Biography

Born:27 February 1932, Hampstead, London, England, UK
Death:March 23, 2011(2011-03-23) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California, United States
Real name:Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
Personal life
Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands:
Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (6 May 1950 – 29 January 1951) (divorced)
Michael Wilding (21 February 1952 – 26 January 1957) (divorced)
Michael Todd (2 February 1957 – 22 March 1958) (widowed)
Eddie Fisher (12 May 1959 – 6 March 1964) (divorced)
Richard Burton (15 March 1964 – 26 June 1974) (divorced)
Richard Burton (again) (10 October 1975 – 29 July 1976) (divorced)
John Warner (4 December 1976 – 7 November 1982) (divorced)
Larry Fortensky (6 October 1991 – 31 October 1996) (divorced)
Facts:
-Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born at Heathwood, her parents' home at 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb,a northwestern suburb of London; the younger of two children of Francis Lenn Taylor and Sara Viola Warmbrodt, who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929. Her parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Francis Taylor was an art dealer, and Sara was a former actress whose stage name was "Sara Sothern". Sothern retired from the stage in 1926 when she married Francis in New York City. Taylor's two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor.
-A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, she was born British, through her birth on British soil and an American citizen through her parents. She reportedly sought, in 1965, to renounce her United States citizenship, to wit: "Though never accepted by the State Department, Elizabeth renounced in 1965. Attempting to shield much of her European income from U.S. taxes, Elizabeth wished to become solely a British citizen. According to news reports at the time, officials denied her request when she failed to complete the renunciation oath, refusing to say that she renounced "all allegiance to the United States of America."
-Soon after settling in Los Angeles, Taylor's mother discovered that Hollywood people "habitually saw a movie future for every pretty face." Some of her mother's friends, and even total strangers, urged her to have Taylor screen tested for the role of Bonnie Blue, Scarlett's child in Gone with the Wind, then being filmed. Her mother refused the idea, as a child actress in film was alien to her. And in any regard, they would return to England after the war.
-Lassie Come Home starred child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Taylor would share a lifelong friendship. Upon its release in 1943, the film received favorable attention for both McDowall and Taylor. On the basis for her performance in Lassie Come Home MGM signed Taylor to a conventional seven-year contract at $100 a week but increasing at regular intervals until it reached a hefty $750 during the seventh year. Her first assignment under her new contract at MGM was a loan-out to 20th Century Fox for the character of Helen Burrows in a film version of the Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre (1944). During this period she also returned to England to appear in another Roddy McDowall picture for MGM, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).
-The teenage Taylor was reluctant to continue making films. Her stage mother forced Taylor to relentlessly practice until she could cry on cue and watched her during filming, signaling to change her delivery or a mistake. Taylor met few others her age on movie sets, and was so poorly educated that she needed to use her fingers to do basic arithmetic. When at age 16 Taylor told her parents that she wanted to quit acting for a normal childhood, however, Sara Taylor told her that she was ungrateful: "You have a responsibility, Elizabeth. Not just to this family, but to the country now, the whole world".
-Her first box office success in an adult role came as Kay Banks in the romantic comedy Father of the Bride (1950), alongside Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. The film spawned a sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951), which Taylor's costar Spencer Tracy summarized with "boring… boring… boring". The film did well at the box office but it would be Taylor's next picture that would set the course for her career as a dramatic actress.
-Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the early 1950s Elizabeth appeared in film after film with mostly good results. Her busiest year was 1954, with roles in Rhapsody (1954), Beau Brummell (1954), The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and Elephant Walk (1954). She was 22 now, and even at that young age was considered one of the world's great beauties. In 1955 she appeared in the hit Giant (1956) with James Dean.
-Following a more substantial role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in George Stevens' epic Giant (1956), Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress four years in a row for Raintree County (1957) opposite Montgomery Clift; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Paul Newman; Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge; and finally winning for BUtterfield 8 (1960).The film co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher[6] and ended her contract, which Taylor said had made her an "MGM chattel" for 18 years.
-Suddenly, Last Summer's success made Taylor among the top ten most successful actors at the box office, and she remained in the top ten almost every year for the next decade.In 1960, Taylor became the highest paid actress up to that time when she signed a $1 million dollar contract to play the title role in 20th Century Fox's lavish production of Cleopatra, which was released in 1963. During the filming, she began a romance with her future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony in the film. The romance received much attention from the tabloid press, as both were married to other spouses at the time.Taylor ultimately received $7 million for her role.
