Elizabeth Taylor

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February 27, 1932

March 23, 2011

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor

Larry Fortensky (6 October 1991 - 31 October 1996) (divorced)

John Warner (4 December 1976 - 7 November 1982) (divorced)

Richard Burton (10 October 1975 - 1 August 1976) (remarried) (divorced)

Richard Burton (15 March 1964 - 26 June 1974) (divorced) 1 child

Eddie Fisher (12 May 1959 - 6 March 1964) (divorced)

Michael Todd (2 February 1957 - 22 March 1958) (his death) 1 child

Michael Wilding (21 February 1952 - 30 January 1957) (divorced) 2 children

Conrad Hilton Jr. (6 May 1950 - 1 February 1951) (divorced)

Actress

2001 God, the Devil and Bob (TV series) (voice)

2001 These Old Broads (TV movie)

1994 The Flintstones

1992 The Simpsons (TV series) (voice)

1992 Captain Planet and the Planeteers (TV series) (voice)

1989 Sweet Bird of Youth (TV movie)

1988 Il giovane Toscanini

1987 Poker Alice (TV movie)

1986 There Must Be a Pony (TV movie)

1985 North and South (TV mini-series)

1985 Malice in Wonderland (TV movie)

1984 Hotel (TV series)

1984 All My Children (TV series)

1983 Between Friends (TV movie)

1981 General Hospital (TV series)

1980 The Mirror Crack'd

1979 Winter Kills (uncredited)

1978 Hallmark Hall of Fame (TV series)

1977 A Little Night Music

1976 Victory at Entebbe (TV movie)

1976 The Blue Bird

1974 Identikit

1973 Ash Wednesday

1973 Night Watch

1973 Divorce His - Divorce Hers (TV movie)

1972 Hammersmith Is Out

1972 Under Milk Wood

1972 Zee and Co.

1970 The Only Game in Town

1969 Anne of the Thousand Days (uncredited)

1968 Secret Ceremony

1968 Boom

1967 The Comedians

1967 Reflections in a Golden Eye

1967 Doctor Faustus

1967 The Taming of the Shrew

1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

1965 The Sandpiper

1963 The V.I.P.s

1963 Cleopatra

1960 BUtterfield 8

1960 Scent of Mystery (uncredited)

1959 Suddenly, Last Summer

1958 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

1957 Raintree County

1956 Giant

1954 The Last Time I Saw Paris

1954 Beau Brummell

1954 Elephant Walk

1954 Rhapsody

1953 The Girl Who Had Everything

1952 Ivanhoe

1952 Love Is Better Than Ever

1951 Quo Vadis (uncredited)

1951 A Place in the Sun

1951 Father's Little Dividend

1950 Father of the Bride

1950 The Big Hangover

1949 Conspirator

1949 Little Women

1948 Julia Misbehaves

1948 A Date with Judy

1947 Cynthia

1947 Life with Father

1946 Courage of Lassie

1944 National Velvet

1944 The White Cliffs of Dover (uncredited)

1943 Jane Eyre (uncredited)

1943 Lassie Come Home

1942 There's One Born Every Minute

Producer

1967 The Taming of the Shrew (producer - uncredited)

1967 Oz: The Tin Woodman's Dream (short) (executive producer)

1963 The Caretaker (associate producer - uncredited)

Appearances

2009 Access Hollywood (TV series)

2009 Moonwalking: The True Story of Michael Jackson - Uncensored (video documentary)

2006-2008 Entertainment Tonight (TV series)

2007 ITV Lunchtime News (TV series)

2007 Canada A.M. (TV series)(uncredited)

2006 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (TV series)

1993-2006 Larry King Live (TV series)

2005 Corazón de... (TV series)

2003 Biography (TV series documentary)

2003 Elizabeth Taylor: Facets (TV movie)

2002 The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (TV movie)

2002 Intimate Portrait (TV series documentary)

1999-2002 E! True Hollywood Story (TV series documentary)

2002 Fashion Police Cannes 2002 (TV movie)

2002 E! Goes to Cannes! (TV series)

2002 Leute heute (TV series documentary)

2002 Searching for Debra Winger (documentary) (uncredited)

2001 Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration (TV special) (uncredited)

