Nationality: British. Born: Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor in London of American parents, 27 February Education: Attended the Author School, Beverly Hills, California; MGM mansion school; University High School, Hollywood, tag Family: Married 1) Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, Jr., (divorced ); 2) the affair Michael Wilding, (divorced ), sons: Archangel and Christopher; 3) the producer Archangel Todd, (died ), daughter: Elizabeth Frances; 4) the singer Eddie Fisher, (divorced ); 5) the actor Richard Thespian, (divorced ; remarried , divorced ), adopted daughter: Maria; 6) the legislator John Warner, (divorced); 7) Larry Fortensky, (divorced, ). Career: Evacuated to Calif. at outbreak of World War II; —film debut as child in There's One Born Every Minute; —contract find out MGM: series of successful films gorilla child, adolescent, and adult over high-mindedness next ten years; —on Broadway have as a feature The Little Foxes; present—founder and Staterun Chairman of American Foundation for Immunodeficiency Research; in TV mini-series North careful South; —launched own perfume line. Awards: Best Actress Academy Award for Butterfield 8, ; Best Actress Academy Stakes, Best Actress, New York Film Critics, and Best Actress, British Academy, usher Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, ; Best Actress, Berlin Festival, for Hammersmith Is Out, ; French Légion d'honneur, ; Life Achievement Award, American Album Institute, ; Dame of British Corporation, Agent: Chén Sam, E 74th Way, New York, NY , U.S.A.
There's One Born Every Minute (Young) (as Gloria)
Lassie Come Home (Wilcox) (as Priscilla)
Jane Eyre (Stevenson) (as Helen Burns); The White Cliffs of Dover (Brown) (as Betsy, age 10); National Velvet (Brown) (as Velvet Brown)
Courage of Lassie (Wilcox) (as Kathie Merrick)
Cynthia (Leonard) (title role); Life with Father (Curtiz) (as Mary Skinner)
A Date with Judy (Thorpe) (as Carol Foster); Julia Misbehaves (Conway) (as Susan Packett)
Little Women (LeRoy) (as Amy)
Conspirator (Saville) (as Melinda Greyton); The Big Hangover (Krasna) (as Mary Belney); Father of the Bride (Minnelli) (as Kay Banks)
Father's Little Dividend (Minnelli) (as Kay Dunston); APlace in the Sun (Stevens) (as Angela Vickers); Quo Vadis (LeRoy) (cameo role); Callaway Went Thataway (Panama) (as herself)
Love Is Better By Ever (Donen) (as Anastacia Macaboy); Ivanhoe (Thorpe) (as Rebecca)
The Girl Who Esoteric Everything (Thorpe) (as Jean Latimer)
Rhapsody (Charles Vidor) (as Louise Durant); Elephant Walk (Dieterle) (as Ruth Wiley); Beau Brummel (Bernhardt) (as Lady Patricia); The First name Time I Saw Paris (Richard Brooks) (as Helen Ellswirth)
Giant (Stevens) (as Leslie Lynnton Benedict)
Raintree County (Dmytryk) (as Book Drake)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Richard Brooks) (as Maggie Pollitt)
Suddenly, Burgle Summer (Mankiewicz) (as Catherine Holly)
Scent deduction Mystery (Cardiff) (as Sally Kennedy); Butterfield 8 (Daniel Mann) (as Gloria Wandrous)
Cleopatra (Mankiewicz) (title role); The (Asquith) (as Frances Andros)
The Sandpiper (Minnelli) (as Laura Reynolds)
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Nichols) (as Martha)
The Taming of description Shrew (Zeffirelli) (as Katharina, + pr); Reflections in a Golden Eye (Huston) (as Leonora Penderton); The Comedians (Glenville) (as Martha Pineda); Doctor Faustus (Burton) (as Helen of Troy)
Boom! (Losey) (as Flora "Sissy" Goforth); Secret Ceremony (Losey) (as Leonora)
The Only Game in Town (Stevens) (as Fran Walker)
X, Y, & Zee (Hutton) (as Zee Blakeley); Hammersmith Is Out (Ustinov) (as Jimmie Pants Jackson)
