Elizabeth Taylor

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

Dame Elizabeth Taylor DBE
Studio publicity photo
Born	Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (1932-02-27)February 27, 1932 London, England, UK
Died	March 23, 2011(2011-03-23) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Citizenship	British and American
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1942–2003
Spouses	Conrad Hilton, Jr. ​ ​ (m. 1950; div. 1951)​ Michael Wilding ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1957)​ Mike Todd (m. 1957–58; his death) Eddie Fisher ​ ​ (m. 1959; div. 1964)​ Richard Burton ​ ​ (m. 1964; div. 1974)​ & (m. 1975; div. 1976) John Warner ​ ​ (m. 1976; div. 1982)​ Larry Fortensky ​ ​ (m. 1991; div. 1996)​
Children	4
Awards	Full list
Website	elizabethtaylor.com

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress, businesswoman and humanitarian. Beginning as a child star with MGM in the 1940s, she became a screen actress during Hollywood's Golden Age. She appeared in more than 50 films, playing mostly dramatic roles, and won two Academy Awards for Best Actress.

Taylor's screen debut was in the film National Velvet (1944) at the age of 12. Her career grew and she would later go on to star in such films as Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama . She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and famously married her co-star Richard Burton after leaving her husband of five years, Eddie Fisher. She and Burton appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. From the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made occasional appearances in television and theatre.

Her much-publicized personal life consisted of eight marriages, seven husbands (she married Burton twice) and several life-threatening illnesses throughout her extraordinary career. From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Legion of Honour, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, who named her seventh on their list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Taylor died from congestive heart failure in March 2011 at the age of 79, having suffered many years of ill health.

Early life

Adolescent Taylor with her parents at the Stork Club in New York in 1947

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932 at Heathwood, her family's home on 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. She received dual citizenship at birth, as her parents, art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and retired stage actress Sara Sothern (née Sara Viola Warmbrodt, 1895–1994), were United States citizens, both originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. They moved to London in 1929 and opened a gallery on Bond Street; their first child, a son named Howard, was born the same year.

The Taylors' upper-class life in London was little affected by the Great Depression. Taylor was enrolled in Byron House, a Montessori school in Highgate. The family's friends included artists such as Augustus John and Laura Knight, and MP Colonel Victor Cazalet. Cazalet was Taylor's unofficial godfather and an important influence in her early life. He was also a lay preacher of Christian Science, a religious movement, which teachings Sara Taylor adhered to and according to which she raised her children.

Although the Taylors had wished to make England their permanent home, they decided to return to the United States in the spring of 1939, after Cazalet warned them about the coming war against Germany. Sara Taylor and the children traveled first on board the S.S. Manhattan in April 1939; Francis stayed behind in London to take care of the shipping of the gallery's art works. After arriving in the U.S., Sara and the children temporarily moved in with Taylor's maternal grandfather in Pasadena, California. Francis arrived in California in December, and opened an art gallery in Los Angeles in early 1940, first at the Château Élysée Hotel, and some months later moving it to the The Beverly Hills Hotel. After briefly living in Pacific Palisades, the family settled in Beverly Hills, where Taylor and her brother were enrolled in Hawthorne School.

Acting career

Career beginnings (1941–1943)

In Los Angeles, Taylor's mother was frequently told that her "beautiful" daughter should audition for film roles. One of Taylor's features which had drawn attention since her early childhood was her eyes; they were deep blue to the extent of appearing violet, and were rimmed by dark double eyelashes, caused by a genetic mutation. Sara initially disliked the idea of Taylor appearing in films, but after the war made it clear that the family would not be returning to England, she changed her mind and began viewing the film industry as a way of assimilating to American society. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, a friend of the Cazalets, attended the Beverly Hills gallery opening in 1940, and subsequently wrote about it in her column, also mentioning Taylor. Hopper's endorsement brought the gallery clients from the film industry; one of them, Andrea Berens, was the fiancée of Universal Pictures' head executive John Cheever Cowdin, and arranged an audition with the studio in early 1941. Around the same time, Taylor also received an audition with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer through one of her school friends, whose father was a studio producer.

Taylor as a child

Both studios offered Taylor a contract. While she preferred MGM, her mother decided to accept Universal's offer, and the studio signed Taylor for a seven-year contract in April 1941. She appeared in a small role in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), but was not cast in other films and her contract was terminated in March 1942. While the exact reason for the termination is unknown, the studio's casting director allegedly disliked her, stating that "the kid has nothing... her eyes are too old, she doesn't have the face of a child". Biographer Alexander Walker agrees that Taylor appeared older than her age, and looked different from popular child stars of the era, such as Shirley Temple and Judy Garland. Taylor herself stated that she was often called an "old soul" as a child, and that "apparently I used to frighten grown ups, because I was totally direct."

