Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor , (February 27, 1932 - March 23, 2011) is a British-American actress, businessman, and humanitarian. She started her career as a little actress in the early 1940s, and was one of the most popular stars of classic Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. He continued his career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a famous public figure for the rest of his life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh female screen legend.
Born in London to wealthy and socially wealthy American parents, Taylor moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1939, and he was soon given a movie contract by Universal Pictures. She made her screen debut in a small role in There's One Birth Every Minute (1942), but Universal ended her contract after a year. Taylor was later signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and had his breakthrough role in National Velvet (1944), becoming one of the most popular stars in the studio. He made the transition into adult roles in the early 1950s, when he starred in the comedy Father of the Bride (1950) and received critical acclaim for his performance in the drama A Place in the Sun (1951).
Despite being one of the most bankable MGM stars, Taylor wanted to end his career in the early 1950s. He hates studio control and does not like the many movies assigned to him. He began accepting the role he enjoyed more in the mid-1950s, beginning with the epic drama Giant (1956), and starring in several films that were critically and commercially successful in subsequent years. These included two drama film adaptations by Tennessee Williams: The Cat on the Tin Roof Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); Taylor won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Although he did not like his role as a call girl at BUtterfield 8 (1960), his final film for MGM, he won an Academy Award for Best Actress for his performance.
Taylor then paid $ 1 million record-breaking to play the title role in the epic history of Cleopatra (1963), the most expensive film made up to that point. During the filming, Taylor and colleague Richard Burton started an extramarital marital affair, which led to a scandal. Despite public disapproval, he and Burton continued their relationship and married in 1964. Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, they starred in 11 joint films, including The VIPs (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), and Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Taylor received the best reviews of his career for Woolf, won both his Academy Award and several other awards for his performance. He and Burton divorced in 1974, but reconciled soon after, and remarried in 1975. The second marriage ended in a divorce in 1976.
Taylor's acting career began to decline in the late 1960s, although he continued to star in movies until the mid-1970s, after which he focused on supporting his sixth husband's career, Sen. John Warner. In the 1980s, he acted in the first substantial stage roles and in several television and series movies, and became the first celebrity to launch a perfume brand. Taylor was also one of the first celebrities to take part in HIV/AIDS activism. He founded the AIDS Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. From the early 1990s until his death, he dedicated his time to philanthropy. He received several awards for it, including the Presidential Citizen Medal.
Throughout his career, Taylor's personal life was the subject of constant media attention. She married eight times seven men, suffered serious illness, and led a jet set lifestyle, including assembling one of the most expensive personal jewelry collections. After years of illness, Taylor died of congestive heart failure at age 79 in 2011.
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Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932, at Heathwood, home of her family at 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London. He received two British-American citizenship at birth, as his parents, art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor (1897-1968) and retired stage actress Sara Sothern (nÃÆ' Â © e Sara Viola Warmbrodt, 1895-1994), was a citizen of the United States, both originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. They moved to London in 1929, and opened an art gallery on Bond Street; their first child, a son named Howard, was born the same year.
The family led a special life in London during Taylor's childhood. Their social circles include artists such as Augustus John and Laura Knight, and politicians such as Colonel Victor Cazalet. Cazalet was Taylor's unofficial baptismal father, and an important influence in early life. He was enrolled at Byron House, Montessori school at Highgate, and grew up in accordance with Christian Science teaching, his mother's religion and Cazalet.
In the spring of 1939, the Taylors decided to return to the United States because of the increasingly tense political situation in Europe. US Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy also contacted Francis and encouraged him to return to the United States with his family. Sara and the boys went first in April 1939, and moved with her maternal grandfather in Pasadena, California. Francis stayed behind to close the London gallery, and join them in December. In early 1940, he opened a new gallery in Los Angeles, and after living in Pacific Palisades, the family settled in Beverly Hills, where Taylor and his brother were enrolled at Hawthorne School.
Maps Elizabeth Taylor
Acting career
Initial roles and juvenile intelligence (1941-1949)
In California, Taylor's mother was often told that her daughter had to audition for a movie. Taylor's eyes especially attracted attention; they are blue to the level of purple appearance, and are framed by dark, dark eyelashes, caused by genetic mutations. Sara initially opposed Taylor to appear in the film, but after the outbreak of war in Europe made it impossible again, she began to view the film industry as a way of assimilating with American society. Beverly Hills gallery of Francisco Taylor has acquired clients from the film industry soon after opening, aided by the support of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, a friend of Cazalet. Through clients and school friends, Taylor auditioned for Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in early 1941. Both studios offered Taylor's contract, and Sara Taylor chose to accept Universal's offer.
Taylor began his contract in April 1941 and played a minor role in There's One Birth Every Minute (1942). He did not accept another role, and his contract was terminated after a year. Universal casting director explained his dislike to Taylor, stating that "the boy has nothing... his eyes are too old, he does not have the face of a child". The biographer Alexander Walker agrees that Taylor looks different from the child stars of the day, such as Shirley Temple and Judy Garland, and he himself then explains that, "Apparently, I used to scare adults, because I was really direct".
Taylor accepted another chance at the end of 1942, when his father's acquaintance, MGM producer Samuel Marx, arranged for an audition for a minor role requiring an English-accented actress at Lassie Come Home (1943). After a three-month trial contract, he was given a standard seven-year contract in January 1943. Following Lassie, he appeared in a small, unrecognized role in two other English-language films - Jane Eyre > (1943), and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).