-Elizabeth star in Raintree County (1957), an overblown epic made, partially, in Kentucky. Critics called it dry as dust. Despite the film's shortcomings, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Southern belle Susanna Drake. However, on Oscar night the honor went to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (1957). In 1958 Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).
-The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for an Academy Award for best actress, but this time she lost to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958). She was still a hot commodity in the film world, though. In 1959 she appeared in another mega-hit and received yet another Oscar nomination for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Once again, however, she lost out, this time to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959). Her Oscar drought ended in 1960 when she brought home the coveted statue for her flawless performance in BUtterfield 8 (1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man. Some critics blasted the movie but they couldn't ignore her performance. There were no more films for Elizabeth for three years. She left MGM after her contract ran out, but would do projects for the studio later down the road. In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time--as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000.
-Burton and Taylor would star together in several films during the decade, including The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), and in Franco Zeffirelli's 1967 production of The Taming of the Shrew. Following her second Oscar win, Taylor continued to appear in major films such as John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) opposite Marlon Brando (replacing Montgomery Clift,[7] who died before production began) and The Comedians (with Burton again, also 1967). However, by the end of the decade her box-office drawing power had considerably diminished, as evidenced by the failure of The Only Game in Town (1970), with Warren Beatty.[8]
-Cleopatra was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton (the previous four were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd--who died in a plane crash--and Eddie Fisher). Her next handful of films were lackluster at best, especially 1963's The V.I.P.s (1963), which was shredded by most critics. Elizabeth was to return to fine form, however, with the role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her performance as the loudmouthed, shrewish, unkempt Martha was easily her finest to date.
-Taylor starred in the 1980 mystery film The Mirror Crack'd, based on an Agatha Christie novel. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV film Malice in Wonderland opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper. Taylor appeared in the miniseries North and South. Her last theatrical film was 1994's The Flintstones. In 2001, she played an agent in the TV film These Old Broads. She appeared on a number of television series, including the soap operas General Hospital and All My Children, as well as the animated series The Simpsons—once as herself, and once as the voice of Maggie Simpson, uttering one word, "Daddy".
-Taylor and Michael Jackson developed a close friendship. On October 6, 1991, Taylor married construction worker Larry Fortensky at Jackson's Neverland Ranch.In 1997, Jackson presented Taylor with the exclusively written-for-her epic song "Elizabeth, I Love You", performed on the day of her 65th birthday celebration.
-Taylor struggled with health problems much of her life; starting with her divorce from Hilton, Taylor experienced serious medical issues whenever she faced problems in her personal life.Taylor was hospitalized more than 70 times and had at least 20 major operations.Many times newspaper headlines erroneously announced that Taylor was close to death; she herself only claimed to have almost died on four occasions.
-Taylor constantly gained and lost significant amounts of weight, reaching both 119 pounds and 180 pounds in the 1980s. She smoked cigarettes into her mid-fifties, and feared she had lung cancer in October 1975 after an X-ray showed spots on her lungs, but was later found not to have the disease.Taylor broke her back five times, had both her hips replaced, had a hysterectomy, suffered from dysentery and phlebitis, punctured her esophagus, survived a benign brain tumor operation in 1997 and skin cancer, and faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice, one in 1961 requiring an emergency tracheotomy. In 1983 she admitted to having been addicted to sleeping pills and painkillers for 35 years.Taylor was treated for alcoholism and prescription drug addiction at the Betty Ford Clinic for seven weeks from December 1983 to January 1984, and again from the autumn of 1988 until early 1989.
-In February 2011, new symptoms related to heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment, where she remained until her death at age 79 on March 23, 2011, surrounded by her four children.
-She was buried in a private Jewish ceremony, presided over by Rabbi Jerry Cutler, the day after she died, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Taylor is entombed in the Great Mausoleum, where public access to her tomb is restricted.[75] At her request, the funeral began 15 minutes after it was scheduled to begin; as her representative told the media "She even wanted to be late for her own funeral."