2001 The Rosie O'Donnell Show (TV series)

2001 George Stevens and His Place in the Sun (video short)

2001 Gran premio galà della TV (TV series)

2001 The 58th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV movie)

2001 AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Barbra Streisand (TV special documentary)

2001 Cannes: Through the Eyes of the Hunter (documentary short)

2001 Hollywood Legends: Elizabeth Taylor and Shirley Temple (video documentary)

2000 Stars and Bras (TV documentary)

2000 Elizabeth Taylor: England's Other Elizabeth (TV documentary)

2000 Elizabeth Taylor: A Musical Celebration (TV documentary)

1999 Michael Jackson and Friends: A Concert for Kosovo's Children (TV special)

1999 A Celebration: 100 Years of Great Women (TV special documentary)

1999 The 51st British Academy Film Awards (TV movie)

1999 Get Bruce (documentary) (uncredited)

1999 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars: America's Greatest Screen Legends (TV special documentary)

1998 Hollywood Aids (TV documentary)

1997 Town Meeting with Diane Sawyer: Celebrities vs. the Press (TV special documentary)

1997 20/20 (TV series documentary)

1997 Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life (TV special)

1996 High Society (TV series)

1996 The Nanny (TV series)

1996 Murphy Brown (TV series)

1996 Can't Hurry Love (TV series)

1996 Late Show with David Letterman (TV series)

1996 Elizabeth Taylor (TV documentary)

1996 James Dean: A Portrait (TV documentary)(uncredited)

1995 Primetime Live (TV series documentary)

1995 How to Be Absolutely Fabulous (TV documentary short)

1994 The Jackson Family Honors (TV special)

1994 The Johnny Carson Collection, His Favorite Moments from 'The Tonight Show': 1962-1992 (video)

1993 Audrey Hepburn Remembered (TV documentary)

1993 The Simpsons (TV series) (voice)

1993 The American Film Institute Salute to Elizabeth Taylor (TV special documentary)

1993 The 65th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1993 TNT Extra: A Very Special Conversation with Elizabeth Taylor (TV documentary)

1993 Good Morning America (TV series)

1993 Michael Jackson Talks to... Oprah Live (TV special) (uncredited)

1992 The Whoopi Goldberg Show (TV series)

1992 In a New Light: A Call to Action in the War Against AIDS (TV documentary)

1992 The Freddie Mercury Tribute: Concert for AIDS Awareness (TV special)

1992 The 64th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1992 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (TV series)

1991 A Closer Look: Elizabeth Taylor (TV documentary short)

1990 7th Annual American Cinema Awards (TV special)

1990 Marilyn: Something's Got to Give (TV documentary)

1989 The 3rd Annual Soul Train Music Awards (TV special)

1989 America's All-Star Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (TV documentary)

1989 Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (documentary)

1989 AIDS: The Global Explosion (TV documentary)

1988 Who Gets the Friends? (TV movie) (uncredited)

1988 The Phil Donahue Show (TV series)

1988 Aspel & Company (TV series)

1980-1988 Today (TV series)

1988 Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues (video documentary)

1987 Hour Magazine (TV series)

1987 The 59th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1987 Men, Women, Sex & AIDS (TV movie) (uncredited)

1986 One Voice (TV special)

1986 Liberty Weekend (TV special documentary)

1986 Bob Hope's High-Flying Birthday (TV movie)

1986 The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (TV special documentary)

1986 An All-Star Celebration Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. (TV documentary)

1984 Unrehearsed Antics of the Stars (TV documentary)

1983 Montgomery Clift (documentary)

1982 Star-Studded Spoof of the New TV Season, G-Rated, with Glamour, Glitter and Gags (TV special)

1982 Genocide (documentary)(voice)

1982 Night of 100 Stars (TV special)

1982 Women I Love: Beautiful But Funny (TV movie)

1981 Stand Up and Cheer for the National Football League's Sixtieth Year (TV special)

1981 The 35th Annual Tony Awards (TV special)

1981 All-Star Comedy Birthday Party from West Point (TV special)

1981 NBC White Paper (TV series)

1981 The South Bank Show (TV series documentary)

1981 NBC Nightly News (TV series)

1979 The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts (TV special)

1978 General Electric's All-Star Anniversary (TV documentary)

1978 Happy Birthday, Bob (TV special)

1977 An All-Star Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (TV documentary)

1977 The Barbara Walters Special (TV series)

1976 The 48th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1974 ABC's Wide World of Entertainment (TV series)

1974 That's Entertainment! (documentary)

1974 The 46th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1974 Just One More Time (short) (uncredited)

1970-1972 The David Frost Show (TV series)