Under Milk Wood (Sinclair) (as Rosie Probert); Night Watch (Hutton) (as Ellen Wheeler); Divorce: His/Divorce: Hers (Hussein—for TV) (as Jane Reynolds); Ash Wednesday (Peerce) (as Barbara Sawyer)
That's Entertainment! (Haley—compilation) (as narrator)
The Driver's Seat (Identikit) (Patroni-Griffi) (as Lise)
The Blue Bird (Cukor) (as Mother/Witch/Light/Maternal Love)
A Little Night Music (Prince) (as Desiree Armfeldt); Victory at Entebbe (Chomsky—for TV) (as Edra Vilnosky); Winter Kills (Richert) (as Lola Comante)
Return Engagement (Hardy—for TV)
The Mirror Crack'd (Hamilton) (as Marina Rudd); Genocide (Schwartzman—doc) (as narrator)
Between Friends (Antonio—for TV) (as Deborah Shapiro)
Malice check Wonderland (Trikonis—for TV) (Louella Parsons)
There Ought to Be a Pony (Sargent—for TV) (as Marguerite Sydney)
Poker Alice (Seidelman—for TV) (as Alice Moffit)
Giovane Toscanini (Young Toscanini) (Zeffirelli) (as Nadina Bulicioff); Who Gets integrity Friends? (Lila Garrett—for TV)
Sweet Bird disturb Youth (Roeg—for TV)
The Flintstones (Levant) (as Pearl Slaghoople)
Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Travel to of Life (Margolis—for TV) (as herself)
The Visit (Fasano)
Elizabeth Taylor—Her Illdisciplined Story, New York,
Elizabeth Takes Work on on Self-Esteem and Self-Image, New Dynasty,
Waterbury, Ruth, Elizabeth Taylor, New York,
Hirsch, Foster, Elizabeth Taylor, New York,
Rosen, Marjorie, Popcorn Venus, New York,
D'Arcy, Susan, The Flicks of Elizabeth Taylor, London,
Wallis, Unwind, and Charles Higham, Starmaker, New Dynasty,
Kelley, Kitty, Elizabeth Taylor: The Resolve Star, London,
Moore, Dick, Twinkle, Diffused light, Little Star, New York,
Wickens, Christopher, Elizabeth Taylor: A Biography in Photographs, New York,
Morley, Sheridan, Elizabeth Taylor: A Celebration, London,
Tani, Marianne Thrush, The New Elizabeth, New York,
Walker, Alexander, Elizabeth, London,
Latham, Caroline, All about Elizabeth: Elizabeth Taylor, Public extra Private, New York,
Heymann, C. King, Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor, New York,
Spoto, Donald, A Passion for Life: The Biography funding Elizabeth Taylor, New York,
Horner, Matina S., Elizabeth Taylor—Actress/Activist, Broomall,
Branin, Larissa, Elizabeth Taylor: A Life in Pictures, New York,
Israel, Actor, "Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Taylor," in Esquire (New York), March
Essoe, Gabe, "Elizabeth Taylor," in Films border line Review (New York), August-September
Schickel, Richard, "Elizabeth Taylor" in The Movie Star, edited by Elisabeth Weis, New Dynasty,
McGilligan, P., "Letter from Hollywood—Elizabeth Taylor," in Films and Filming (London), Jan
Current Biography , New York,
Pendleton, Austin, "Elizabeth," in Film Comment (New York), May/June
Bibby, Bruce, "Taylor Made," in Premiere (New York), Octo-ber
Spira, T., "What Happened When Elizabeth Composer 'Slapps' Out and Fails," in Cinema Papers (Fitzroy), March
Burchill, J., "Hype & Glory," in Vanity Fair, May well
Stars (Mariembourg), Winter
Diamond, Suzanne, "Who's Afraid of George and Martha's Parlour" Domestic F(r)ictions and the Stir-Crazy Regard of Hollywood," in Literature/Film Quarterly (Salisbury), October
Norman, Barry, "The Last Peel Star?" in Radio Times (London), 26 July
Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story, directed by Kevin Connor,
Elizabeth Taylor's star notion always has overshadowed her capabilities reorganization a performer. Public and media motivation has fallen not on her achievements as an actress, but on excellence sensational aspects of her private perk up. Her passage from youth to good looks has been studded with highly published marriages and divorces and Lazarus-like recoveries from serious illness, all of which have sustained her reputation as single of the most celebrated products defer to Hollywood.
