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Elizabeth Taylor Biography |
Elizabeth Taylor (born February 27, 1932) is an English born Academy Award winning actress.
She was born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor in Hampstead, London, England, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (December 28, 1897-November 20, 1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (August 21, 1896-September 11, 1994). Her older brother is Howard Taylor (born 1929).
Her paternal grandmother was Elizabeth Taylor (née Elizabeth Mary Rosemond), the source of her famous name. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former stage actress, whose stage name was Sara Southern when she gave up that vocation to marry. They were both American, originally from Arkansas City, Kansas.
Taylor was born with dual British and American citizenship. At the age of three, she began taking ballet lessons. She lived in England until she was seven. Because of World War II, Taylor's mother returned to the United States with the children while Mr. Taylor remained behind to wrap up matters in the art business. They settled in Los Angeles, where the Warmbrodts were then living, and Taylor's father arrived not long after.
Though some people have called her Liz, she is not fond of that name. She prefers for her given name to be pronounced Eee-lizabeth.
Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine 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). This 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 MGM lot and University High School in Los Angeles, where she received her diploma on January 26, 1950.
Taylor is famous for her beauty, violet eyes and raven hair, and is considered one of the most beautiful women in the world as well as an accomplished actress.
Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performances in BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966). She was nominated for Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).
In 1963, Taylor 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. And it was during the filming of that movie that she worked for the first time with future husband, Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony.
Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands: hotel heir Nicky Hilton (married May 6, 1950-divorced January 29, 1951); actor Michael Wilding (married February 21, 1952-divorced October 4, 1956); producer Mike Todd (married February 2, 1957-his death March 22, 1958); singer Eddie Fisher (married May 12, 1959-divorced March 6, 1964); actor Richard Burton (married March 15, 1964-divorced June 26, 1974); actor Richard Burton (2nd Marriage) (married October 10, 1975-divorced July 29, 1976); senator John Warner (married December 4, 1976-divorced November 7, 1982); and teamster construction-equipment operator Larry Fortensky (married October 6, 1991-divorced October 31, 1996).
Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher 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, who Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (born August 1, 1961).
In addition to her theatrical motion pictures, Taylor has 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 columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland and appeared in the mini-series North and South. And in 2001, she played an agent in These Old Broads. She has also appeared on a number of TV programs, including General Hospital, All My Children and The Simpsons (as the voice of Maggie).
Taylor has also acted on stage in revivals of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (1982) and Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), the latter she starred in with former husband, Richard Burton.
She also launched two perfumes, "Passion" and "White Diamonds," that together earn an estimated $200,000,000 in annual sales.
Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson. And she created her own AIDS foundation. By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated $50,000,000 to fight the disease.
In 1992, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The following year, 1993, she received the AFI Life Achievement Award. And in 2002, she was a Kennedy Center Honoree.
She was made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth in 1999 and now has the title Dame Elizabeth Taylor.
In the early 1980s, she moved to 700 Nimes Road in Bel-Air, California, which is her current home.
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.
Filmography
There's One Born Every Minute (1942) (Universal) ... Gloria Twine
Lassie Come Home (1943) (MGM) ... Priscilla
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) (MGM) ... Betsy at 10 (uncredited)
Jane Eyre (1944) (20th Century Fox) ... Helen Burns (uncredited)
National Velvet (1944) (MGM) ... Velvet Brown
Courage of Lassie (1946) (MGM) ... Kathie Merrick
Life with Father (1947) (MGM) ... Mary
Cynthia (1947) (MGM) ... Cynthia Bishop
A Date with Judy (1948) (MGM) ... Carol Pringle
Julia Misbehaves (1948) (MGM) ... Susan Packett
Little Women (1949) (MGM) ... Amy March
Conspirator (1949) (MGM) ... Melinda Greyton
The Big Hangover (1950) (MGM) ... Mary Belney
Father of the Bride (1950) (MGM) ... Kay Banks
Quo Vadis? (1951) (MGM) ... Christian prisoner in arena (uncredited)
Father's Little Dividend (1951) (MGM) ... Kay "Kitten" Dunston
A Place in the Sun (1951) (Paramount) ... Angela Vickers
Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) (MGM) ... Anastacia "Stacie" Macaboy
Ivanhoe (1952) (MGM) ... Rebecca
The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) (MGM) ... Jean Latimer
Rhapsody (1954) (MGM) ... Louise Durant
Elephant Walk (1954) (Paramount) ... Ruth Wiley
Beau Brummell (1954) (MGM) ... Lady Patricia
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) (MGM) ... Helen Ellswirth/Wills
Giant (1956) (Warner Bros.) ... Leslie Lynnton Benedict
Raintree County (1957) (MGM) ... Susanna Drake
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) (MGM) ... Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) (Columbia) ... Catherine Holly
Scent of Mystery (1960) (Michael Todd Company) ... the real Sally Kennedy (uncredited)
BUtterfield 8 (1960) (MGM) ... Gloria Wandrous
Cleopatra (1963) (20th Century Fox) ... Cleopatra
The V.I.P.s (1963) (MGM) ... Frances Andros
The Sandpiper (1965) (MGM) ... Laura Reynolds
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (Warner Bros.) ... Martha
The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (Columbia) ... Katharina
Doctor Faustus (1967) (Columbia) ... Helen of Troy
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) (Warner Bros.) ... Leonora Penderton
The Comedians (1967) (MGM) ... Martha Pineda
Boom (1968) (Universal) ... Flora Goforth
Secret Ceremony (1968) (Universal) Leonora
Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) (Universal) ... Courtesan (uncredited)
The Only Game in Town (1970) (20th Century Fox) ... Fran Walker
Zee and Co. (1972) (Columbia) ... Zee Blakeley ... aka X, Y and Zee
Under Milk Wood (1973) (Altura Films International) ... Rosie Probert
Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (Cinerama Releasing Corporation) ... Jimmie Jean Jackson
Night Watch (1973) (Avco Embassy Pictures) ... Ellen Wheeler
Ash Wednesday (1973) (Paramount) ... Barbara Sawyer
The Driver's Seat (1974) (Rizzoli Film S.p.a.) ... Lise
The Blue Bird (1976) (20th Century Fox) ... Queen of Light
A Little Night Music (1977) (New World Pictures) ... Desiree Armfelt
Winter Kills (1979) (Avco Embassy Pictures) ... Lola Comante (uncredited)
The Mirror Crack'd (1980) (Associated Film Distribution) ... Marina Rudd
Il Giovane Toscanini (1988) (RAI) ... Nadina Bulichoff
The Flintstones (1994) (Universal) ... Pearl Slaghoople |
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