~ELIZABETH TAYLOR
~The Girl With the Violet Eyes~
EARLY LIFE
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born
in London, England on February 27, 1932. Although she was born an
English subject, her parents were American; her father, an art dealer, had
gone to London to set up a gallery there with her mother, who had once been
a stage actress. Elizabeth lived in London for the first seven years
of her life; the family left when the dark clouds of war began brewing
in 1939. The family relocated to Los Angeles where Mrs. Taylor's own
family had moved, and Mr. Taylor, who had stayed behind to tie up loose
business ends, followed not long after. It was a family friend who,
noticing the beautiful little Elizabeth, suggested that she be taken for
a screen test; Elizabeth tested for Universal Studios and was signed to a
contract with the company. Her contract was dropped after one film,
however, and Elizabeth was then picked up by MGM. Her first production
with MGM was the film Lassie Come
Home (1943). On the strength of that one film, MGM signed her to
a full year contract. MGM's National Velvet was the film
that made Elizabeth a star--the film, in which she portrayed the character
Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney, was a smash hit grossing over $4 million.
Elizabeth Taylor had become MGM's number one child star.
CAREER
Unlike many child stars, Elizabeth
made a relatively easy transition into adulthood, due mostly in part to
her precocious acting talent and stunning beauty. In 1956, she appeared
in the hit film Giant, opposite
James Dean and Rock Hudson. The next
year saw her in Raintree County,
an overblown film said to be as dry as dust. Despite the shortcomings
of the film, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her 
portrayal of Southern Belle, Susanna Drake. Unfortunately for her,
the honor went to Joanne
Woodward for The Three Faces
of Eve. In 1958, Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt, opposite
Paul Newman,
in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Critics
gave the film rave reviews and Elizabeth was nominated again for another
Academy Award. She gained another nomination for her work in Suddenly, Last Summer, and finally
won the coveted award in 1960 with her portrayal of Gloria Wandrous in Butterfield 8.
In 1963, Elizabeth starred in Cleopatra, one of the most expensive
productions to date, as was her salary, said to be a whopping $1 000 000.
Her next handful of films were lackluster at best, but Elizabeth returned
to fine form with her role of Martha in 1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The role as a loudmouth, unkempt woman was easily her finest personal
performance to date. For this portrayal she would win her second Oscar.
While her later films have never approached the intensity of 'Woolf,'
she has continued to appear on both the silver screen and television. Her
latest film to date is 1994's The Flintstones in which she plays Wilma Flintstone's
mother.
To
view Elizabeth Taylor's complete filmography, go to www.imdb.com !
FAMILY
By the time she earned her first
adult role, Taylor's personal life had begun to rival her film career for
the public's fascination: in 1950, at age 18, she embarked on the first of
eight marriages, to hotel scion Nicky Hilton, Jr. The couple divorced
in 1951, and in 1952 Taylor married actor Michael Wilding, with
whom she had two sons, Michael and Christopher. In 1956, she and Wilding
divorced, and in 1957 Taylor married producer Mike Todd. The couple
had a daughter, Elizabeth. In March 1958, Todd was killed in a plane
crash in New Mexico. The flood of public sympathy for Taylor after this
tragedy was cut off abruptly in 1959, when she began an affair with singer
Eddie Fischer, who was married at the time to actress Debbie Reynolds. By
the time the lavish production of Cleopatra was finally completed in 1963,
at an estimated total cost of $40 million, Taylor had fallen in love again,
this time with her co-star in the film, Richard Burton, who was
also married. As had been the case with Fisher--whom she had married
in 1959--she was widely denounced for "stealing" Burton away from his wife.
After divorcing their respective spouses, Taylor and Burton were married
in 1964. Her marriage to Burton ended in divorce in 1974; they remarried
in 1975, only to divorce again less than a year later. They had one
daughter, Maria. Burton died in 1984. In 1976, Taylor married
John Warner, a U.S. Republican senator from Virginia; they divorced in 1982.
In 1991, Elizabeth married Larry Fortensky--a construction worker thirty
years her junior whom she met at the Betty Ford Clinic--at the Wonderland
Ranch owned by her close friend, Michael Jackson. She and Fortensky
divorced in 1997. She has nine grandchildren and a great-grandson.
~adapted from information
found at www.biography.com.