Taylor received another opportunity in October 1942, when her father's acquaintance, MGM producer Samuel Marx, arranged an audition for a minor role in Lassie Come Home (1943). The part required an actress with a British accent; while Taylor had quickly learned an American accent following the move to the U.S., she could still easily switch back when necessary. The audition was successful and she was given a three-month "test option" contract, which was upgraded to a standard seven-year contract in January 1943. After Lassie, she appeared in minor uncredited roles in two other films set in Britain, Jane Eyre (1943) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

Adolescent star (1944–1949)

Taylor with co-star Mickey Rooney in National Velvet (1944), her first major film role

Taylor had her first starring role aged twelve, when she was cast in National Velvet (1944) as a girl who wants to compete in the Grand National despite its ban on female jockeys. She later called it "the most exciting film" of her career. MGM had been looking for a suitable actress with a British accent and the ability to ride horses since 1937. Taylor was cast at the recommendation of director Clarence Brown, who had previously worked with her in White Cliffs and knew she had the required skills. As she was deemed too short, filming was pushed back several months to allow her to grow. During this time, Taylor practiced riding daily. She fractured her spine in a fall, but the injury went unnoticed for several years. In developing Taylor into a leading actress, MGM made some changes to her looks. She had to wear braces to correct her teeth, and had two of her baby teeth pulled out. The studio also wanted to dye her hair and change the shape of her eyebrows, and proposed that she use the screen name "Virginia", but Taylor and her parents refused. According to Walker, the experience marked the beginning of Taylor's years as MGM's "chattel".

National Velvet became a box office success upon its release on Christmas 1944. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times stated that "her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace", while James Agee of The Nation wrote that she "is rapturously beautiful ... I hardly know or care whether she can act or not."

In January 1946, Taylor signed a new seven-year contract with MGM, with a weekly salary of $750. Following the success of National Velvet, the studio decided that her public image should be constructed around her adoration of animals, and next cast her in a minor role in the third film of the Lassie series, Courage of Lassie (1946). The studio also published a book of Taylor's writings about her pet chipmunk, Nibbles and Me (1946), and had paper dolls and coloring books made after her.

Taylor in Modern Screen in 1948

During her teenage years, the studio controlled every aspect of Taylor's life; according to Walker, she had "no freedom outside the studio gates; or even inside them." Taylor followed a strict daily schedule. During the day, she attended school and filmed scenes on the MGM lot, and her evenings were spent in dancing and singing classes and in practising the following day's scenes. Taylor later described MGM as a "big extended factory" that "promoted [her] for their pockets". She also stated that she was happier before she began her film career, and that she "had no real childhood" after becoming a star.

MGM began to construct a more mature image for Taylor after she turned fifteen in 1947. The studio organized public appearances, interviews and photo shoots which portrayed her at parties and on dates. Life called her "Hollywood's most accomplished junior actress" for her two film appearances in 1947. The first was the drama Cynthia, which starred her as a frail girl who defies her overprotective parents to go to prom. The second was Michael Curtiz's critically and commercially successful period film Life with Father, in which she appeared opposite William Powell and Irene Dunne. She was loaned to Warner Bros. for the film; the studio paid her $3,500 per week, several times her regular MGM salary.

As Taylor developed into a young woman, film magazines and gossip columnists began comparing her to older actresses such as Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. MGM next cast her in A Date with Judy (1948) as a teenage "man-stealer" who seduces her peer's date to a high school dance. Her other film role that year was as a bride in Julia Misbehaves (1948), which starred Greer Garson and became a commercial success upon its release in August, grossing over $4 million. Taylor's last adolescent role was as Amy March in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Women (1949). While it did not match the popularity of the previous 1933 film adaptation of Louisa M. Alcott's novel, it was a box office success.

Transition to adult roles (1950–1951)

Taylor's transition to adult roles was relatively easy. Already in 1949, Time had featured her on its cover, and in the accompanying article called her "a jewel of great price, a true sapphire", and the leader among Hollywood's next generation of stars. Her first mature role was in the thriller Conspirator (1950), in which she played a young wife, who begins to suspect that her husband, played by Robert Taylor, is a Soviet spy. It was filmed in England when Taylor was still only sixteen, but its release was delayed until March 1950, as MGM did not like it, and also feared it could cause diplomatic problems. Taylor's second film release of 1950 was the comedy The Big Hangover (1950), co-starring Van Johnson. It was released in May, and the same month, Taylor married hotel-chain heir Conrad Hilton, Jr. in a highly-publicized ceremony. The event was organized by MGM, and used as part of the publicity campaign for Taylor's next film, Vincente Minelli's comedy Father of the Bride (1950), in which she appeared opposite Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett as a bride preparing for her wedding. The film became a commercial success upon its release in June, grossing $6 million worldwide, and was followed by a successful sequel Father's Little Dividend (1951) ten months later.

File:Taylor-Clift-A Place in the Sun.jpg

With Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun (1951)

Taylor's next film release, George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), marked a departure from her earlier work. It was the first time since National Velvet that she received widespread critical praise for her performance, and according to her, was the first film in which she had even been asked to do any real acting. Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy (1925), it featured Taylor as a spoiled socialite who comes between a poor factory worker (Montgomery Clift) and his girlfriend (Shelley Winters). Stevens explained that he chose Taylor as the role required someone who was "not so much a real girl as the girl on the candy-box cover, the beautiful girl in the yellow Cadillac convertible that every American boy sometime or other thinks he can marry" and that Taylor was "the only one I was aware of who could create this illusion".

A Place in the Sun was a box office success, grossing $3 million, and was lauded especially for its main actors' performances. Herb Golden of Variety stated that Taylor's "the histrionics are of a quality so far beyond anything she has done previously, that Stevens’ skilled hands on the reins must be credited with a minor miracle" and A.H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that she gives "a shaded, tender performance and one in which her passionate and genuine romance avoids the bathos common to young love as it sometimes comes to the screen."

