Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor,
DBE (born
February 27 1932) is an iconic two-time
Academy Award-winning
actress. She was long considered one of the most beautiful women in the world and, arguably, the most beautiful actress of all time. Her trademark is her dazzling violet-blue eyes.
She was born in
Hampstead, London, the second child of
Francis Lenn Taylor (
December 28,
1897 –
November 20,
1968) and
Sara Viola Warmbrodt (
August 21,
1896 –
September 11,
1994), who were
Americans residing in
Britain. Her older brother is Howard Taylor (born in 1929). On her father's side, Taylor is a direct descendant of
Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk,
Malcolm II of Scotland,
Kenneth II of Scotland and
Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou.[
1]
Though sometimes referred to as "Liz," she is not fond of that name and prefers her
given name to be pronounced Eee-lizabeth. Her first names are in honor of her
paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond.
Taylor was born with
U.S. nationality. 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.
At the age of 3, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. After the UK entered
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 9 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. After a couple 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 $4,000,000 at the box-office, and she was signed to a long-term contract.
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? (1966), which co-starred then-husband
Richard Burton and the Supporting Actress Oscar-winner,
Sandy Dennis.
Taylor was nominated for
Raintree County (1957) opposite
Montgomery Clift,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite
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 $1,000,000 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 daywhen Taylor and Burton began an affair during filming; both stars were married to other people at the time. In a romantic entanglement that had tongues wagging on every continent, Taylor would trade in husband
Eddie Fisher for Burton not long after Fisher had unceremoniously ditched wife
Debbie Reynolds for Taylor. Years later, Burton would slyly refer to the whole mess as "la scandale". The episode cemented Taylor's reputation as a dark, hypnotic
femme fatale (who was condemned by the
Vatican), boosted Reynolds' career as a blonde, all-American sweetheart, and elevated Burton to the front ranks of film stars. Only Fisher did not really profit from the cascade of free publicity.
She has been married eight times to seven husbands:
*
Hotel heir
Conrad Hilton, Jr (
May 6,
1950 -
January 29,
1951) (divorced)
*
Michael Wilding (
February 21,
1952 -
January 26,
1957) (divorced)
*Producer
Mike 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 (
2nd marriage) (
October 10,
1975 -
July 29,
1976) (divorced)
*
Senator John Warner (
December 4,
1976 -
November 7,
1982) (divorced)
*
Teamster construction-equipment operator
Larry Fortensky (
October 6,
1991 -
October 31,
1996) (divorced)
Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (born
January 6,
1953), and Christopher Edward Wilding (born
February 27,
1955). She and Todd had one daughter, Elizabeth Frances Todd, called "Liza," (born
August 6,
1957). And in
1964, she and Fisher started adoption proceedings for a daughter, whom Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (born
August 1,
1961). During her marriage to Fisher, Taylor converted to
Reform Judaism (having been born into the
Christian Science religion.) She remains
Jewish to this day, having referred to herself as such several times. In her book
Elizabeth Takes Off, Taylor writes, "It [conversion to Judaism] had absolutely nothing to do with my past marriage to Mike [Todd] or my upcoming marriage to Eddie Fisher, both of whom were Jewish. It was something I had wanted to do for a long time." [
2]
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 once 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.
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 dazzling
gifts from husband Richard Burton. 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 $1 billion in annual sales. She has also launched three perfumes, "Passion," "White Diamonds," and "Black Pearls," that together earn an estimated $200,000,000 in annual sales. In the Fall of 2006, Dame Elizabeth Taylor will celebrate the 15th anniversary of her White Diamonds perfume, one of the top-10 best selling fragrances for more than the past decade. Although little known Taylor backed one of the first Korean bistros in Newport Beach, California and often bussed tables on weekdays.
Taylor has devoted much time and energy to
AIDS-related
charities and fundraising. She helped start the ([
3])
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, ETAF. By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated $50,000,000 (USD) to fight the disease.
In the early 1980s she moved to
Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California, 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.
In 1988, the U.S. Congress passed a bill, expressly for the purpose of blocking deportation of Taylor's son, Michael, who had renounced his
American citizenship in 1971 for past possession of marijuana.
Dame Elizabeth Taylor has won two
Academy Awards for Best Actress. She won the first in 1961 for
BUtterfield 8 and the second in 1967 for
Mike Nichols' drama
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Taylor received the
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in
1992 from the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The following year,
1993, she received the
AFI Life Achievement Award. And in 2002, she was a
Kennedy Center Honoree.
