Profile of Elizabeth Taylor on Famous Like Me

Dame Elizabeth Taylor, DBE, (born February 27, 1932) is an Academy Award winning actress. She has long resided in the United States (and was once a dual American citizen), but she has always been a British subject.

Early life and career

She was born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor in Hampstead, London, England, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (December 28, 1897-November 20, 1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (August 21, 1896-September 11, 1994), who were Americans working in Britain. Her older brother is Howard Taylor (born 1929).

Though sometimes referred to as "Liz," she is not fond of that name. She prefers her given name to be pronounced Eee-lizabeth. Her given and middle names were in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond.

Taylor was born with dual British and American citizenship. Her American parents were both originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was Sara Viola Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Lenn Taylor married in 1926 in New York. Although most of Taylor's ancestry is English, she has German heritage from her maternal grandfather, Samuel Sylvester Warmbrodt, and Italian ancestry from her paternal great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Perigo.

At the age of three, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. After the UK entered 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). This drew favorable attention. After a couple more movies, the second on loan-out to 20th Century Fox, she 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 $4,000,000 at the box-office, and she was signed to a long term contract.

She attended school on the MGM lot and University High School in Los Angeles, where she received her diploma on January 26, 1950, the same year she was first married at age 18.

Mature career and marriages

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 then 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) opposite Montgomery Clift, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Paul Newman, and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.

In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time when she accepted $1,000,000 to play the title role in the lavish production of Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. And it was during the filming of that movie that she worked for the first time with future husband, Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony.

She has been married eight times to seven husbands:

• Hotel heir Nicky Hilton (married May 6, 1950-divorced January 29, 1951)
• Actor Michael Wilding (married February 21, 1952-divorced January 26, 1957)
• Producer Mike Todd (married February 2, 1957-his death March 22, 1958)
• Singer Eddie Fisher (married May 12, 1959-divorced March 6, 1964)
• Actor Richard Burton (married March 15, 1964-divorced June 26, 1974)
• Actor Richard Burton (2nd Marriage) (married October 10, 1975-divorced July 29, 1976)
• Senator John Warner (married December 4, 1976-divorced November 7, 1982)
• Teamster construction-equipment operator Larry Fortensky (married October 6, 1991-divorced October 31, 1996)

Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward Wilding (born February 27, 1955). She and Todd had one daughter, Elizabeth Frances Todd, called "Liza," (born August 6, 1957). And in 1964, she and Fisher started adoption proceedings for a daughter, whom Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (born August 1, 1961). During her marriage to Fisher, Taylor converted to Judaism (having been born into the Christian Science faith). She remains Jewish to this day, referring to herself as such several times.

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 (as the voice of Maggie).

Taylor has also acted on 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.

After marrying Richard Burton, Taylor relinquished her American citizenship, and is now a "permanent resident" of the U.S. After marrying Republican Senator John Warner, of Virginia, she received a "green card" and keeps her British passport.

Other interests

Taylor has a passion for jewelry. Over the years, she has owned a number of well known pieces, two of the most talked about being the 33.19 carat (6.638 g) Krupp Diamond and the 69.42 carat (13.884 g) pear shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond, which were among many dazzling gifts from husband Richard Burton. Her enduring collection of jewelry has been eternalized with her book My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002). In 2005, she partnered with Jack and Monty Abramov of Mirabelle Luxury Concepts in Los Angeles to introduce the House of Taylor Jewelry. She has also launched two perfumes, "Passion" and "White Diamonds," that together earn an estimated $200,000,000 in annual sales.

Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson. She also created her own AIDS foundation. By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated $50,000,000 to fight the disease.

In the early 1980s, she moved to Bel-Air, California, which is her current home. The fenced and gated property is on tour maps sold at street corners and is frequently passed by tour guides.

Awards and honours

Taylor received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1992. The following year, 1993, she received the AFI Life Achievement Award. And in 2002, she was a Kennedy Center Honoree.

In 1999, she was awarded a DBE by the British government and Queen Elizabeth II. Though she was thrilled with this honor, Taylor cracked, "I've always been a broad, now I'm a dame."

Elizabeth Taylor's hand and foot prints are immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6336 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

On November 10th, 2005 Taylor will receive the Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment.

Recent years

In November 2004, Taylor announced that she has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a terminal condition in which the heart pumps insufficient amounts of blood throughout the body. She has broken her back five times, has 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.

In 2005, she was a vocal supporter of her old friend, Michael Jackson, in his trial in California on charges of sexually abusing a child. He was ultimately acquitted.