1952–1955

Taylor next starred in the romantic comedy Love Is Better Than Ever (1952). According to Walker, she was cast in the "B-picture" as a reprimand for causing a scandal when she divorced Hilton after only nine months of marriage. She was then sent to Britain to take part in the historical epic Ivanhoe (1952), one of the studio's most expensive projects in years. Taylor disliked the film; she thought it superficial and her role as Rebecca too small. Regardless, Ivanhoe became one of MGM's biggest commercial successes, earning $11 million in worldwide rentals. Taylor's last film made under her old contract was The Girl Who Had Everything (1953), a remake of the pre-code drama A Free Soul (1931).

After several months of negotiations, Taylor signed a new seven-year contract with MGM in the summer of 1952. Although she wanted more interesting roles, the decisive factor in continuing with the studio was her financial need; she had recently married British actor Michael Wilding and was pregnant with her first child. In addition to granting her a weekly salary of $4,700, MGM agreed to give the couple a loan for a house and signed Wilding for a three-year contract. Due to her financial dependency, the studio now had even more control over her than previously.

Taylor and Van Johnson in the romantic drama The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)

Taylor's first two films made under her new contract were released ten days apart in spring 1954. The first was the romantic film Rhapsody, starring her as a woman caught in a love triangle with two musicians. The second was the drama Elephant Walk, in which she played a British woman struggling to adapt to life on her husband's tea plantation in Ceylon. She had been loaned to Paramount Pictures for the film after its original star, Vivien Leigh, became ill.

In the fall, Taylor starred in two more film releases. Beau Brummell was a Regency era period film, another project in which she was cast against her will. Taylor disliked historical films, as their elaborate costumes and make-up required her to wake up earlier than usual to prepare. She also thought her performance was one of the worst of her career. The second film was Richard Brooks' The Last Time I Saw Paris, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story. Although she had wanted to be cast in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) instead, Taylor liked the film, and later stated that it "convinced me I wanted to be an actress instead of yawning my way through parts". While it was not as profitable as many other MGM films, it garnered positive reviews. Taylor became pregnant again during the production, and had to agree to add another year to her contract.

Critical acclaim (1956–1960)

Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant (1956)

By the mid-1950s, film studios were beginning to lose revenue due to television. In order to bring audiences back to the cinemas, they began concentrating on making fewer films of better quality; the change benefited Taylor, who finally began to get roles she found interesting. After having her second child, she was loaned to Warner Bros. for George Stevens' Giant (1956), an epic about a Texas ranching dynasty, which co-starred Rock Hudson and James Dean. The project was one of the most demanding Taylor had participated in. Stevens wanted to break her will to make her easier to direct, and his provocations led to clashes between them. She was also often ill, which caused delays in the production. Then, days after completing his part of the filming, Dean died in a car crash. Giant earned praise from the critics and became a box office success. Variety stated that Taylor gave "a surprisingly clever performance" and The Guardian called her one of the film's strongest assets, lauding her performance as "an astonishing revelation of unsuspected gifts".

MGM next reunited Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Raintree County (1957), a Civil War drama it hoped would replicate the success of Gone with the Wind (1939). Taylor found her role as a mentally disturbed Southern belle fascinating, but overall disliked the film. Although the film failed to become the type of success MGM had planned, Taylor was nominated for the first time for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Promotional poster for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Taylor considered her next performance as Maggie the Cat in the Tennessee Williams adaptation Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) a career "high point", although it coincided with one of the most difficult periods in her personal life. She had divorced Wilding after completing Raintree County and married producer Mike Todd. In March 1957, she had completed two weeks of filming on Cat when Todd was killed in an airplane crash. Despite her loss, MGM pressurized Taylor to return to work only three weeks later. She later stated that she "in a way ... became Maggie" and that acting "was the only time I could function" during that time.

Taylor's personal life drew further public attention when it became known that she was having an affair with singer Eddie Fisher. Fisher decided to divorce his wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, and marry Taylor. MGM used the scandal to promote the film by featuring Taylor in a negligée on a bed in the film's posters. Although the Fisher affair made her subject to public hatred, it did not affect the film negatively: it grossed $10 million in American cinemas alone and made Taylor the year's second most profitable star. She received positive reviews for her performance, with Crowther of The New York Times calling her "terrific" and Variety praising her for "a well-accented, perceptive interpretation". Taylor also received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA.

Taylor's next film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), was also an adaptation from a Tennessee Williams play. The independent production earned her $500,000 for playing the role of a severely traumatized patient in a mental institution. Although the film was a serious-minded drama, it was again promoted with Taylor's sex appeal; both its trailer and poster featured her in a white swimsuit. The strategy worked, as Suddenly became a financial success. It also gained Taylor a Golden Globe for Best Actress and a third Academy Award nomination.

By 1959, Taylor owed one more film for MGM, which it decided should be BUtterfield 8 (1960), a controversial story about a high-class prostitute. The studio correctly calculated that Taylor's public image as a "homewrecker" would make it easy for audiences to associate her with the role. She hated the film for the same reason, but had no choice in the matter, although the studio agreed to her demands of filming in New York and casting Eddie Fisher in a sympathetic role. As predicted, BUtterfield 8 was a major commercial success, grossing $18 million in world rentals. Crowther wrote that Taylor "looks like a million dollars, in mink or in negligée", while Variety stated that she gives "a torrid, stinging portrayal with one or two brilliantly executed passages within". She won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Cleopatra and hiatus (1961–1964)

Taylor in Cleopatra (1963)

Taylor's first film after finishing her MGM contract was 20th Century-Fox's historical epic Cleopatra (1963), in which she played the title role. In retrospect, she considered it a "low point" in her career; it received mixed to negative reviews and although it became the biggest commercial success of 1963, its production costs were greater than its profits. Nevertheless, its production made film history and dominated the headlines for nearly three years. Taylor became the first female star to be paid $1 million for a film role; Fox also granted her 10% of the film's profits and shot the film in Todd-AO, a widescreen format owned by Taylor, who had inherited its rights from Mike Todd.

