Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (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.
Elizabeth Taylor (née Coles; July 3, 1912 - November 19, 1975) was a popular English novelist and short story writer. Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.
In 1936, she married John Micael, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.
Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.
Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.
She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.
Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interst has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" which will be released in early 2007. American director Dan Ireland's screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" came out in this country first in 2006 and has made close to $1 million. A British distributor picked it up at Cannes, and the movie will be released in England in the fall of 2007.
Elizabeth Taylor (8 January, 1856 - March, 1932) was an American artist, journalist, botanist and traveller. Her travel essays from Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway were published in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Atlantic Monthly, Forest and Stream and others. Some of her essays are published in The Far Islands and Other Cold Places (ISBN 1-880654-11-3).
During World War I she was marooned at Eiði in the Faroe Islands, where she was a probable influence on Faroese painting pioneer Niels Kruse. She died at her cottage Wake Robin in Vermont, in 1932.
Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor (February 22 1916 - February 2 1977) was a Canadian athlete who competed mainly in the 80 metre Hurdles.
Born in Ingersoll, Ontario, she competed for Canada in the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Berlin, Germany in the 80 metre hurdles where she won the bronze medal.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in London, England, on February 27, 1932. Although she was born an English subject, her parents were Americans, art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri (her father had gone to London to set up a gallery). Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married. Elizabeth lived in London until the age of seven, when the family left for the US when the clouds of war began brewing in Europe in 1939. They sailed without her father, who stayed behind to wrap up the loose ends of the art business. The family relocated to Los Angeles, where Mrs. Taylor's own family had moved. Mr. Taylor followed not long afterward. A family friend noticed the strikingly beautiful little Elizabeth and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. Her test impressed executives at Universal Pictures enough to sign her to a contract. Her first foray onto the screen was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM. The first production she made with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), and on the strength of that one film, MGM signed her for a full year. She had minuscule parts in her next two films, White Cliffs of Dover, The (1944) and Jane Eyre (1944) (the former made while she was on loan to 20th Century-Fox). Then came the picture that made Elizabeth a star: MGM's National Velvet (1944). She played Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney (I). The film was a smash hit, grossing over $4 million. Elizabeth now had a long-term contract with MGM and was its top child star. She made no films in 1945, but returned in 1946 in Courage of Lassie (1946). In 1947, when she was 15, she starred in Life with Father (1947) with such heavyweights as William Powell (I), Irene Dunne and Zasu Pitts. Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the early 1950s Elizabeth appeared in film after film with mostly good results. Her busiest year was 1954, with roles in Rhapsody (1954), _Beau Brummell (1954/I)_ , Last Time I Saw Paris, The (1954) and Elephant Walk (1954). She was 22 now, and even at that young age was considered one of the world's great beauties. In 1955 she appeared in the hit Giant (1956) with James Dean (I). Sadly, Dean never saw the release of the film, as he died in a car accident in 1955. The next year saw Elizabeth star in Raintree County (1957), an overblown epic made, partially, in Kentucky. Critics called it dry as dust. Despite the film's shortcomings, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Southern belle Susanna Drake. However, on Oscar night the honor went to Joanne Woodward (I) for Three Faces of Eve, The (1957). In 1958 Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for an Academy Award for best actress, but this time she lost to Susan Hayward (I) in I Want to Live! (1958). She was still a hot commodity in the film world, though. In 1959 she appeared in another mega-hit and received yet another Oscar nomination for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Once again, however, she lost out, this time to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959). Her Oscar drought ended in 1960 when she brought home the coveted statue for her flawless performance in BUtterfield 8 (1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man and later dies in an auto accident. Some critics blasted the movie but they couldn't ignore her performance. There were no more films for Elizabeth for three years. She left MGM after her contract ran out, but would do projects for the studio later down the road. In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time--as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000. This was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton (I) (the previous four were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd (I)--who died in a plane crash--and Eddie Fisher). Her next handful of films were lackluster at best, especially 1963's V.I.P.s, The (1963), which was shredded by most critics. Elizabeth was to return to fine form, however, with the role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her performance as the loudmouthed, shrewish, unkempt Martha was easily her finest to date. For this she would win her second Oscar and one that was more than well-deserved, but her films afterward didn't approach the intensity of that one. Since then she has appeared in several movies, both theatrical and made-for-television, and a number of TV programs. In February 1997 Elizabeth entered the hospital for the removal of a brain tumor. The operation was successful. As for her private life, she divorced Burton in 1974, only to remarry him in 1975 and divorce him, permanently, in 1976. She has had two husbands since, Senator John Warner (IV) and Larry Fortensky.
Liz was a leading child star by the age of 12 after her performance in MGM's National Velvet (1944). It wasn't long before she was knocking critics dead as a serious adult actress with films like Giant (1956), Raintree County (1957) and BUtterfield 8 (1960). She reigned the box office from 1958-68 as the quintessential movie star taking the breath away from viewers with her glamorous looks and those velvet eyes. Her film career floundered in the 1970s with a string of unusual and unsuccessful films. Her personal life has been a tempest of love affairs, unsuccessful marriages and multiple medical problems. Upon the death of her friend, Rock Hudson in 1985, she began her crusade on the behalf of AIDS sufferers. In the 1990s, she has also developed a successful series of scents. Her acting career has been relegated to the occasional tv-movie or TV guest appearance.
Elizabeth Taylor is considered one of the last, if not the last major star, to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. And not just any studio, the top of the heap: MGM. Her early movies, as a child in the early 1940s, starred such Hollywood luminaries as Orson Welles and Spencer Tracy. She quickly grew up, however, and by 1950 was, if not starring in, assuming major responsibilities for the success of motion pictures she appeared in. Then with major roles onscreen, came worldwide attention off-screen, most notably due to a succession of famous and/or rich husbands and a series of health crises throughout her life. To put it simply, Elizabeth Taylor has lived a life far more exciting and dramatic than any movie she's ever appeared in and probably most any other movie you could name. She's known internationally for her beauty, especially for those violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early on in her youth and has kept the world hooked on ever since. She's won the Oscar twice and she's earned her place in and out of the sun.