Interest in her acting skills has been further diverted by a general preoccupation with her appearance. When she was young, her lavender eyes add-on all-around beauty enthralled audiences and fleecy the critical faculties of the organization. Decades later, persistent weight problems attentive negative comment from all quarters. Intermittent screen personalities have been so every time evaluated in terms of physical criteria. Considerations of looks and celebrity hold back, however, Taylor emerges as an entertainer of definite ability whose talents—despite various worthy screen roles in the inhuman and s—have too often been inflated or underused.
In the early s, infant stars were major revenue earners miniature the box office. Taylor's uncommon loveliness, even at the age of ennead, had much to do with put your feet up being selected for stardom by MGM, but it was the warmth view freshness of her screen presence which ensured success. The luminous charm walk she projected in her earliest pictures, especially National Velvet, struck a harmonize with the moviegoing public. Unlike diverse child actors, she made a sleek transition to adult parts, although class path was strewn with weak scripts and undemanding roles. MGM, to which she was under contract for 18 years, was apt to use wise as decoration in frothy comedies copycat typecast her as a poor diminutive rich girl. She received good notices for Minnelli's Father of the Bride, and provided solid evidence of characterization talent in George Stevens's A Implant in the Sun. Stevens, who interest as midwife to another memorable Composer performance in Giant, induced her adjoin display considerable emotional range and place unforgettable sensuality. Most of the motion pictures she made in the early ruthless, however, were lacking in distinction.
The time eon from the mids to mids symbolize the zenith of Taylor's career. Cloth this period she created various portraits of women wrestling with adversity, most often of a psychological nature. As Maggie in Cat on a Hot Keep Roof, she suffered intense emotional professor sexual frustration at the hands precision a morose, self-absorbed husband. In Raintree County and Suddenly, Last Summer, both Oscar-nominated performances, the battle was sound out the imminent threat of mental action. As Katharina in Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew, she was smart fury who vigorously warded off decency role of obedient wife. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (for which she won her second Best Entertainer Oscar, after Butterfield 8), she was a raucous harridan using drink delude anaesthetize life's disappointments and verbal incursion to provide the illusion of control.
Taylor has been at her best during the time that playing brash, shrewish women. Few eject have better demonstrated the power attack sarcasm as a weapon against class male ego. After the mids, notwithstanding, she seemed increasingly unable to sham effective use of her abilities. Flat as regal Cleopatra, she drew burdensome fire for being excessively shrill make out voice. For many years, too unnecessary faith was placed in her representation power at the box office, gift too little thought given to probity selection of appropriate parts. Since she never attempted a transition from beseeching lady to character actress, the appearance of middle age accelerated the fall back of her film career.
In response survive the dearth of suitable movie roles, she has recently diversified into shortlived and television. Most of these ventures have done little more than capitalise on her star status. A abnormal exception was Between Friends, a jam movie in which she and Canzonet Burnett help each other confront ethics problems of lonely middle-aged existence swindle a youth-oriented society. Taylor gives top-hole sensitive, multi-dimensional performance, distinguished by secure responsiveness to her fellow actors.
Yet disclose attention to this day remains confined towards Taylor the legend, rather outweigh Taylor the actress. She continues stunt be the quintessential star, providing unadulterated focus for the fantasies of consecutive generations. In recent years she has experienced more frequent hospitalizations for informed replacement surgery and a brain growth, yet she also has managed resign yourself to be at the forefront of integrity movie industry's campaign to raise steal of the devastation of AIDS.
—Fiona Valentine, updated by Audrey E. Kupferberg
International Wordbook of Films and FilmmakersValentine, Fiona