Cleopatra also became famous for taking nearly two years to film, and for being the most expensive film made up to that point, nearly driving Fox to bankruptcy. Its filming began in England in 1960, but had to be halted several times due to bad weather and Taylor's ill health. In March 1961, she developed pneumonia, which proved nearly fatal and necessitated a tracheotomy to be performed. Once she had recovered, Fox discarded the already filmed material and moved the production to Rome, also changing its director to Joseph Mankiewicz and the actor playing Mark Antony to Richard Burton. Taylor and Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal.

Although neither had yet divorced their spouses, Taylor and Burton then starred in Anthony Asquith's The V.I.P.s (1963), which mirrored the headlines about them. Taylor played a famous model attempting to leave her husband for a lover, and Burton her estranged millionaire husband. Released soon after Cleopatra to profit from the scandal, it became a box office success. Taylor was also paid $500,000 to appear in a CBS television special, Elizabeth Taylor in London. After completing The V.I.P.s, Taylor took a two-year hiatus from films, during which she and Burton were married.

Success with Richard Burton (1965–1967)

Taylor and Burton continued starring together in films in the mid-1960s. Walker has compared these films to "illustrated gossip columns", as their film roles often mirrored their public personas. They received a combined $88 million for their films over the next decade and according to Burton, "they say we generate more business activity than one of the smaller African nations". Their first joint project following Taylor's hiatus was Vincente Minelli's romantic drama The Sandpiper (1965), about an illicit love affair in the bohemian Big Sur. Its reviews were largely negative, but it grossed a successful $14 million.

"I am just constantly surprised at how good Elizabeth and Richard are... Their flexibility and talent and cooperativeness and lovingness is overwhelming... I've had more trouble with little people you've never heard of –temper tantrums, upstaging, girls' sobbing– than with the so-called legendary Burtons. The Burtons are on time, they know their lines, and if I make suggestions, Elizabeth can keep in her mind fourteen dialogue changes, twelve floor marks, and ten pauses..."

—Mike Nichols on directing Taylor and Burton

Their next project, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), features the most acclaimed performance of Taylor's career. She and Burton starred as Martha and George, a middle-aged couple going through a marital crisis. In order to convincingly play 50-year-old Martha, Taylor gained weight, wore a wig, and used make-up to make herself look old and tired — a stark contrast to her glamorous public image. It was her idea to hire Mike Nichols to direct, even though he had never before made a film. The production differed from everything Taylor had done previously, as Nichols, whose previous experience was from the stage, wanted to first thoroughly rehearse before filming. The film was considered groundbreaking for its adult themes and uncensored language. It opened to "glorious" reviews, and became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year. Taylor received her second Academy Award, a BAFTA, a National Board of Review award and a New York City Film Critics Circle Award for her performance.

In 1966, Taylor and Burton also performed Doctor Faustus for a week in Oxford to benefit the Oxford University Dramatic Society; he starred and she appeared in her first stage role as Helen of Troy, a part which required no speaking. Although it received generally negative reviews, Burton then produced it into a film, Doctor Faustus (1967), with the same cast. It was also panned by critics and grossed only $600,000 in the box office. Their next project, Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967), which they also co-produced, was more successful. It posed another challenge for Taylor, as she was the only actor in the project with no previous experience of performing Shakespeare; Zeffirelli later stated that this made her performance interesting, as she "invented the part from scratch". Critics found the play to be fitting material for the couple, and it was a box office success by grossing $12 million.

Taylor's third film released in 1967, John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye, was her first without Burton since Cleopatra. It was a drama about a repressed homosexual and his unfaithful wife, and was originally slated to co-star Taylor's old friend Montgomery Clift, whose career had been in decline for several years due to his addictions. Before the filming began, Clift died from a heart attack and was replaced by Marlon Brando. It was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release. Taylor and Burton's last film of the year was the Graham Greene adaptation The Comedians; it received mixed reviews and was a box office failure.

Career decline (1968–1979)

By the late 1960s, Taylor's career was in decline. She had gained weight and was nearing middle age, and did not fit in with the new generation of more androgynous actresses, such as Jane Fonda and Julie Christie. After several years of nearly constant media attention, the public was also tiring of her and Burton, and criticized their jet set lifestyle.

In 1968, Taylor starred in two films directed by Joseph Losey, Boom! and Secret Ceremony. The former was based on a Tennessee Williams play, and featured her as an aging, serial-marrying millionaire and Burton as a younger man who turns up on the Mediterranean island on which she has retired. It was panned by the critics, and failed in the box office. Secret Ceremony, a psychological drama in which Taylor starred opposite Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum, had a similar fate. 20th Century-Fox's The Only Game in Town (1970), in which Taylor played a Las Vegas showgirl who has an affair with a compulsive gambler, played by Warren Beatty, was another failure.

Taylor appeared in three films in 1972. Zee and Co. (1972), which portrayed her and Michael Caine as a troubled married couple, won her the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress. She then appeared with Burton in Under Milk Wood (1972); although her role was small, its producers decided to give her top-billing to profit from her fame. Her third film role that year was playing a blonde diner waitress in Peter Ustinov's Faust parody Hammersmith Is Out (1972), her tenth collaboration with Burton. Although it was overall not successful, Taylor received some good reviews, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing that she has "a certain vulgar, ratty charm", and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stating that "the spectacle of Elizabeth Taylor growing older and more beautiful continues to amaze the population". Her performance won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.

