Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
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Books
26
Awards
Elizabeth Taylor won her first Academy Award for BUtterfield 8 in 1960, a year marked by personal tragedy and a near-fatal illness. She earned a second Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. Off-screen, her eight marriages, most notably to Richard Burton, and her AIDS activism shaped her public life.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Elizabeth Taylor — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Elizabeth Taylor by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Elizabeth Taylor — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
At age seven, Elizabeth Taylor fled London with her mother in 1939 as war loomed, leaving her father to close their art gallery. Settling in Los Angeles, a family friend noticed her violet eyes and arranged a screen test at Universal Pictures. By 1944, at twelve, she starred in National Velvet, becoming MGM’s top child star and launching a career that made her a star.
In 1951, Taylor gave a breakthrough dramatic performance opposite Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens. Over the next decade, she earned three Oscar nominations before winning her first for the controversial BUtterfield 8 in 1960. Her 1966 role as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? earned her a second Oscar, co-starring with then-husband Richard Burton. Later films included Cleopatra 1963, The Taming of the Shrew 1967, and television appearances on The Simpsons.
Taylor married Conrad Hilton Jr. in 1950 at age eighteen, a union that lasted only months and was marred by abuse. Her third husband, Mike Todd, died in a 1958 plane crash, a tragedy she called the defining loss of her life. She converted to Judaism in 1959 and remained active in Jewish causes. She and Richard Burton married twice, divorcing finally in 1976. In later years, she battled numerous health problems, including a benign brain tumor removed in 1997.
Taylor used her fame to become an AIDS activist after the 1985 death of her friend Rock Hudson, co-founding the American Foundation for AIDS Research. She received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy in 1993 and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. Her jewelry auctions raised millions for charity. Her screen performances are a lasting part of Hollywood’s golden age.
Browse the complete filmography of Elizabeth Taylor — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Elizabeth Taylor — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Elizabeth Taylor's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Elizabeth Taylor — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Had a Hollow Leg. I Could Drink Everyone Under the Table and Not Get Drunk. My Capacity Was Terrifying.
My Mother Says I Didn’t Open My Eyes for Eight Days After I Was Born, but When I Did, the First Thing I Saw Was an Engagement Ring. I Was Hooked.
I Don’t Pretend to Be an Ordinary Housewife.
Success Is a Great Deodorant. It Takes Away All Your Past Smells.
Some of My Best Leading Men Have Been Dogs and Horses.
One Problem with People Who Have No Vices Is That They’re Pretty Sure to Have Some Annoying Virtues.
You Find Out Who Your Real Friends Are When You’re Involved in a Scandal.
Food Is One of Life’s Great Pleasures I Hate Dieting!
I Believe in Mind Over Matter and Doing Anything You Set Your Mind On.
I, Along with the Critics, Have Never Taken Myself Very Seriously.
Richard Came on the Set and Sort of Sidled Over to Me and Said: Has Anybody Ever Told You That You’re a Very Pretty Girl? ‘I Thought, Oy Gevalt, the Great Lover, the Great Wit, the Great Welsh Intellectual, and He Comes Out with a Corny Line Like That! but Then I Noticed His Hands Were Shaking as If He Had Saturday Night Palsy. He Had the Worst Hangover I’d Ever Seen. and He Was Obviously Terrified of Me. I Just Took Pity on Him. I Realized He Really Was Human. That Was the Beginning of Our Affair.
I Don’t Entirely Approve of Some of the Things I Have Done, or Am, or Have Been. but I’m Me. God Knows, I’m Me.
I Have the Emotions of a Child in the Body of a Woman. I Was Rushed into Womanhood for the Movies. It Caused Me Long Moments of Unhappiness and Doubt.
The Ups and Downs, the Problems and Stress, Along with All the Happiness, Have Given Me Optimism and Hope Because I Am Living Proof of Survival.
I’ve Come Through Things That Would Have Felled an Ox. That Fills Me with Optimism, Not Just for Myself but for Our Particular Species.
I Hate Being Called Liz, Because It Can Sound Like Such a Hiss.
Straight Sex, Gay Sex, Bisexual Sex, Use a Condom Whoever You Are.
If Someone’s Dumb Enough to Offer Me a Million Dollars to Make a Picture, I’m Certainly Not Dumb Enough to Turn It Down.
If I Love Somebody, I Love Them Always.
I Have to Be Stronger and More Appreciative of What I Do Have.
Every Breath You Take Today Should Be with Someone Else in Mind.
Never Let Yourself Think Beyond Your Means…mental, Emotional or Any Otherwise.
Humor Is the Only Way to Stay Alive.
A Woman Will Try and Dominate a Man. She Will Try and Get Away with It. but Really, Inside Herself, She Wants to Be Dominated. . . . She Wants the Man to Take Her. and She Wants to Lean on Him Not Have Him Lean on Her. If He Does Lean on Her, Everything Goes Slightly off Key, Like a Bad Chord. She Hopes It Will Pass, That the Guy Will Come Through. When It Doesn’t, She Begins to Needle Him. If Nothing Happens, She Goes on Needling Until He Stops Listening. at That Moment, She Becomes Bitter and He Goes Deaf. Finally, There Is No More Dialogue, They Have No Rapport.
