Elizabeth Taylor

Biography

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. Her parents were Americans, Francis Taylor, an art dealer, and Sara Sothern, a former stage actress. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1939, just before World War II began, a decision that changed Taylor's life and set her on the path to a legendary career in the American film industry. She started her education at Byron House School in London, but after moving to the U.S., MGM talent scouts noticed her striking looks and natural talent at a young age.

Taylor's film debut came in 1942, and she became internationally known with her role in National Velvet in 1944, marking her as one of Hollywood's most promising young stars. As she grew from a child star to an adult actress in the late 1940s and 1950s, she showed significant dramatic skill in movies like A Place in the Sun, Giant, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her role in Butterfield 8 won her the first of two Academy Awards for Best Actress in 1961, and she earned her second Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967.

Besides her acting career, Taylor was one of the most talked-about public figures of the 20th century, partly due to her eight marriages to seven men. Her husbands included Conrad Hilton Jr., actor Michael Wilding, producer Mike Todd, singer Eddie Fisher, politician John Warner, and construction worker Larry Fortensky. Her two marriages to Welsh actor Richard Burton, whom she met during the filming of Cleopatra in 1962, were highly publicized and defined a certain era of celebrity culture. Their intense relationship fascinated the public through the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1980s, Taylor focused much of her efforts on humanitarian work, becoming a leading celebrity advocate for HIV/AIDS research and awareness during a time when the disease was heavily stigmatized. She co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and launched the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991, raising hundreds of millions for treatment, research, and support services. Her openness about the crisis helped draw attention to a neglected health issue.

Taylor received many honors for her achievements in both acting and humanitarian efforts, such as the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1993, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1999, and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1999. France named her a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, she received the Presidential Citizens Medal, and she was awarded the Marian Anderson Award in 2000. She wrote her memoir, Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir, and was a significant cultural figure until she passed away from congestive heart failure in Los Angeles on March 23, 2011, at the age of seventy-nine.