Richard Burton, Lucille Ball and Taylor in Here's Lucy in 1974

Taylor and Burton's last film together was the Harlech Television film Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973), fittingly named as they divorced the following year. Her other films released in 1973 were the British thriller Night Watch (1973), and the American drama Ash Wednesday (1973). For the latter, in which she starred as a woman who undergoes multiple plastic surgeries in an attempt to save her marriage, she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her only film released in 1974, the Italian Muriel Spark adaptation The Driver's Seat (1974) was another failure.

Taylor took fewer roles after the mid-1970s and focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, Republican politician John Warner. In 1976, she participated in the Soviet-American fantasy film The Blue Bird (1976) and had a small role in the television film Victory at Entebbe (1976), and in 1977 sang in the critically panned film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music (1977).

Stage and television roles; retirement (1980–2007)

Taylor at an event honoring her career in 1981

Taylor had her first substantial role in several years in the mystery film The Mirror Crack'd (1980), based on an Agatha Christie novel and featuring an ensemble cast of famous actors from the studio era, such as Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis. Wanting to challenge herself, Taylor then acted in her first substantial stage role, appearing as Regina Giddens in a Broadway production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, which premiered in May 1981. Instead of portraying Giddens in negative light as had often been the case in previous productions, Taylor's idea was to show her as a victim of circumstance, stating "She's a killer, but she's saying 'Sorry fellas, you put me in this position'".

The production had a sold-out six-month run, but received mixed reviews. Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that Taylor's performance as "Regina Giddens, that malignant Southern bitch-goddess ... begins gingerly, soon gathers steam and then explodes into a black and thunderous storm that may just knock you out of your seat", while Dan Sullivan of the Los Angeles Times stated that "Taylor presents a possible Regina Giddens, as seen through the persona of Elizabeth Taylor. There's some acting in it, as well as some personal display." In November 1981, Taylor also appeared as evil socialite Helena Cassadine in the daytime soap opera General Hospital, one of her favorite television shows. The following spring, she continued performing The Little Foxes in London's West End, received largely negative reviews from the British press.

Encouraged by the success of The Little Foxes, Taylor and producer Zev Bufman founded the Elizabeth Taylor Repertory Company. Its first and only project was a revival of Noël Coward's comedy Private Lives, starring Taylor and Richard Burton. It premiered in Boston in spring 1983, and although commercially successful, received generally negative reviews, with critics noting that both were in noticeably poor health — Taylor entered a drug rehabilitation centre after the play's run ended and Burton died the following year. After the failure of Private Lives, Taylor dissolved her theater company. Her only other project that year was the HBO television film Between Friends.

Following her stage projects, Taylor took on several television roles. In 1984, she was a guest star in Hotel and in the following year played gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the television film Malice in Wonderland and a brothel keeper in the historical miniseries North and South. She was awarded the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1985, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in 1986. Taylor played the titular role in the Western Poker Alice (1987), appeared in Franco Zeffirelli's biopic Young Toscanini (1988) and in a television version of Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), her fourth Tennessee Williams adaptation.

Taylor had few acting roles in the 1990s, instead focusing her time on HIV/AIDS activism. She made cameos in the television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1992), The Nanny (1993) and The Simpsons (1992, 1993). Her last theatrically released film was The Flintstones (1994), in which she played Pearl Slaghoople, earning a Golden Raspberry nomination for her performance. She was awarded American Film Institute's AFI Life Achievement Award in 1993, and a Screen Actors Guild honorary award in 1997. She also received British honors: she received a BAFTA Fellowship in 1999, and was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. Her final acting roles were in the television film These Old Broads and in the animated sitcom God, the Devil and Bob, both in 2001. Taylor announced in 2003 that she was retiring from acting to focus on philanthropy. She gave one last public performance in 2007, when she and James Earl Jones performed the play Love Letters at an AIDS benefit at the Paramount Studios.

Other ventures

HIV/AIDS activism

"I decided that with my name I could open certain doors, that I was a commodity in myself—and I’m not talking as an actress. I could take the fame I’d resented and tried to get away from for so many years—but you can never get away from it—and use it to do some good. I wanted to retire, but the tabloids wouldn’t let me. So I thought, If you’re going to screw me over, I’ll use you."

—Taylor on her decision to become a HIV/AIDS activist

From the mid-1980s until her death, Taylor devoted much of her time to HIV/AIDS activism and fundraising, becoming one of the first celebrities to do so at a time when few acknowledged the disease, and helping to raise more than $270 million for the cause. Taylor began her philanthropic work in 1984 by helping to organize and by hosting the first AIDS fundraiser to benefit the AIDS Project Los Angeles. She later stated that she had become frustrated about the epidemic being talked about in the media but "nobody was doing anything about it... we all sat around the dining room table, isn't this awful, isn't this tragic? ... And I said, I'm doing the same thing. I'm complaining about how nobody is doing anything and I thought, well, it's got to start someplace. It's got to start with someone. And I thought why can't I be that -- that someone?".

