ELIZABETH TAYLOR Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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ELIZABETH TAYLOR

Name: Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor                                                           
Born: 27 February 1932 Hampstead, London, England                                         
                                                                                           
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (born 27 February 1932) is a two-time                       
Academy Award-winning English American actress. Known for her acting skills and           
beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle including many marriages, she is               
considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood’s golden years, as well as a         
larger-than-life celebrity.                                                               
                                                                                           
The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh among the Greatest Female Stars           
of All Time.                                                                               
                                                                                           
Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of north-west London, the                 
second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897 – 1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1896         
– 1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard         
Taylor, was born in 1929.                                                                 
                                                                                           
Her two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor,           
who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond. Taylor was born both a British subject and           
an American citizen, the former by being born on British soil under the                   
principle of jus soli, and the latter through her parents under the principle of           
jus sanguinis.                                                                             
                                                                                           
Both of her American parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her               
father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was             
Sara Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in           
1926 in New York.                                                                         
                                                                                           
At the age of three, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. Shortly after the             
beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to           
avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, while her father remained           
in London to wrap up matters in the art business. They settled in Los Angeles,             
California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.                         
                                                                                           
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), which drew favorable             
attention. That movie starred child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Elizabeth               
would share a lifelong friendship. After a few more movies, the second on loan-out         
to 20th Century Fox, she first 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 US$4 million at the box-office,       
and she was signed to a long-term contract. Gene Tierney originally was offered           
the role in MGM's National Velvet but production was delayed so Tierney signed             
with Fox.                                                                                 
                                                                                           
She attended school on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot and received a diploma from             
University High School in Los Angeles on January 26, 1950, the same year she was           
first married at age 18.                                                                   
                                                                                           
Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for             
her performances in BUtterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie             
Fisher, and again for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which co-starred             
then-husband Richard Burton and the Supporting Actress Oscar-winner, Sandy                 
Dennis.                                                                                   
                                                                                           
Taylor was nominated for Raintree County (1957) with Montgomery Clift, Cat on a           
Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with               
Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.                                         
                                                                                           
In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time when she               
accepted US$1 million to play the title role in the lavish production of                   
Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. It was during the filming of that movie that she           
worked for the first time with future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark             
Antony. Movie magazines, the forerunners of today's tabloids, had a field day             
when Taylor and Burton began an affair during filming; both stars were married             
to other people at the time. She was even accused by a Vatican newspaper of               
having descended into "erotic vagrancy." A lot of people thought of Elizabeth             
Taylor as a "Scarlet Woman." She and many others disagreed with that strongly.             
Richard Burton was quoted as saying: "You'd be surprised at the morals of many             
women stars who are regarded by the public as goody-two-shoes. They leap into             
bed with any male in grabbing distance. That's what makes me mad when I read               
stuff hinting Liz is a scarlet woman because she's been married five times. She's         
only had five men in her life whereas those goody-two-shoes have lost count."             
                                                                                           
She has also 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 gossip columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland           
opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper, and also appeared in the mini-series     
North and South. In 2001, she played an agent in These Old Broads. She has also           
appeared on a number of other TV shows, including the soap operas General                 
Hospital and All My Children and the animated The Simpsons; once as herself, and           
the other as the voice of Maggie.                                                         
                                                                                           
Taylor has also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in             
1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a               
production of Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her           
former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton Taylor Theatre in Oxford           
was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the             
Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of the Marlowe play.                 
Elizabeth Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by           
Faustus to 'make [him] immortal with a kiss'.                                             
                                                                                           
In November 2004, Taylor announced that she had been diagnosed with congestive             
heart failure, a condition in which the heart pumps insufficient amounts of               
blood throughout the body. She has broken her back five times, had both her hips           
replaced, survived a benign brain tumor operation, skin cancer, and has faced             
life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice. She is reclusive and sometimes               
fails to make scheduled appearances due to illness or other personal reasons.             
She now uses a wheelchair and when asked about it she said that she has                   
osteoporosis and was born with scoliosis.                                                 
                                                                                           
In 2005 she was a vocal supporter of her friend Michael Jackson in his trial in           
California on charges of sexually abusing a child. He was acquitted.                       
                                                                                           
In recent years, Taylor reportedly became closely attached to her pet dog,                 
saying that she went nowhere without her little Maltese named Sugar. In                   
an interview with American magazine W, Taylor said she was happiest while with             
husbands Todd and Burton, but now has to be content with Sugar for company. She           
explains, "I've never loved a dog like this in my life. It's amazing. Sometimes           
I think there's a person in there. There's something to say for this kind of               
love - it's unconditional."  In June 2005, Taylor's beloved dog                           
Sugar died. However, several months later (in September) she purchased a                   
descendant of Sugar which she named Daisy.                                                 
                                                                                           
It was reported on April 27, 2006 that Taylor was close to death.                         
This was quickly denied by Taylor's publicist, Dick Guttman. "Dick Guttman says           
that he can refute every allegation in these published reports. In fact, he says           
they didn't get anything right. Guttman says Taylor has a very busy life, with             
her successful perfume and jewelry lines and the work she does for the fight               
against AIDS."  On May 30, 2006, she appeared on Larry King Live                           
to refute the claims that she has been ill, and denied the allegations that she           
was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was close to death.                             
                                                                                           
In late August 2006 Taylor decided to take a boating trip to help prove that she           
was not even close to death. She also decided to make Christie's auction house             
the primary place where she will sell her jewelry, artwork, clothing, furniture,           
and memorabilia (September 2006).                                                         
                                                                                           
In October 2006, it was widely reported that Taylor would be marrying her                 
photographer Firooz Zahedi, 17 years her junior. Taylor responded by                       
asserting that she and Zahedi "never have been and will never be romantically             
involved."                                                                                 
                                                                                           
The February 2007 issue of Interview magazine devoted itself entirely to                   
Elizabeth Taylor--a celebration of her life, career and her upcoming seventy-fifth         
birthday.                                                                                 
                                                                                           
On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady             
Maria Shriver inducted Taylor into the California Hall of Fame, located at The             
California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.                                         
                                                                                           
She was in news once more recently for a rumored 9th marriage to her constant             
companion Jason Winters. This has been dismissed as a rumour. However she is               
quoted as saying, "Jason Winters is one of the most wonderful men I've ever               
known and that's why I love him. He bought us the most beautiful house in Hawaii           
and we visit it as often as possible," to celebrated gossip columnist Liz                 
Smith. Dame Elizabeth and Jason Winters enjoy spending time together in Dame               
Elizabeth's home in Bel Air as well as in both of Winters' homes located in Palm           
Springs and Hawaii. He also accompanied her to Macy's Passport 2007 where she             
was honored with the Humanitarian Award as well as to her performance of A.R.             
Gurney's, Love Letters in 2007, escorting her down the red carpet at both events.         
                                                                                           
On December 1, 2007, Taylor and James Earl Jones gave a benefit performance of             
the A.R. Gurney play Love Letters, to raise $1 million for Taylor's AIDS                   
foundation. Tickets for the show were priced at $2,500 and more than 500 people           
attended. This event happened to coincide with the 2007 Writers Guild of America           
strike and, rather than cross the picket line, Taylor requested a "one night               
dispensation". The Writers Guild agreed not to picket the Paramount Pictures lot           
that night, to allow for the performance.