Birth name:Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor Birth:27 February 1932 Died:23 March 2011 Nationality:
Career / Biography
Elizabeth Taylor was almost as well known for her private life as for her acting. She was married eight times including to Richard Burton (twice) and Eddie Fisher. She started her career as a child star in National Velvet. Even as a child she had a natural beauty and showed star quality and for her she made a smooth transition through a teenager and then as an adult. It was A Place In The Sun that firmly moved her into adult roles as she played opposite Montgomery Clift She wanted to be known as a serious actor rather than a just a beauty as she developed in Ivanhoe. Giant was an action film that moved her up into working with some top actors. Cat On Hot Tin Roof was a film that showed her as a great actress in a good literary adaptation. Although she won an Oscar for Butterfield Eight it was not a film she liked as MGM insisted she it was part of her contract.
She then had a million dollar contract with Twentieth Century Fox for Cleopatra. This film had many problems but was where she fell in love with Richard Burton. This started the idea that the life of the stars was as important as the film they were making. She worked with him in the one of her best performances in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf where she was the frumpy wife rather than the glamorous wife. Together they then worked in Franco Zeffirelli's European production of Taming Of The Shrew. They appeared in Under Milk Wood but then the tempestuous relationship ended.
She was a major international film star in the 1950's and 1960's. She appeared in a variety of film types some of which have become significant films including the historical drama Cleopatra and the social comment of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf.