1970 Here's Lucy (TV series)

1970 The 42nd Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1968 Around the World of Mike Todd (TV documentary)

1968 On Location: Where Eagles Dare (documentary short)(uncredited)

1967 The Heart of Show Business (TV movie)

1967 The Comedians in Africa (documentary short) (uncredited)

1966 The Sammy Davis, Jr. Show (TV series)

1965 The Big Sur (documentary short)

1965 A Statue for 'The Sandpiper' (documentary short)

1964 Freedom Spectacular (TV movie)

1964 Hollywood and the Stars (TV series)

1964 On the Trail of the Iguana (documentary short)(uncredited)

1963 Elizabeth Taylor in London (TV documentary)

1962 Lykke og krone (documentary)

1961 The 33rd Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1959 Sunday Showcase (TV series)

1959 Premier Khrushchev in the USA (documentary)

1959 The 31st Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1957 Playhouse 90 (TV series)

1957 A Private Little Party for a Few Chums (TV documentary)

1957 Person to Person (TV series documentary)

1957 The 29th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1957 Operation Raintree (documentary short)(uncredited)

1954-1956 The Ed Sullivan Show (TV series)

1955 Warner Pathé News Issue # 87 (documentary short)

1955 'Giant' Stars Are Off to Texas (documentary short) (uncredited)

1954 What's My Line? (TV series)

1954 A Star Is Born World Premiere (TV short)

1954 The 26th Annual Academy Awards (TV special)

1951 Callaway Went Thataway(uncredited)

Academy Awards

1993 Won Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award

1967 Won Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Elizabeth Taylor was not present at the awards ceremony. Anne Bancroft accepted the award on her behalf.

1961 Won Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role for: BUtterfield 8 (1960).

1960 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role for: Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

1959 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role for: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

1958 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role for: Raintree County (1957).

American Film Institute

1993 Won Life Achievement Award

BAFTA Awards

1999 Won Academy Fellowship

1968 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best British Actress for: The Taming of the Shrew (1967).

1967 Won BAFTA Film Award Best British Actress for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

1959 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Foreign Actress for: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). USA.

BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards

2005 Won Britannia Award Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment

Bambi Awards

1968 Won Bambi

Berlin International Film Festival

1972 Won Silver Berlin Bear Best Actress for: Hammersmith Is Out (1972).

CableACE Awards

1984 Nominated ACE Actress in a Dramatic or Theatrical Program for: Between Friends (1983) (TV).

David di Donatello Awards

1972 Won David Best Foreign Actress (Migliore Attrice Straniero) for: Zee and Co. (1972).

Film Society of Lincoln Center

1986 Won Gala Tribute

GLAAD Media Awards

2000 Won Vanguard Award

Golden Apple Awards

1985 Won Golden Apple Female Star of the Year

Golden Globes

1985 Won Cecil B. DeMille Award

1974 Won Henrietta Award World Film Favorite - Female

1974 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for: Ash Wednesday (1973).

1969 Nominated Henrietta Award World Film Favorite - Female

1967 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

1966 Nominated Henrietta Award World Film Favorite - Female

1961 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for: BUtterfield 8 (1960).

1960 Won Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama for: Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

1957 Won Special Award For consistent performance.

Hasty Pudding Theatricals, USA

1977 Won Woman of the Year

Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards

1967 Won KCFCC Award Best Actress for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Laurel Awards

1971 Nominated Golden Laurel Star, Female 6th place.

1968 Nominated Golden Laurel Female Star 7th place.

1967 Won Golden Laurel Female Dramatic Performance for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

1967 Won Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Female Star

1966 Won Golden Laurel Female Star

1966 Won Golden Laurel 3rd place Golden Laurel Dramatic Performance, Female for: The Sandpiper (1965).

1965 Won Golden Laurel Female Star

1964 Won Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Top Female Star

1963 Won Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Top Female Star

1962 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Female Star 6th place.

1961 Nominated Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Female Dramatic Performance for: BUtterfield 8 (1960).

