Elizabeth Taylor is a former child actress who became an adult superstar. Said for a time to be the most beautiful woman in the world, she has remained the last of the great stars to conduct her life in the glamorous style of old Hollywood. The voluptuous, violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor has appeared in more than 50 films and has won two Best Actress Oscars in a career that has been limited mostly to serious dramatic roles.
Born in England to American parents, she didn't return to the United States until just before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, whereupon her family settled in Los Angeles. Her father opened an art gallery in the ritzy Chateau Elysee Hotel, and several influential people in the movie business who visited the gallery took notice of the young Elizabeth Taylor. Universal and MGM vied for her when she was 10 years old, and Universal signed her and put her in one movie, There's One Born Every Minute (1942). She was dropped after the film, and the casting director at Universal was quoted as saying, "The kid has nothing," earning himself a dubious place in film history.
Elizabeth Taylor was always beautiful, even as a child, and she managed to get a second chance at MGM, which put her in a couple of Lassie movies and loaned her to other studios for a few featured roles in such major productions as Jane Eyre (1944) and Life with Father (1947). But her most important childhood role was as the star of MGM's National Velvet (1944). Elizabeth Taylor continued acting in adolescent roles throughout the 1940s, but she never went through that difficult young ingenue period that destroyed so many child actresses' careers. Elizabeth Taylor exhibited a very rapid physical growth, becoming a stunning young woman while still in her teens. In fact, she was courted by none other than billionaire Howard Hughes when she was just 17.
Elizabeth Taylor was still 17 when she married her first husband, Nicky Hilton, heir to the Hilton Hotel chain. But even before the marriage, she was playing older, more-sophisticated parts, such as Robert Taylor's wife in Conspirator (1950), Van Johnson's love interest in The Big Hangover (1950), and the future wife in her biggest hit of the new decade, Father of the Bride (1950). She was no doubt happier with her fictional husband in the latter movie than she was with Nicky Hilton; the couple divorced mere months after marrying.
The 1950s was certainly Elizabeth Taylor's best decade in terms of quality films. The combinations of good scripts, increasingly fine acting on her part, and her startling beauty made for a long list of memorable movies. Among Elizabeth Taylor's many triumphs during the decade were A Place in the Sun (1951), in which she began her long and passionate platonic relationship with actor Montgomery Clift, The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly Last Summer (1959). She received Best Actress Academy Award nominations for the latter three.
During the 1950s, Elizabeth Taylor became the focus of considerable publicity. After her marriage to Michael Wilding (1952–57), she became Mrs. Mike Todd until Todd's tragic death in a plane crash one year later, bringing her the sympathy of millions of movie fans. That sympathy turned to sneers when she suddenly married Eddie Fisher in 1959, taking him away from the wholesome DEBBIE REYNOLDS. Ironically, Eddie Fisher had been the best man at her wedding to Todd, just as Debbie Reynolds had been her matron of honor. The affair made for great copy, but Elizabeth Taylor was saddled with the image of homewrecker.
In the meantime, she starred in the mediocre Butterfield 8 (1960) and won an Oscar for her performance, though many suggest that she was really given the award in recognition for her past performances. In any event, her personal popularity was still exceedingly low until she came down with a rare form of pneumonia, requiring a tracheotomy to save her life. Finally, public opinion softened.
Elizabeth Taylor's most famous film, Cleopatra (1963), marked the first time an actress was offered $1 million to appear in a movie. She actually received $2 million (thanks to the enormous delays in the filming) after her contract was renegotiated to $10,000 per week. On the set of Cleopatra, she met British actor Richard Burton and began a love affair that lasted two decades, eventually marrying Burton twice.
Throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, Elizabeth Taylor and Burton starred together in a seemingly endless series of mediocre movies. Only two were genuinely noteworthy: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which she won her second Oscar, and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). Many of the others, especially the early films, were box-office winners despite their poor quality.
Elizabeth Taylor's last critical and commercial success was Secret Ceremony (1968). Her subsequent films, such as Ash Wednesday (1974), The Blue Bird (1976), and A Little Night Music (1977) were all flops. The Mirror Crack'd (1980) brought her mixed reviews in what was, essentially, a parody of her own image. She received greater attention, though, when she married the future senator from Virginia, John Warner, in 1976; it was her seventh marriage and lasted until 1981.
Beset by weight problems and recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, Elizabeth Taylor was unable to find suitable vehicles in movies throughout the 1980s. While she did star in Franco Zeffirelli's Young Toscanini, the movie was never released after its initial public screening at the 1988 Venice Film Festival. She worked primarily in the theater and in television, appearing in special made-for-cable movies and in a featured role in the network miniseries, North and South.
Elizabeth Taylor appeared with Mark Harmon in a made-for-television remake of Sweet Bird of Youth (1989); in the film she played an egotistical, has-been movie star, much like GLORIA SWANSON's role in Sunset Boulevard - and, of course, there are similarities between Elizabeth Taylor and her role. In 1994, she was a voice in The Flintstones. She has been much more successful peddling perfume - her 10th perfume appeared in 2002.
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