June Carter Cash
Musical Monikers
Madonna
Justin Bieber
My Ghost Story
I Survived
Babe Ruth
Johnny Cash
Georgia O'Keefe
I Survived
Quick Facts
- NAME: Elizabeth Taylor
- OCCUPATION: Film Actress
- BIRTH DATE: February 27, 1932
- DEATH DATE: March 23, 2011
- PLACE OF BIRTH: London, England
- PLACE OF DEATH: Los Angeles, California
- Nickname: Liz Taylor
- Full Name: Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE
- Originally: Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
- AKA: Elizabeth Taylor
Best Known For
Actress Elizabeth Taylor starred in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butterfield 8, but was just as famous for her violet eyes and scandalous love life.
Videos see all videos
-
Elizabeth Taylor - Legacy (1:19)
-
-
-
Elizabeth Taylor - Giant (2:33)
Elizabeth Taylor - Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
For her performance as Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Elizabeth Taylor took home as Oscar for Best Actress.
Elizabeth Taylor - Liz and Dick
As Elizabeth Taylor's relationship with Richard Burton progressed, so did her excess spending and drinking that would become the couple's reputation.
Elizabeth Taylor - Giant
Elizabeth Taylor starred alongside Rock Hudson and James Dean in one of her most unforgettable roles in George Steven’s epic film "Giant."
Quiz
Think you know about Biography?
Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.
Play NowDame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 07:36, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991.
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991 [Accessed 24 May 2013].
"Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 07:36 http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991.
"Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991 [accessed May 24, 2013].
"Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991 (accessed May 24, 2013).
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991.
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991 (last visited May 24, 2013).
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/elizabeth-taylor-37991. Accessed May 24, 2013.
While her love life continued to make international headlines, Taylor continued to shine showed as an actress. She delivered a riveting performance in the drama A Place in the Sun, and turned things up even more in 1956 with the film adaptation of the Edna Ferber novel, Giant that co-starred James Dean. Two years later,
Contents
she sizzled on the big screen in the film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The following year, she starred in another Williams classic, Suddenly Last Summer. Taylor earned her first Oscar, capturing the coveted Best Actress award for her role as call girl in Butterfield 8 (1960).
Personal Life in the Spotlight
But Taylor's fame was also touched by tragedy and loss. In 1958, she became a young widow when her husband, pioneering film producer Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash. After his death, Taylor became embroiled in one of the greatest Hollywood love scandals of the era when she began an affair with Todd's close friend, Eddie Fisher. Fisher divorced Debbie Reynolds and married Taylor in 1959. The couple stayed married for five years until she left Fisher for actor Richard Burton.
The public's obsession with Taylor's love life hit new heights with her 1964 marriage to Richard Burton. She'd met and fallen in love with the actor during her work on Cleopatra (1963), a film that not only heightened Taylor's clout and fame, but also proved to be a staggering investment, clocking in at an unprecedented $37 million to make.
The Taylor-Burton union was a fiery and passionate one. They appeared onscreen together in the much-panned The V.I.P.'s (1963), and then again two years later for the heralded Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a film that earned Taylor her second Oscar for her role as an overweight, angry wife of an alcoholic professor, played by Burton.
The subsequent years proved to be an up-and-down affair for Taylor. There were more marriages, more divorces, health obstacles, and a struggling film career, with movies that gained little traction with critics or the movie-going public.
Later Years
Still, Taylor continued to act. She found work on television, even making a guest appearance on General Hospital, and on stage. She also began focusing more attention on philanthropy. After her close friend Rock Hudson died in 1985 following his battle with HIV/AIDS, the actress started work to find a cure for the disease. In 1991 she launched the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation in order to offer greater support for those who are sick, as well fund research for more advanced treatments.
Largely retired from the world of acting, Taylor received numerous awards for her body of work. In 1993 she received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. In 2000 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).
Taylor overcame a litany of health problems throughout the 90s, from diabetes to congestive heart failure. She had both hips replaced, and in 1997 had a brain tumor removed.
profile name: Elizabeth Taylor profile occupation:
Your Connections
Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons.
Profile Connections
Included In These Groups
-
- In this group:
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Richard Burton
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
View groupHollywood's leading lady Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times—and two of them were to Richard Burton. The two fell in love on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra, and though both were married at the time, by March 1964 they divorced their previous spouses and married each other. Their turbulent relationship kept them in the papers, and they divorced in 1974 and remarried in 1975, only to split again a year later.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton 2 people in this group
-
-
Numerous Nuptials
View groupLife imitates art in Hollywood, where passionate romances turn into short-lived marriages and quickie divorces. Numerous nuptials are one of the hallmarks of the celebrity lifestyle. Hollywood royalty Elizabeth Taylor married eight times—even more than real royalty King Henry VIII, who married six times. Here's a look at the famous individuals who tied the knot—and then tied it again, and again, and again.
Numerous Nuptials 37 people in this group
-
Famous People Involved in Sex Scandals
View groupWhat is it with celebrities and sex scandals? Like love and marriage, famous people and sex scandals just seem to go hand in hand. They're some of society's most powerful people, but these actors, politicians, athletes and musicians just can't seem to control their desires. These days it seems like if you open the closet of nearly any celebrity, some kind of (sexy) skeleton is sure to fall out. Here are the famous people who have had their naughty indiscretions—often plastered all over the front page of the newspaper.
Famous People Involved in Sex Scandals 105 people in this group
