Taylor, Elizabeth

Taylor, Elizabeth, 1932–, Anglo-American film actress, b. London. Regarded as one of the world's most beautiful women, Taylor went from child star to a series of ladylike roles to playing worldly, sometimes shrewish women. She won Academy Awards for her work in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her other films include National Velvet (1944), A Place in the Sun (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Cleopatra (1963), and The Mirror Crack'd (1979). She has also appeared on Broadway in such productions as The Little Foxes (1981). Taylor has been married nine times, twice to Richard Burton, with whom she co-starred in many films. She has been active in raising money for AIDS research, and was made a Dame Commander, Order of the British Empire, in 2000.

Bibliography

See her autobiography (1965); biographies by C. D. Heymann and D. Spoto (both: 1995).

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Taylor, Elizabeth (1932–  ) movie actress; born in London, England. Just before World War II, the Taylors (who were American) returned to the U.S.A. Groomed by her mother to be a movie star, she made her screen debut in There's One Born Every Minute (1942) and already showed her star quality in National Velvet (1944). After a series of relatively light roles, she parlayed her beauty and popularity into an increasingly serious acting career, and although her first Oscar—best actress, in Butterfield 8 (1960)—was voted for sentimental reasons (she had just survived a major illness), her second—for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) – was well deserved. Her private life, meanwhile, became as theatrical as her roles—she would marry seven men, including Richard Burton (twice)—and her treatment for alcohol addiction, her weight problems, and her propensity for expensive jewelry and tough talk made her the epitome of the old-fashioned Hollywood celebrity whose every move was reported. In the 1980s she appeared on stage and on television and then took on a new role as outspoken advocate of AIDS sufferers.