In July 1985, Taylor's longtime friend and former co-star Rock Hudson announced that he was dying of AIDS. Together with Hudson's physician, Dr. Michael Gottlieb, Taylor founded the National AIDS Research Foundation in California the following month. In September 1985, the organization merged with Dr. Mathilde Krim's New York-based AIDS foundation to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). As amfAR focuses on funding research, Taylor founded The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) in 1991 to raise awareness and to provide support services for people with HIV/AIDS. She paid for its overhead costs herself; her trust has continued to do so after her death. She also arranged for 25% of her image royalties to go to ETAF. In addition to her work for people affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States, Taylor was instrumental in expanding amfAR's operations to other countries; ETAF also operates internationally.

Taylor testified before the Senate and Congress for the Ryan White Care Act in 1986, 1990 and 1992. She also persuaded President Ronald Reagan to acknowledge the disease for the first time in a speech in 1987, and publicly criticized presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton for what she perceived as their lack of interest in combatting the disease. Taylor's other efforts included founding the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center to offer free HIV/AIDS testing and care at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C., and The Elizabeth Taylor Endowment Fund for the UCLA Clinical AIDS Research and Education Center in Los Angeles.

Taylor was honored with several awards for her philanthropic work. She was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honour in 1987 and received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993, the Screen Actors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanitarian service in 1997, the GLAAD Vanguard Award in 2000 and the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001. Speaking of her work, former President Bill Clinton said at her death, "Elizabeth's legacy will live on in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of those she inspired."

Taylor promoting her first fragrance, Passion, in 1987

Perfume and jewelry brands

Taylor was the first celebrity to create her own line of perfumes. In collaboration with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., she launched her first fragrance, Passion, in 1987, followed by White Diamonds in 1991; both became bestsellers. Taylor personally supervised the creation and production of each of the eleven fragrances produced in her name. According to Taylor's biographers Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, she earned more money through the fragrance collection than during her entire acting career; upon her death, the British newspaper The Guardian estimated that majority of her estimated $600 million–$1 billion estate consisted of revenue from fragrances. In 2005, Taylor also founded a jewelry company, the House of Taylor, in collaboration with Kathy Ireland and Jack and Monty Abramov.

Personal life

Marriages, relationships and children

A 1955 issue of gossip magazine Confidential with the headline "When Liz Taylor's Away, Mike [Wilding] Will Play". Taylor's relationships were subject to media attention throughout her life.

Taylor's personal life and especially her eight marriages drew a large amount of media attention and public disapproval throughout her adult life. According to Walker, "whether she liked it or not... marriage is the matrix of the myth that began surrounding Elizabeth Taylor from [when she was sixteen]". In 1948, MGM organized her to date football champion Glenn Davis, and the following year she was engaged to William Pawley Jr., son of U.S. ambassador William D. Pawley, for four months. Film tycoon Howard Hughes also wanted to marry her, and offered to pay her parents a six-figure sum of money if she were to become his wife. Taylor declined the offer, but was otherwise eager to marry young, as her "rather puritanical upbringing and beliefs" made her believe that "love was synonymous with marriage". Taylor later described herself as being "emotionally immature" or a "child emotionally inside a woman's body" during this time due to her sheltered childhood, and believed that marriage would be a way to gain independence from her controlling parents and MGM.

Taylor was eighteen when she married Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr., heir to the Hilton Hotels chain, at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills on May 6, 1950. MGM organized the large and expensive wedding, which became a major media event. In the weeks after their wedding, Taylor realised that she had made a mistake; not only did she and Hilton have few common interests, but he was also abusive and a heavy drinker. She was granted a divorce in January 1951, nine months after their wedding.

Taylor's second husband was British actor Michael Wilding, 20 years her senior, whom she married in a low-key ceremony at Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952. She had first met him while filming The Conspirator in England in 1948, and their relationship began when she returned to film Ivanhoe in 1951. Taylor found their age gap appealing as she wanted "the calm and quiet and security of friendship" from their relationship; he hoped that the marriage would aid his career in Hollywood. She still wished to retire from acting, but the financial needs of their growing family prevented it. They had two sons, Michael Howard (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward (born February 27, 1955). As Taylor grew older and more confident in herself, she began to drift apart from Wilding, whose failing career was also a source of marital strife. When she was away filming Giant in 1955, gossip magazine Confidential caused a scandal by claiming that he had entertained strippers at their home. Taylor and Wilding separated in July 1956, and were divorced in January 1957.

Taylor with third husband Mike Todd in an interview for Person to Person in 1957

Taylor married her third husband, theater and film producer Mike Todd, in Acapulco, Mexico on February 2, 1957. They had one child, daughter Elizabeth "Liza" Frances (born August 6, 1957). Todd, known for publicity stunts, encouraged the media attention to their marriage; for example, in June 1957, he threw a birthday party at Madison Square Garden, which was attended by 18,000 guests and broadcast on CBS. His death in a plane crash on March 22, 1958 left Taylor devastated. She was comforted by her and Todd's friend, singer Eddie Fisher, with whom she soon began an affair. It resulted in a public scandal, as Fisher was still married to actress Debbie Reynolds. Although their marriage had largely been an arrangement for publicity, Reynolds also contributed to the negative press accounts, and Taylor was branded a "home-wrecker". Regardless, she and Fisher were married at the Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas on May 12, 1959. She later stated that she only married him due to her grief.

While filming Cleopatra in Italy in 1962, Taylor began an affair with her co-star, Welsh actor Richard Burton, although both of them were married. Rumors about the affair soon began to circulate in the press and were confirmed by a paparazzi shot of them on a yacht in Ischia. According to sociologist Ellis Cashmore, the publication of the photograph was a "turning point", beginning a new era in which it became difficult for celebrities to keep their personal lives separate from their public images. The scandal caused Taylor and Burton to be condemned for "erotic vagrancy" by the Vatican, with calls also in the U.S. Congress to bar them from re-entering the country. Taylor was granted divorce from Fisher on March 6, 1964, and married Burton ten days later in a private ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal, Canada. Burton subsequently adopted Liza Todd and Maria Burton (born August 1, 1961), a German orphan whose adoption process Taylor had begun while married to Fisher.

