Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an
English-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian. She began her career
as a child actress in the early 1940s, and was one of the most popular stars
of classical Hollywood cinema in
the 1950s. She continued her career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a
well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named
her the seventh-greatest female screen
legend. Born in London to socially prominent American parents,
Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939. She made her acting debut in a minor
role in the Universal Pictures film There's One Born Every
Minute (1942) but the studio ended her contract after a
year. She was then signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and
became a popular teen star after appearing in National Velvet (1944).
She transitioned to more mature roles in the 1950s, when she starred in the
comedy Father of the Bride (1950)
and received critical acclaim for her performance in the drama A Place in the Sun (1951).
Despite being one of MGM's most bankable stars, Taylor wished to end her career
in the early 1950s. She resented the studio's control and disliked many of the
films to which she was assigned. She began receiving roles she enjoyed more in
the mid-1950s, beginning with the epic drama Giant (1956), and starred in several critically and
commercially successful films in the following years. These included two film adaptations
of plays by Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958),
and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959);
Taylor won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Although
she disliked her role as a call girl in BUtterfield 8 (1960), her last film for MGM, she won
the Academy Award for Best
Actress for her performance. During the production of the
film Cleopatra in
1961, Taylor and co-star Richard Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused
a scandal. Despite public disapproval, she and Burton continued their relationship
and were married in 1964. Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, they
starred in 11 films together, including The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming
of the Shrew (1967), and Who's Afraid
of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Taylor received the best reviews
of her career for Woolf, winning her second Academy Award and
several other awards for her performance. She and Burton divorced in 1974, but
reconciled soon after, and remarried in 1975. The second marriage ended in
divorce in 1976. Taylor's acting career began to decline in the late 1960s,
although she continued starring in films until the mid-1970s, after which she
focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, United States
Senator John Warner (R-Virginia).
In the 1980s, she acted in her first substantial stage roles and in several
television films and series. She also became the first celebrity to launch a
perfume brand. Taylor was one of the first celebrities to take part in HIV/AIDS activism.
She co-founded the American
Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor
AIDS Foundation in 1991. From the early 1990s until her death, she dedicated
her time to philanthropy, for which she received several accolades, including
the Presidential Citizens
Medal. Throughout her career, Taylor's personal life was the subject
of constant media attention. She was married eight times to seven men, converted
to Judaism, endured several serious illnesses, and led a jet set lifestyle, including assembling one of the most
expensive private collections of jewelry in the world. After many years of ill
health, Taylor died from congestive heart failure in 2011, at the age of 79.