In recent years, Taylor has reportedly become closely attached to her pet dog, saying that she goes 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 2005 she purchased a descendant of Sugar which she named Daisy. Taylor is reported in ill health and reported to have plans for ashes to be spread in Cardiff, Wales after her death.

Filmography

• There's One Born Every Minute (1942) (Universal) ... Gloria Twine
• Lassie Come Home (1943) (MGM) ... Priscilla
• The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) (MGM) ... Betsy at 10 (uncredited)
• Jane Eyre (1944) (20th Century Fox) ... Helen Burns (uncredited)
• National Velvet (1944) (MGM) ... Velvet Brown
• Courage of Lassie (1946) (MGM) ... Kathie Merrick
• Life with Father (1947) (MGM) ... Mary
• Cynthia (1947) (MGM) ... Cynthia Bishop
• A Date with Judy (1948) (MGM) ... Carol Pringle
• Julia Misbehaves (1948) (MGM) ... Susan Packett
• Little Women (1949) (MGM) ... Amy March
• Conspirator (1949) (MGM) ... Melinda Greyton
• The Big Hangover (1950) (MGM) ... Mary Belney
• Father of the Bride (1950) (MGM) ... Kay Banks
• Quo Vadis? (1951) (MGM) ... Christian prisoner in arena (uncredited)
• Father's Little Dividend (1951) (MGM) ... Kay "Kitten" Dunston
• A Place in the Sun (1951) (Paramount) ... Angela Vickers
• Love Is Better Than Ever (1952) (MGM) ... Anastacia "Stacie" Macaboy
• Ivanhoe (1952) (MGM) ... Rebecca
• The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) (MGM) ... Jean Latimer
• Rhapsody (1954) (MGM) ... Louise Durant
• Elephant Walk (1954) (Paramount) ... Ruth Wiley
• Beau Brummell (1954) (MGM) ... Lady Patricia
• The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) (MGM) ... Helen Ellswirth/Wills
• Giant (1956) (Warner Bros.) ... Leslie Lynnton Benedict
• Raintree County (1957) (MGM) ... Susanna Drake
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) (MGM) ... Maggie "The Cat" Pollitt
• Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) (Columbia) ... Catherine Holly
• Scent of Mystery (1960) (Michael Todd Company) ... the real Sally Kennedy (uncredited)
• BUtterfield 8 (1960) (MGM) ... Gloria Wandrous
• Cleopatra (1963) (20th Century Fox) ... Cleopatra
• The V.I.P.s (1963) (MGM) ... Frances Andros
• The Sandpiper (1965) (MGM) ... Laura Reynolds
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (Warner Bros.) ... Martha
• The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (Columbia) ... Katharina
• Doctor Faustus (1967) (Columbia) ... Helen of Troy
• Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) (Warner Bros.) ... Leonora Penderton
• The Comedians (1967) (MGM) ... Martha Pineda
• Boom (1968) (Universal) ... Flora Goforth
• Secret Ceremony (1968) (Universal) Leonora
• Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) (Universal) ... Courtesan (uncredited)
• The Only Game in Town (1970) (20th Century Fox) ... Fran Walker
• Zee and Co. (1972) (Columbia) ... Zee Blakeley ... aka X, Y and Zee
• Under Milk Wood (1973) (Altura Films International) ... Rosie Probert
• Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (Cinerama Releasing Corporation) ... Jimmie Jean Jackson
• Night Watch (1973) (Avco Embassy Pictures) ... Ellen Wheeler
• Ash Wednesday (1973) (Paramount) ... Barbara Sawyer
• Divorce His/Divorce Hers (1973) (made for TV) (Simitar Entertainmen) ... Jane Reynolds
• The Driver's Seat (1974) (Rizzoli Film S.p.a.) ... Lise
• Victory At Entebbe (1976)
• The Blue Bird (1976) (20th Century Fox) ... Queen of Light
• A Little Night Music (1977) (New World Pictures) ... Desiree Armfelt
• Winter Kills (1979) (Avco Embassy Pictures) ... Lola Comante (uncredited)
• The Mirror Crack'd (1980) (Associated Film Distribution) ... Marina Rudd
• Between Friends (1983) (made for cable movie) ... Deborah Shapiro
• Il Giovane Toscanini (1988) (RAI) ... Nadina Bulichoff
• The Flintstones (1994) (Universal) ... Pearl Slaghoople
• These Old Broads (2001) (made for TV) (Columbia/Tristar Studios) ... Beryl Mason

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