Taylor and Burton in The Sandpiper (1965), their third film together

Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, Taylor and Burton starred together in eleven films and led a jet set lifestyle, spending millions on "furs, diamonds, paintings, designer clothes, travel, food, liquor, a yacht, and a jet". Sociologist Karen Sternheimer states that they "became a cottage industry of speculation about their alleged life of excess. From reports of massive spending... affairs, and even an open marriage, the couple came to represent a new era of "gotcha" celebrity coverage, where the more personal the story, the better." They divorced for the first time in June 1974, but reconciled and re-married in Kasane, Botswana on October 10, 1975. Their second marriage lasted less than a year, ending in divorce in July 1976. Their relationship was often referred to as the "marriage of the century" by the media, and Taylor later stated that "after Richard, the men in my life were just there to hold the coat, to open the door. All the men after Richard were really just company."

Soon after their divorce, Taylor met her sixth husband, John Warner, a Republican politician from Virginia. They were married on December 4, 1976, after which Taylor left her film career and concentrated on working for his electoral campaign. Once Warner had been elected to the Senate, she started to find her life as a politician's wife in Washington D.C. boring and lonely. She became depressed, gained a large amount of weight and increasingly abused prescription medications and alcohol. They separated in December 1981, and were divorced a year later in November 1982.

After the divorce from Warner, Taylor was engaged to Mexican lawyer Victor Luna in 1983–1984, and dated publisher Malcolm Forbes. She met her seventh and last husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. They were married at the Neverland Ranch of her longtime friend Michael Jackson on October 6, 1991. The wedding was again subject to intense media attention, with one photographer parachuting to the ranch and Taylor selling the wedding pictures to People for $1 million, which she used to start her AIDS foundation. They divorced in October 1996.

Conversion to Judaism and support for Israeli causes

Taylor was raised as a Christian Scientist, but converted to Judaism in 1959, taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel. Although her conversion took place a year after the death of Mike Todd, who was Jewish, and just before her marriage to Jewish Eddie Fisher, Taylor stated that she did not convert because of her husbands, but had wanted to do so "for a long time".

After her conversion, Taylor became a supporter of Jewish and Zionist causes. In 1959, she purchased $100,000 worth of Israeli Bonds; her films were subsequently banned by the United Arab Republic. She was also barred from entering Egypt to film Cleopatra in 1962, but the ban was lifted two years later after the Egyptian officials deemed that the film brought positive publicity for the country. Taylor helped to raise money for organizations such as the Jewish National Fund, advocated for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel, canceled a visit to the USSR because of its condemnation of Israel due to the Six-Day War, and signed a letter protesting the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975. In 1976, she offered herself as a replacement hostage after more than 100 Israeli civilians were taken hostage in the Entebbe skyjacking. She had a small role in the television film made about the incident, Victory at Entebbe (1976), and narrated Genocide (1981), a documentary about the Holocaust.

Style and jewelry collection

Taylor in a studio publicity photo in 1953

Taylor is considered a fashion icon for both her film costumes and personal style. During her years at MGM, costume designers Helen Rose and Edith Head were largely responsible for both her on and off-screen wardrobes. Her most famous film costumes from this period include a white ball gown in A Place in the Sun (1951), a Grecian dress in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and a slip and a fur coat in BUtterfield 8 (1960). Her costumes were usually simple and emphasized her face, chest and waist; according to fashion historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis, "because she had these extraordinary features, because she's one of the world's great beauties and had this fantastically small waist and raven hair and iris eyes, you didn't have to put much on her. It was actually hard for costume designers. It took a lot for them to not gild the lily." In the 1960s, Taylor's film costumes were often designed by Irene Sharaff. Her make-up look in Cleopatra (1963) started a trend for "cat-eye" make-up done with black eyeliner. Despite her popularity as a style icon, fashion critics preferred stars such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, as her style was associated more with Hollywood glamour than high fashion.

In contrast to her simple film costumes, Taylor's off-screen style was characterized by "excess"; according to Emili Vesilind of The Los Angeles Times, "her famous love of jewelry – kumquat-sized diamonds and emeralds in particular – paired with a penchant for flowing, dramatic dresses and elaborate up-dos practically set the template for modern movie star glamour." Taylor collected jewelry throughout her life, even publishing a book, My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002), about it. Her most famous pieces included the 33.19-carat (6.638 g) Krupp Diamond, the 69.42-carat (13.884 g) pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond and the 50-carat (10 g) La Peregrina Pearl, formerly owned by Mary I of England — all three pieces were gifts from husband Richard Burton. In addition to jewelry, Taylor often wore clothing by designers such as Christian Dior, Versace, Valentino and Halston. Valentino Garavani stated that Taylor was one of the first celebrities to take interest in his fashion house in the 1960s. In the 1970s, she also helped to popularize Halston's designs, often wearing them to public events and appearing on the cover of People with him and Liza Minnelli in 1977. In 1997, Taylor received a Lifetime of Glamour Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). After her death, her jewelry and fashion collections were auctioned by Christie's to benefit her AIDS foundation, ETAF. The jewelry was sold for a record sum of $156,8 million, making it the "most valuable sale of jewelry in auction history", and the clothes and accessories for a further $5,5 million.