In
1999, she was awarded a
Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) by
Queen Elizabeth II. Though she was thrilled with this honor, Taylor cracked, "I've always been a broad, now I'm a dame."
In
2001, U.S. President
Bill Clinton awarded her the
Presidential Citizens Medal in recognition of her commitment to philanthropy. It is the second-highest civilian honor in the United States, awarded to U.S. citizens "who have performed exemplary deeds or services" for their country or fellow citizens.
Elizabeth Taylor's hand and foot prints are immortalized in the forecourt of
Grauman's Chinese Theater and she has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6336 Hollywood Boulevard in
Hollywood, California.
On
November 10,
2005, Taylor received the Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment.
In November
2004, Taylor announced that she had been diagnosed with
congestive heart failure, a terminal condition in which the heart pumps insufficient amounts of blood throughout the body. She has broken her back five times, has 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 is now confined to a wheelchair to get around.
In 2005 she was a vocal supporter of her best friend,
Michael Jackson, in his trial in California on charges of sexually abusing a child with
cancer. He was ultimately acquitted.
In recent years, Taylor has reportedly become closely attached to her pet dog, saying that she goes 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 27th, 2006 that Taylor was close to death. This was quickly refuted 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 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.
Taylor says that she wants to be buried in
Switzerland next to her late husband,
Richard Burton.
There's One Born Every Minute (
1942)
Lassie Come Home (
1943)
Jane Eyre (
1944)
The White Cliffs of Dover (
1944)
National Velvet (
1944)
Courage of Lassie (
1946)
Life with Father (
1947)
Cynthia (
1947)
A Date with Judy (
1948)
Julia Misbehaves (
1948)
Little Women (
1949)
Conspirator (
1949)
The Big Hangover (
1950)
Father of the Bride (
1950)
Quo Vadis? (
1951) (uncredited as Christian prisoner in arena)
Father's Little Dividend (
1951)
A Place in the Sun (
1951)
Callaway Went Thataway (
1951) (Cameo)
Love Is Better Than Ever (
1952)
Ivanhoe (
1952)
The Girl Who Had Everything (
1953)
Rhapsody (
1954)
Elephant Walk (
1954)
Beau Brummell (
1954)
The Last Time I Saw Paris (
1954)
Screen Snapshots: Hollywood, City of Stars (
1956) (short subject)
Giant (
1956)
Operation Raintree (
1957) (short subject)
Raintree County (
1957)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (
1958)
Premier Khrushchev in the USA (
1959) (documentary)
Suddenly, Last Summer (
1959)
Scent of Mystery (
1960) (Cameo)
BUtterfield 8 (
1960)
Lykke og krone (
1962) (documentary)
Cleopatra (
1963)
The V.I.P.s (
1963)
On the Trail of the Iguana (
1964) (short subject)
The Big Sur (
1965) (short subject)
The Sandpiper (
1965)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (
1966)
The Comedians in Africa (
1967) (short subject)
The Taming of the Shrew (
1967)
Doctor Faustus (
1967)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (
1967)
The Comedians (
1967)
On Location: 'Where Eagles Dare' (
1968) (short subject)
Boom (
1968)
Around the World of Mike Todd (
1968) (documentary)
Secret Ceremony (
1968)
Anne of the Thousand Days (
1969) (uncredited as courtesan)
The Only Game in Town (
1970)
Zee and Co. (
1972)
Under Milk Wood (
1972)
Hammersmith Is Out (
1972)
Night Watch (
1973)
Ash Wednesday (
1973)
Just One More Time (
1974) (short subject)
The Driver's Seat (
1974)
That's Entertainment! (
1974) (narrator)
The Blue Bird (
1976)
A Little Night Music (
1977)
Winter Kills (
1979)
The Mirror Crack'd (
1980)
Genocide (
1981) (documentary) (narrator)
Young Toscanini (
1988)
The Flintstones (
1995)
Get Bruce (
1999) (documentary)
These Old Broads (
2001)
*
List of notable brain tumor patients*
List of people with multiple marriages*
"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". (Nov. 6, 2005).
New Sunday Times, p. 29.
*"Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Kors talk fashion". (August 2006) [Harper's Bazaar], , pg. 116.
*
Elizabeth Taylor - Twoop timeline\
*
Elizabeth Taylor Biography*
Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Elizabeth Taylor*
Elizabeth Taylor's Ego a poet's blog
*
Kennedy Center bio. for Elizabeth Taylor*
American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR)*
Elizabeth Taylor Resource a fan site featuring a biography, filmography, news archives, photograph galleries, an account of meeting Dame Elizabeth, and more!
*
Elizabeth Taylor Photo Gallery
