Elizabeth Taylor (27.02.32 - 23.03.11) Elizabeth Taylor was an English/American actress, best known for her performance as a child actor, as well as becoming a major screen actor during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Net Worth: According to The Richest, at the time of her death in 2011, Elizabeth Taylor had a net worth of 600 million USD.
Childhood: Elizabeth Taylor was born at 8 Wildwood Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, to Sara Sothern and Francis Lenn Taylor. Both of Taylor's parents were Americans who originated from Arkansas City, Kansas; this gave Taylor dual citizenship. At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons and when she was seven, her family moved back to the US to avoid possible conflict, as World War Two was on the horizon.
Career: Taylor's family moved to Los Angeles, where her father's art gallery brought in many members of the Hollywood circuit. Once Taylor had been discovered, numerous studios wanted her to screen test for their films, with her finally appearing in the 1942 Universal film, 'There's One Born Every Minute'. In the following year, she appeared in the MGM film 'Lassie Come Home'. The film led to a seven year contract with MGM. For her first role in this contract, she was loaned to 20th Century Fox to appear 'Jane Eyre' the same year. The following year she appeared in 'White Cliffs of Dover' for MGM.
With her appearance in the 1944 film 'National Velvet', Taylor became a huge success and a publically recognised child star at the age of 12. The success of the film caused MGM to draw up a new contract with Taylor, and also placing her in the movie 'The Courage of Lassie'. When she turned 16, Taylor decided that she wanted to quite acting, yet her parents convinced her otherwise. She went on to make a natural transition from child acting to adult roles, with her appearance in the 1949 film, 'Conspirator'. She then moved on to appear in 'The Big Hangover' and 'Father of the Bride' in the following year.
After a collection of successful roles throughout the early 1950s, Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress four years in a row, beginning with her 1957 performance in 'Raintree County', followed by 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', 'Suddenly Last Summer' and 'BUtterfield 8' in the following years. 'BUtterfield 8' was the first time Taylor won the award, and also marked the end of her contract with MGM. In 1960, Taylor became the highest paid actress of her time for 'Cleopatra', signing a contract with 20th Century Fox for 1 million USD to star in the film.
In 1966, Taylor earned her second Academy Award for 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Following this, Taylor saw poor results at the box office in 'Doctor Faustus' (1967), 'The Comedians' (1967) and 'Boom!'(1968). With the release and subsequent failure of 'The Only Game in Town' (1970), it appeared to everyone that Taylor's box office draw had diminished. Taylor continued to appear in films throughout the 1970s, however she failed to see any major success. Throughout the 1980s, she began to appear in more television roles, and in 1994, Elizabeth Taylor appeared in her final theatrical film, 'The Flintstones'.
Personal Life: Between 1950 and 1996, Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands. This began with Conrad Hilton between May 1950 and January 1951. Following that, Taylor married Michael Wilding in February 1952 and the couple separated in January, 1957. The following month, Taylor married Mike Todd, yet the marriage was cut short when Todd died in March, 1958. In May, 1959, she married Eddie Fisher, Todd's best friend, and they remained married until March, 1964.
Aside from Todd and jewellery, Richard Burton was one of the three, true, great loves of Taylor's life. The couple married March, 1964 - just nine days after Taylor's marriage with Fisher ended - and the couple were together until June, 1974. The couple then privately remarried in October, 1975, although by July, 1976, they had split again. Taylor married John Warner in December, 1976, and stayed with him until November, 1982. Finally, Taylor was married to Larry Fortensky from October, 1991 until October, 1996. In that same year, she appeared on a television show that referred to her as "Elizabeth Taylor-Hilton-Wilding-Todd-Fisher-Burton-Burton-Warner-Fortensky".
Death: On the 23rd March, 2011, Elizabeth Taylor died from Congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was buried at the Jewish cemetery - Forest Lawn Memorial Park - in Glendale, California, the following day. She was brought in 15 minutes after the funeral was scheduled to start at her own request as, as her family told the media, "She even wanted to be late for her own funeral."
Biography by Contactmusic.com