Illnesses and death

Taylor's grave in the Great Mausoleum at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park

Taylor struggled with health problems much of her life. She broke her back at the age of twelve in a fall during the filming of National Velvet, which would continue to affect her in later years. Beginning in 1951, Taylor experienced serious medical issues whenever she faced problems in her personal life. She broke her back five times, had both her hips replaced, a hysterectomy, suffered from dysentery and phlebitis, punctured her esophagus, and survived a benign brain tumor operation in 1997.

At 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m), Taylor constantly gained and lost significant amounts of weight (known as yo-yo dieting), reaching both 119 and 180 pounds (54 and 82 kg) in the 1980s. She was a heavy smoker until forced to quit following a severe bout of pneumonia in 1990. Due to numerous back injuries, she was addicted to sleeping pills and painkillers for 35 years. She was treated for alcoholism and prescription drug addiction at the Betty Ford Center in 1983 and again in 1988.

She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004 and in February 2011, new symptoms related to heart failure led to her being admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment. She remained there until her death at age 79 on March 23, 2011, surrounded by her four children.

Taylor's funeral took place the day after she died at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. It was a private Jewish ceremony presided over by Rabbi Jerome Cutler, and at Taylor's request began 15 minutes behind schedule, as according to her representative, "she even wanted to be late for her own funeral." She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum.

Legacy

Taylor has been called the "greatest movie star of all." A child-star at the age of 12, she was soon after launched into public awareness by MGM and a string of successful films, many of which are today considered "classics". Her resulting celebrity made her into a Hollywood icon, as she set the "gold standard" for Hollywood fame, and "created the model for stardom," adds Mann. Other observers, such as social critic Camille Paglia, describes Taylor as "the greatest actress in film history," partly as a result of the "liquid realm of emotion" she expressed on screen.

Taylor had a major role in sparking the sexual revolution of the 1960s, as she pushed the envelope on sexuality: she was one of the first major stars to pose (mostly) nude in Playboy, and among the first to remove her clothes onscreen. In A Place in the Sun, filmed when she was 17, her surprising maturity shocked Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, who wrote of her precocious sexuality. Film historian Andrew Sarris describes her love scenes in the film with Montgomery Clift as "unnerving—sybaritic—like gorging on chocolate sundaes."

In real life, she was considered "a star without airs," notes Mann. Writer Gloria Steinem likewise described her as a "movie queen with no ego ... expert at what she does, uncatty in her work relationships with other actresses". Mike Nichols, who directed her in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), said that of all the actors he had worked with, Taylor had the "most democratic soul." Mann adds that she treated electricians and studio crew the "same way she would a Rothschild at a charity gala." Director George Cukor told Taylor that she possessed "that rarest of virtues—simple kindness."

Taylor's ex‑husband, actor Richard Burton, who co‑starred with her in eleven films, expressed great admiration for her talent as an actress. Burton said, "I think she's one of the most underrated screen actresses that ever lived, and I think she's one of the best ones who ever lived. At her finest she's incomparable."

Filmography

Main article: Elizabeth Taylor filmography

Sources

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• Curtis, James (2011). Spencer Tracy: A Biography. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-178524-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Daniel, Douglass K. (2011). Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-25123-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gehring, Wes D. (2006) [2003]. Irene Dunne: First Lady of Hollywood. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5864-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hernán, Vera; Gordon, Andrew M. (2003). Screen Saviors: Hollywood Fictions of Whiteness. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-9947-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Heyman, C. David (2011). Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor (updated with a new chapter). Atria Books. ISBN 1-4391-9188-3.
• Kashner, Sam; Schoenberger, Nancy (2010). Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century. JR Books. ISBN 978-1-907532-22-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lower, Cheryl Bray; Palmer, R. Barton (2001). Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Critical Essays with an Annotated Bibliography and a Filmography. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-0987-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Moss, Marilyn Ann (2004). Giant: George Stevens, a Life on Film. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-20430-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Parish, James Robert; Mank, Gregory W.; Stanke, Don E. (1978). The Hollywood beauties. England: Arlington House Publishers. p. 329. ISBN 0-87000-412-3.
• Spoto, Donald (1995). A passion for life: the biography of Elizabeth Taylor. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-017657-1.
• Smith, Susan (January 2015). "Taylor, Dame Elizabeth Rosemond (1932–2011)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/103682. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Sternheimer, Karen (2015). Celebrity Culture and the American Dream (Second Edition). Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-138-02395-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Stubbs, Jonathan (2013). Historical Film: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-84788-498-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Troyan, Michael (1999). A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: The Life of Greer Garson. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-9150-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Walker, Alexander (1990). Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3769-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Michael Kors talks to Dame Elizabeth Taylor". Harper's Bazaar. March 23, 2011.

Further reading

• Bozzacchi, Gianni (2002). Elizabeth Taylor: the queen and I. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-17930-4.
• Canby, Vincent (May 4, 1986). "Film View; Elizabeth Taylor – Her Life Is The Stuff Of Movies". The New York Times. p. 1.
• Chrissochoidis, Ilias (2013). The Cleopatra Files: Selected Documents from the Spyros P. Skouras Archive. Stanford: Brave World. ISBN 978-0-615-82919-7.

External links

• Official website
• Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF)
• Elizabeth Taylor at IMDb
• Elizabeth Taylor at the Internet Broadway Database
• Elizabeth Taylor at the BFI's Screenonline