About Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was born in London on February 27, 1932, to American parents, and moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939 as war closed in on Europe. She was in front of a camera at ten and a star at twelve: "National Velvet" (1944) made her, almost overnight, the girl every studio wanted — a role she reportedly willed herself to grow three inches to win. Fame arrived before adolescence did. She would spend the next several decades as one of the most photographed women alive, and by the time most people her age were finishing school, she had already lived an entire public life.
The performances only deepened from there — "A Place in the Sun," "Giant," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" — and in 1961 she won her first Academy Award, for "BUtterfield 8," a film she made under contractual obligation and never liked, months after nearly dying of pneumonia in London so seriously that an emergency tracheotomy left a scar she carried the rest of her life. The next year, filming the epic "Cleopatra" — then the most expensive film ever made — she met Richard Burton; their affair became the biggest scandal in Hollywood and the start of a marriage she would enter twice. She won a second Oscar in 1967, for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" She married eight times in all, Burton twice, and lived every one of them in full public view.
When her friend Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, at a moment when much of Hollywood and Washington stayed silent, Taylor did not. She co-founded amfAR that same year and became its public face, later founding the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991, testifying before Congress and spending the fame that had defined her whole life to make the disease impossible to look away from. She died in Los Angeles on March 23, 2011, of congestive heart failure, at seventy-nine.
A Life in Time
- 1932: Born February 27 in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, to American parents
- 1939: Family relocates to Los Angeles as war approaches in Europe
- 1942: Film debut at age ten in "There's One Born Every Minute"
- 1944: "National Velvet" released. At twelve, she becomes a star.
- 1950: First marriage, to hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. — divorced within eight months
- 1951: "A Place in the Sun" with Montgomery Clift brings her first serious critical notice
- 1956: "Giant," with Rock Hudson and James Dean, the last film Dean completed before his death
- 1957: Marries producer Mike Todd; "Raintree County" brings her first Oscar nomination
- 1958: Todd is killed in a plane crash. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," with Paul Newman, is released the same year.
- 1959: Marries singer Eddie Fisher, her late husband's best friend, in a scandal that briefly cost her public favor
- 1961: Nearly dies of pneumonia in London; an emergency tracheotomy leaves a permanent scar. Months later, wins her first Academy Award for "BUtterfield 8."
- 1961–1963: Filming "Cleopatra," then the most expensive film ever made, she meets co-star Richard Burton; their affair becomes an international scandal
- 1964: Marries Richard Burton
- 1967: Wins a second Academy Award for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
- 1974: Divorces Burton
- 1975: Remarries Burton in Botswana
- 1976: Divorces Burton a second time; marries U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia
- 1985: Friend Rock Hudson dies of AIDS. Taylor co-founds amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and becomes its public face.
- 1991: Marries Larry Fortensky at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, with Jackson as host. Founds the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
- 2001: Receives the Presidential Citizens Medal for her AIDS philanthropy
- Mar 23, 2011: Dies in Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, at seventy-nine
Connected lives
- Montgomery Clift · Co-star · A Place in the Sun
- Rock Hudson · Co-star · Giant · amfAR
- Michael Jackson · Neverland wedding · birthday song
- amfAR · Co-founder · 1985
- Richard Burton · Married twice · 1964 and 1975
- London · Birthplace
- Los Angeles · Died there · 2011
- Paul Newman · Co-star · Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
- Roddy McDowall · Child co-stars · Lassie Come Home
- Mike Todd · Married 1957
- MGM · Studio home from childhood
- Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation · Founded 1991
- James Dean · Co-star · Giant