1961 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Female Star

1960 Won Golden Laurel Top Female Dramatic Performance for: Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

1960 Won Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Top Female Star

1959 Won Golden Laurel Top Female Dramatic Performance for: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).

1959 Won Golden Laurel 2nd place Golden Laurel Top Female Star

1958 Won Golden Laurel Top Female Dramatic Performance for: Raintree County (1957).

1958 Nominated Golden Laurel Top Female Star 4th place.

National Board of Review, USA

1967 Won NBR Award Best Actress for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

1966 Won NYFCC Award Best Actress for: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Tied with Lynn Redgrave for Georgy Girl (1966).

Screen Actors Guild Awards

1998 Won Life Achievement Award

Taos Talking Picture Festival

2001 Won Maverick Award

Walk of Fame

Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture At 6336 Hollywood Blvd.

Women in Film Crystal Awards

1985 Won Crystal Award

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Elizabeth Taylor made her screen debut at the age of ten in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), but soon passed from a proletarian Universal Studios contract to the classier confines of MGM, where she was cast alongside sleekly beautiful animals in Lassie Come Home (1943) and National Velvet (1944). Her performance as Velvet Brown, a young girl with a love of horses who goes on to win the Grand National, was a huge box-office hit, and launched Taylor as MGM's biggest child star. With her long-term film contract established, she literally grew up onscreen, taking respectable, cute teenage roles in Life with Father (1947), Cynthia (1947), Julia Misbehaves (1948), and Little Women (as Amy, 1949), then necessarily maturing as Spencer Tracy's married-off-and-soon-expecting daughter in Father of the Bride (1950) and Father's Little Dividend (1951).

One of cinema's greatest beauties in the 1950s and blessed with clear, expressive Anglo-American tones - she was born in England to American parents - Taylor is an icon of everything poor-boy Montgomery Clift aspires to in George Stevens's A Place in the Sun (1951). Her evident classiness inclined her to period pictures: as the Jewess in Ivanhoe (1952) - so devastating that costar Robert Taylor insisted he be shot from above the waist lest the camera notice the bulge she produced in his tights in their scenes together - a Regency lady in Beau Brummell (1954), and a Southern belle in Raintree County (1957). She gravitated toward more "important" movies with Stevens's Giant (1956), in which the whole cast gets to grow old with layers of makeup, and - playing up her much-discussed offscreen love life - began to specialize in steaminess. Her turn as a planter's wife in Elephant Walk (1954), misty behind mosquito nets, was just a warm-up for two major Tennessee Williams nymphomaniacs: slutty in a slip as Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and mentally unstable in a white bathing suit in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).

Taylor won a Best Actress Academy Award as another disreputable woman in Butterfield 8 (1960), and was then cast in the title role of Cleopatra (1963), which teamed her with Richard Burton for the first time. This film became a watchword for all manner of excesses, though Taylor's attempt at a performance was buried under all the costumes and decor. Taylor and Burton began a very public affair during the filming of Cleopatra, even though both were married to other people at the time. It was the start of an on-off relationship that saw the pair married and divorced twice in 11 years. She went on to star with Burton in a run of overheated, fairly kitschy vehicles ranging from glossy soap (The Sandpiper, 1965) to bizarre art efforts like Boom (1968), as another Tennessee Williams madwoman, and Doctor Faustus (1967), in which she was silent as a vision of Helen of Troy.

From drama queen to dame

Playing on their notoriously tempestuous offscreen romance, Taylor and Burton were archly cast in The Taming of the Shrew (1967) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). To rub in the ascendance of a star over an actor, Taylor won another Oscar for her impressively monstrous turn as Martha in Virginia Woolf, whereas often-nominated Burton never did. She was good in little-seen movies such as Secret Ceremony (1968) and The Only Game in Town (1970), in which she plays well with next-generation stars Mia Farrow and Warren Beatty, and Zee and Co. (1972), another riff on her gossip-column homewrecker image. However, the 1970s brought only feeble star vehicles (Night Watch, 1973; Identikit, 1974) and camp cameos (The Blue Bird, 1976; Victory at Entebbe, 1976; The Mirror Crack'd, 1980).

Never out of the tabloids, with more marriages and weight fluctuations, Taylor finally retired to TV - to play Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland (1985), more Tennessee Williams in Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), an ensemble with Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, and Joan Collins in These Old Broads (2001). A Dame of the British Empire since 1999, Taylor was last sighted in cinemas as Pearl Slaghoople in The Flintstones (1994).

