Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF)
• Elizabeth Taylor interviewed by Ginny Dougary (1999)
• Ship Manifest Entries for Elizabeth Taylor Shows Taylor arriving in the United States on various ships, including with her parents, and husbands Hilton and Wilding