Photos

Filmography and Tribute

These Old Broads (2001) (TV) .... Beryl Mason
The Flintstones (1994) .... Pearl Slaghoople
Sweet Bird of Youth (1989) (TV) .... Alexandra Del Lago
Il giovane Toscanini (1988) .... Nadina Bulichoff
Poker Alice (1987) (TV) .... Alice Moffit
There Must Be a Pony (1986) (TV) .... Marguerite Sydney
"North and South" .... Madam Conti (6 episodes, 1985)
Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV) .... Louella Parsons
Between Friends (1983) (TV) .... Deborah Shapiro
The Mirror Crack'd (1980) .... Marina Rudd
A Little Night Music (1977) .... Desiree Armfeldt
Victory at Entebbe (1976) (TV) .... Edra Vilnofsky
The Blue Bird (1976) .... Queen of Light/Mother/Witch/Maternal Love
Identikit (1974) .... Lise
Ash Wednesday (1973) .... Barbara Sawyer
Night Watch (1973) .... Ellen Wheeler
Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) (TV) .... Jane Reynolds
Hammersmith Is Out (1972) .... Jimmie Jean Jackson
Under Milk Wood (1972) .... Rosie Probert
Zee and Co. (1972) .... Zee Blakeley
The Only Game in Town (1970) .... Fran Walker
Secret Ceremony (1968) .... Leonora
Boom (1968) .... Flora 'Sissy' Goforth
The Comedians (1967) .... Martha Pineda
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) .... Leonora Penderton
Doctor Faustus (1967) .... Helen of Troy
The Taming of the Shrew (1967) .... Katharina
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) .... Martha
The Sandpiper (1965) .... Laura Reynolds
The V.I.P.s (1963) .... Frances Andros
Cleopatra (1963) .... Cleopatra
BUtterfield 8 (1960) .... Gloria Wandrous
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) .... Catherine Holly
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) .... Margaret 'Maggie the Cat' Pollitt
Raintree County (1957) .... Susanna Drake
Giant (1956) .... Leslie Benedict
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) .... Helen Ellswirth/Wills
Beau Brummell (1954) .... Lady Patricia Belham
Elephant Walk (1954) .... Ruth Wiley
Rhapsody (1954) .... Louise Durant
The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) .... Jean Latimer
Ivanhoe (1952) .... Rebecca
Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) .... Anastacia (Stacie) Macaboy
A Place in the Sun (1951) .... Angela Vickers
Father's Little Dividend (1951) .... Kay Dunstan
Father of the Bride (1950) .... Katherine 'Kay' Banks
The Big Hangover (1950) .... Mary Belney
Conspirator (1949) .... Melinda Greyton
Little Women (1949) .... Amy
Julia Misbehaves (1948) .... Susan Packett
A Date with Judy (1948) .... Carol Pringle
Cynthia (1947) .... Cynthia Bishop
Life with Father (1947) .... Mary Skinner
Courage of Lassie (1946) .... Kathie Eleanor Merrick
National Velvet (1944) .... Velvet Brown
Jane Eyre (1944) (uncredited) .... Helen Burns
Lassie Come Home (1943) .... Priscilla
There's One Born Every Minute (1942) .... Gloria Twine

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