HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY. SCREEN LEGEND. OSCAR WINNER. ACTIVIST.

Full Name: Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
Born: February 27, 1932
Birthplace: London, England
Died: March 23, 2011
Parents: Francis Lenn Taylor, art dealer; Sara Sothern, stage actress
Citizenship: British and American
Film Debut: There’s One Born Every Minute (1942)
Breakthrough: National Velvet (1944)

AIN STORY
Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the silver screen—but reducing Elizabeth Taylor to her beauty misses the extraordinary actress behind those legendary violet-blue eyes.
With her dark hair, luminous complexion, glamorous style and unmistakable screen presence, Taylor possessed the kind of beauty Hollywood could manufacture careers around. But beneath the image was a fearless performer who grew from one of Hollywood's most famous child stars into a formidable dramatic actress, two-time Academy Award winner, international celebrity and one of the defining screen icons of the 20th century.
Born in London to American parents, Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles as a child as Europe moved toward war. Her remarkable appearance quickly attracted Hollywood's attention. She made her screen debut in There’s One Born Every Minute in 1942 and, after joining MGM, began the transformation from child performer to movie star.
Then came National Velvet.
At only twelve years old, Taylor starred opposite Mickey Rooney in the beloved 1944 classic, establishing herself as far more than another pretty Hollywood child. Audiences watched her grow up on screen through films including Courage of Lassie, Life with Father, Father of the Bride and A Place in the Sun.
The child star became a leading lady.
And then the leading lady became an actress Hollywood could no longer underestimate.
Taylor increasingly pursued emotionally demanding roles that challenged the glamorous image surrounding her. In Giant she shared the screen with Rock Hudson and James Dean. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, opposite Paul Newman, she brought Tennessee Williams' Maggie the Cat to life with sensuality, frustration, intelligence and ferocious emotional force. In Suddenly, Last Summer, opposite Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift, Taylor again demonstrated that her beauty could coexist with extraordinary dramatic intensity.
She won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 and her second for one of the most celebrated performances of her career, Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
For Virginia Woolf, Taylor deliberately stripped away the glamorous Elizabeth Taylor image audiences knew. Playing opposite Richard Burton, she delivered a bruising, volatile and deeply human performance that helped permanently silence anyone who believed beauty rather than talent had created her career.
Then there was Cleopatra.
The enormous 1963 production became one of the most famous—and famously troubled—films ever made. Taylor's unprecedented salary helped make her one of the highest-paid performers in Hollywood, while her relationship with co-star Richard Burton ignited an international media frenzy.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton became one of the most famous couples on Earth.
They married. Divorced. Married each other again. And divorced again.
Taylor ultimately married eight times to seven men, and the fascination surrounding her private life became nearly as intense as the attention surrounding her movies. But the headlines sometimes obscured the larger truth: Elizabeth Taylor survived the Hollywood studio system, child stardom, worldwide celebrity, turbulent relationships, serious illnesses and relentless tabloid scrutiny while continuing to reinvent herself.
Her greatest legacy may extend far beyond the screen.
During the AIDS crisis, when fear, misinformation and stigma caused many public figures to remain silent, Taylor became one of the most visible and determined celebrity advocates for people living with HIV/AIDS. She helped raise enormous sums for research and care, co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and later established the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
She used the very fame Hollywood had given her to demand attention for people the world was too often willing to ignore.
Elizabeth Taylor received numerous honors during her lifetime, including the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and in 2000 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Her life contained almost every ingredient of a Hollywood epic: child stardom, legendary beauty, great performances, Oscars, enormous salaries, diamonds, scandals, marriages, illness, survival, reinvention and humanitarian work.
But ultimately, Elizabeth Taylor's enduring power came from something more important.
She refused to be merely looked at.
She demanded to be heard.
ESSENTIAL FILMS
National Velvet (1944)
Life with Father (1947)
Father of the Bride (1950)
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Giant (1956)
Raintree County (1957)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
BUtterfield 8 (1960)
Cleopatra (1963)
The Sandpiper (1965)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
AWARDS & HONORS
Academy Award — Best Actress: BUtterfield 8
Academy Award — Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire: 2000

PERSONAL LIFE
Marriages: Eight marriages to seven men, including two marriages to Richard Burton
Children: Four
Taylor's marriages and romances generated enormous press attention, particularly her relationships with Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton. Her partnership with Burton became one of Hollywood's defining celebrity love stories, both on screen and off.
AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
Elizabeth Taylor's celebrated eye color was frequently described as violet, an effect heightened by her dark hair, makeup, lighting and an unusual genetic feature: distichiasis, which gave her an extra row of eyelashes and helped create the extraordinary appearance of her eyes.
Taylor was only twelve when National Velvet made her a major star.
She and Giant co-star Rock Hudson developed a close friendship that lasted for decades. Hudson's death from AIDS-related complications in 1985 helped galvanize Taylor's already growing commitment to fighting the AIDS epidemic.
Taylor's romance with Richard Burton began during the production of Cleopatra, turning an already spectacularly expensive movie into an international cultural event.
For Cleopatra, Taylor negotiated a landmark contract reportedly paying her $1 million, with additional compensation provisions that ultimately made the production extraordinarily lucrative for her.
Her transformation in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was deliberately unglamorous. Makeup, costuming, physicality and Taylor's own performance helped turn one of the world's most glamorous movie stars into the exhausted, furious and wounded Martha.
Her friendship with Montgomery Clift extended beyond their films together. After Clift suffered a devastating automobile accident following a party at Taylor's home in 1956, Taylor rushed to him at the crash scene and stayed with him until medical help arrived.
Taylor became one of the earliest major Hollywood celebrities to commit herself publicly and persistently to the AIDS crisis at a time when doing so carried considerable social stigma.
Her legendary jewelry collection became almost as famous as she was, including spectacular pieces associated with Richard Burton such as the Taylor-Burton Diamond and the historic La Peregrina pearl.