Le Scandale

"You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal." Of all people, Elizabeth Taylor should know. She began her career as a serial bride at age eighteen, thus starting a lifetime of gossip columns, adultery, and lots of husbands:

- Conrad Hilton Jr. (1950-1951). Taylor was married to the hotel heir for just nine months. It was an abusive relationship.

- Michael Wilding (1952-1957) was 20 years older, and Taylor soon got bored.

- Michael Todd (1957-1958). Todd's death in a plane crash cut short an extravagant marriage marked by lavish gifts.

- Eddie Fisher (1959-1964) was a friend of Todd and knew Taylor well. Debbie Reynolds was unceremoniously ditched by Fisher for the forceful femme fatale.

- Richard Burton (1964-1974; 1975-1976). In what Burton later dubbed "le scandale," the pair began an intense, alcohol-fueled love affair on the set of Cleopatra. Taylor was condemned by the Vatican for her actions. Both were notoriously hot-tempered and the marriage failed. Twice.

- John Warner (1976-1982). Suffering chronic back pain and weight problems, Taylor adopted a sedentary lifestyle during her marriage to the U.S. Senator.

- Larry Fortensky (1991-1996) was a construction worker who refused to be "polished" by Taylor. Plagued by illness, she soon grew tired of the effort.

I had a hollow leg. I could drink everyone under the table and not get drunk. My capacity was terrifying.

My mother says I didn't open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring. I was hooked.

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells.

Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.

You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal.

Underwent successful surgery to remove the benign brain tumor. [20 February 1997]

Has appeared solo on the cover of PEOPLE magazine 14 times

At one point during her life-threatening illness while filming BUtterfield 8 (1960), she was actually pronounced dead.

First actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role (in Cleopatra (1963)).

Has owned some of the world's most magnificent jewelry, including the the 33-carat "Krupp Diamond", the Duchess of Windsor diamond brooch, the Grand Duchess of Russia emeralds, the "LaPeregina Pearl" (which was a Valentine present from her from Richard Burton), and the famous pear-shaped 69-carat "Burton-Cartier Diamond" Burton gave her in 1969 (subsequently renamed the "Burton-Taylor Diamond."

Considered Michael Jackson among her closest friends.

Announced in November 2004 she has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure

Underwent radiation therapy in 2002 for basal cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer.

Was a frequent guest at the infamous "Studio 54"

Has had three hip replacements.

Received $500,000 divorce settlement from Conrad Hilton Jr., 1951.

In 2006, she donated $500,000 to the New Orleans AIDS Task Force to purchase mobile medical unit for AIDS sufferers in New Orleans.

Hospitalized with congestive heart failure and pneumonia in July 2008 and was briefly on a life support machine.

Has a street named after her in Iowa City, Iowa.

Underwent heart surgery in October 2009 to repair a leaky valve.

Was a heavy smoker until being mistakenly diagnosed with lung cancer in October 1975.

On Monday evening, November 8, 2010, Andy Warhol's "Men in Her Life," a 1962 painting based on an image of Elizabeth Taylor between husbands, was auctioned at Phillips de Pury & Company's new salesroom on Park Avenue in New York City. An unidentified bidder bought it for $63.3 million.

Salary

The Flintstones (1994) $2,500,000

Poker Alice (1987) (TV) $500,000

Malice in Wonderland (1985) (TV) $1,000,000

The Mirror Crack'd (1980) $250,000

Winter Kills (1979) $100,000

The Only Game in Town (1970) $1,250,000

Secret Ceremony (1968) $1,000,000

Boom (1968) $1,250,000

The Comedians (1967) $500,000

The Taming of the Shrew (1967) 50% of the net profits (Co-producer)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) $1,100,000 + 10% of the gross

The Sandpiper (1965) $1,000,000

Elizabeth Taylor in London (1963) (TV) £ 250,000

Cleopatra (1963) $1,000,000 + 10% of the gross

BUtterfield 8 (1960) $150,000

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) $500,000

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) $4,750 per week

Giant (1956) $175,000

Ivanhoe (1952) $5,500/week

A Place in the Sun (1951) $1,500/week

Courage of Lassie (1946) $750/week

Lassie Come Home (1943) $100 a week

There's One Born Every Minute (1942) $200 a week.

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