Little-known facts about Elizabeth Taylor — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
During her life-threatening illness while filming BUtterfield 8 in 1960, she was once actually pronounced dead.
In 1963, she received at least $2.4 million while the highest paid American business executive earned $650,000 and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s salary was $150,000.
She was the first actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role, in Cleopatra 1963.
She had a tubal ligation at age 25 and a hysterectomy at age 36.
In a 1999 interview with Barbara Walters, she admitted that no movie company would insure her due to her medical problems, including a benign brain tumor and four back fractures.
She has appeared solo on the cover of PEOPLE magazine 14 times, second only to Princess Diana as of 1996.
Her third husband Mike Todd gave her a 29-carat diamond ring; fifth husband Richard Burton gave her the 69-carat Burton-Cartier diamond.
First husband Conrad Hilton Jr. was physically abusive, partly due to a drug problem.
She had planned for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 to be her final film, but after Mike Todd’s death, MGM forced her to make BUtterfield 8 1960.
In 1969, Richard Burton bought her the Burton-Cartier diamond for $1,069,000; she later auctioned it to fund a hospital in Botswana.
She had a great friendship with James Dean, who co-starred with her in Giant 1956; his sudden death in 1955 caused her to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
She became friends with Marlon Brando while shooting Reflections in a Golden Eye 1967; Brando delivered her New York Film Critics Circle Award to her in Africa.
Ex-husband Larry Fortensky underwent brain surgery after falling off a balcony in 1999; she guaranteed his medical expenses.
She owned some of the world’s most magnificent jewelry, including the Krupp Diamond and the La Peregrina Pearl.
In a 2007 interview, she revealed she had recently telephoned ex-husband Eddie Fisher for the first time in nearly forty years.
She was a close friend of Montgomery Clift until his death in 1966; she saved his life after a car accident by removing teeth from his throat.
She credited Clift with making her take acting seriously.
She auctioned her diamond-and-emerald engagement ring from Richard Burton to raise money for an AIDS charity.
She announced in 2004 she had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, but vowed to continue AIDS fundraising.
She voiced Maggie Simpson in The Simpsons episode Lisa’s First Word and portrayed herself in Krusty Gets Kancelled.
She was godmother of Prince Jackson, son of Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe.
Her Oscar win for BUtterfield 8 1960 is often attributed to sympathy after Mike Todd’s death and her near-fatal illness; Shirley MacLaine said, I lost out to a tracheotomy.
She lived in a Bel Air house once owned by Frank Sinatra when he was married to first wife Nancy.
After her son Michael renounced his American citizenship for marijuana possession, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to block his deportation in 1988.
Robert Wagner said it was useless to wait for Taylor to attend breakfast because by the time she arrived, it was time for dinner.
She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 New Year’s Honours.
She and Shirley Jones are the only actresses to win Oscars for playing prostitutes in the same year 1960.
After Mike Todd’s death, she and his son sued an airline company and were awarded $40,000.
She was a frequent guest at Studio 54.
She converted to Judaism in 1959 at Temple Israel of Hollywood, taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel.
She was unable to attend Elton John’s civil partnership ceremony in 2005 due to her illness.
She appeared on the cover of Life magazine a record 14 times, starting at age 15.
The premiere of Father of the Bride 1950 took place two days after her real-life marriage to Conrad Hilton Jr., helping the film’s success.
She is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners not to accept their award in person for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.
In 1972, Raquel Welch upset her by crashing her birthday party after being explicitly uninvited.
She appeared on Larry King Live in 2006 to refute claims she had Alzheimer’s disease.
Painful hip replacements in the mid-1990s contributed to the demise of her last marriage.
She was unable to give evidence at Michael Jackson’s trial due to illness.
She got Sharon Tate fired as an extra from The Sandpiper 1965 to avoid comparisons.
She received a $500,000 divorce settlement from Conrad Hilton Jr. in 1951.
Eddie Fisher married her 3½ hours after divorcing Debbie Reynolds.
She disliked the nickname Liz.
She underwent more than 40 operations and was hospitalized at least 100 times; she told doctors in 2010 she wanted no more life-saving surgeries.
In 2006, she donated $500,000 to the New Orleans AIDS Task Force for a mobile medical unit.
Michael Jackson’s music video Leave Me Alone 1987 was created as a tribute to her.
She had rhinoplasty in her late teens and a chin implant in her late fifties.
She returned to work seven months after giving birth to daughter Liza Todd to begin filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958.
She was a heavy smoker from ages 18 to 58, quitting after a severe bout with pneumonia in 1990.
She had four children: Michael Howard and Christopher Edward with Michael Wilding; Liza Todd with Mike Todd; and adopted daughter Maria McKeown.
In 1976, she won the title of Most Memorable Eyebrows in a magazine poll, with Lassie as first runner-up.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Elizabeth Taylor.
Celebrities similar to Elizabeth Taylor — same craft, ranked by reach.
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