Elizabeth Taylor, an actress of exceptional beauty and talent, passed away on March 23, she was 79.
As has been blaring over all the radio stations, television channels, and tomorrow, the newspapers, a Hollywood icon, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, passed away from heart failure Wednesday morning at the age of 79.
An English-American actress who received her big break at age 9, she was born to American citizen parents in Hampstead, London, and at the beginning of World War II, came to America with her parents who wanted to avoid the brewing hostilities. Her parents were encouraged by a friend to introduce a young Elizabeth to the chairman of Universal Pictures in Hollywood, who was convinced that Elizabeth would dazzle the chairman with her looks. Unsurprisingly, a contract was secured in 1941, with Taylor making her debut in There’s One Born Every Minute, which would be her only film for Universal. She was not popular with Universal, and her contract was canceled in 1942, allowing MGM to secure her for Lassie Come Home.
MGM was impressed with her performance in Lassie, and they signed her to a seven year contract where she would eventually play Velvet Brown in National Velvet, a film that would propel her to stardom at the ripe old age of 12. She quickly earned a reputation as a skilled young actor before ending her adolescent roles with Little Women before traveling back to England to begin filming her first adult role. She would eventually be hailed as a skilled dramatic actress, with roles in films being designed just for her. She would eventually star in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (which would win her a BAFTA), Celopatra, and would win her first Academy Award for BUtterfield 8 in 1960; Taylor would win her second Academy Award for her performance in
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.
Taylor would eventually marry co-star Richard Burton, who played Cleopatra's lover, Marc Antony
Elizabeth Taylor loved more than just the stage, she was the owner of a number of very well-known and beautiful pieces of jewelery, including the 33 carat Krupp Diamond and the 69 Carat Taylor-Burton Diamond, both gifts from 5th and 6th husband Richard Burton, along with a pearl which had once belonged to Mary I of England. She also designed jewels and launched three perfumes, devoted time and energy to her own AIDS foundation, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which has raised approximately $50 million towards fighting the disease.
Likely the thing most notable with Taylor was her marriages and affairs. Stereotypically Hollywood in her romantic affairs, Taylor ended more than just her own marriages, as she was linked to more than one married man who often divorced their previous spouse to be with her, only to be single a few years later. She was married eight times to seven different men, divorced seven times and widowed once. She divorced Richard Burton twice, and convinced an Iranian ambassador, whom she left Burton to be with, to divorce his own spouse so they could form a relationship, but an Iranian Shah convinced him to end his relationship with her before they could marry.
Elizabeth Taylor leaves behind four children, ten grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and a legacy as an actress of exceptional talent and beauty. She will be missed.
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