Taylor was cast in her first lead role at the age of 12, when she was chosen to play as a girl who wanted to compete in the exclusive Grand National of the men at National Velvet (1944). He later called it "the most interesting movie" of his career. MGM has searched for actresses that match the British accent and ability to ride horses since 1937, and chose Taylor on the recommendation of White Cliffs director Clarence Brown, who knows he has the required skills. Because he was considered too short, filmmaking was pushed back several months to allow it to grow; he spent his time on horseback riding. In developing it into a new star, MGM required him to wear braces to fix his teeth, and his two teeth fell off. The studio also wanted to dye her hair and change her eyebrow shape, and suggested that she use the screen name "Virginia", but Taylor and her parents refused.
National Velvet became box-office success when released on Christmas 1944. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times stated that "his entire behavior in this image is one of the refreshing graces. ", while James Agee of The Nation wrote that he is" very beautiful... I almost do not know or care whether he can act or not. "
Taylor later stated that his childhood ended when he became a star, as MGM began to control every aspect of his life. He described the studio as an "expandable big factory" where he was asked to abide by a strict daily schedule: Days spent at school and filming in studio venues, and nights in dance classes and singing and rehearsing in the next day's scenes. Following the success of National Velvet , MGM gave Taylor a new seven-year contract with a $ 750 weekly salary, and threw it in a small role in the third film of the Lassie series, The Courage of Lassie (1946). The studio also published Taylor's textbook on his pet chips, Nibbles and Me (1946), and had a paper doll and coloring book that was made afterwards.
When Taylor was 15 years old in 1947, MGM began to grow a more mature public image for him by arranging photoshoots and interviews that described him as a "normal" teenager who attended parties and went on dates. Movie magazines and gossip columnists also start comparing it with older actresses like Ava Gardner and Lana Turner. Life called her "the most successful junior Hollywood actress" for her two film roles of that year. In critical Cynthia (1947), he describes a weak girl who opposes an overly protective parent to go to the prom, and the love interest of a stockbrokers in the film period of Life with Dad > (1947), in the presence of William Powell and Irene Dunne.
They were followed by supporting roles as teenage "teenage boys" who teased her friends' dating to high school dance in A Date with Judy (1948), and as brides in the Julia Misbehaves romantic comedy (1948), which became a commercial success with gross revenues of over $ 4 million at the box office. Taylor's last teenage role is like Amy March in LeRoy's Mervyn Little Women (1949). Though it does not match the popularity of the previous 1933 film adaptation of the novel Louisa M. Alcott, it was a box-office success. That same year, Time shows Taylor on the cover, and calls him a leader among the next generation stars in Hollywood, "gems with good prices, true sapphires".
Transition to adult role (1950-1951)
Taylor made the transition to an adult role when he was 18 years old 1950. In his first adult role, the thirster Conspirator (1949), he acted as a woman who began to suspect that her husband was a Soviet spy. Taylor was only 16 at the time of filming, but his release was postponed until March 1950, because MGM did not like it and feared it could cause diplomatic problems. The second film of Taylor 1950 is the comedy The Big Hangover (1950), starring Van Johnson. It was released in May, and the same month, Taylor married hotel heir-chain Conrad Hilton, Jr., in a publicized ceremony. The event was organized by MGM, and was used as part of a publicity campaign for the next Taylor film, the comedy of Vincente Minnelli Father of the Bride (1950), where he appeared before Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett as the bride preparing for her marriage. The film became a box-office success after it was released in June, earning $ 6 million worldwide, and followed by the successful sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951), ten months later.
The next film release from Taylor, George Stevens 'A Place in the Sun' (1951), marks the departure of previous films. According to Taylor, this is the first film in which he was asked to act, instead of just being himself, and it brought his critical praise for the first time since National Velvet . Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy (1925), it featured Taylor as a spoiled socialite that came between the poor factory worker (Montgomery Clift) and his pregnant girlfriend (Shelley Winters). Stevens threw Taylor because he was "the only one... who could create the illusion" to be "a less real girl like the girl on the cover of a candy box, the pretty girl in a yellow Cadillac car that every American kid can convert sometimes thinks he can married ".
A Place in the Sun is a critical and commercial success, the best-selling $ 3 million. Herb Golden of Variety states that "Taylor's histrionics have qualities far beyond what he has done before, that Stevens's skilled hands on control should be credited with a small miracle", and AH Weiler of The York Times wrote that he gave "a calm, soft appearance, and one in which his passionate and genuine romance avoids the common pathos for young love because it sometimes comes to the screen."
Continued success at MGM (1952-1955)
Taylor next starred in the romantic comedy film Love Is Better Than Ever (1952). According to Alexander Walker, MGM plays it in "picture-B" as a reprimand to divorce Hilton in January 1951 after just nine months of marriage, which has caused a public scandal that reflects him negatively. After finishing Love Is Better Than Ever Taylor was sent to England to take part in the epic history of Ivanhoe (1952), which is one of the most expensive projects in the history studio. He was not happy with his project, finding a superficial story and his role as Rebecca too small. Regardless, Ivanhoe became one of MGM's biggest commercial successes, generating $ 11 million in rentals worldwide.
Taylor's last film made under his old contract with MGM was The Girl Who Had Everything (1953), a remake of the pre-code drama A Free Soul (1931). Despite his complaints with the studio, he signed a new seven-year contract with MGM in the summer of 1952. Although he wanted a more interesting role, the decisive factor in continuing his studio was his financial needs; she recently married British actor Michael Wilding, and was pregnant with her first child. In addition to giving him a weekly salary of $ 4,700, MGM agreed to give the couple a loan for a house, and signed the Wilding for a three-year contract. Due to his financial dependence, the studio now has more control over him than ever before.
Two of Taylor's first films made under his new contract were released ten days apart in the spring of 1954. The first was Rhapsody, a romantic movie starring as a woman trapped in a love triangle with two musicians. The second is the Elephant Walk , a play in which he plays a British woman who struggles to adapt to life on her husband's tea plantation in Ceylon. She has been loaned to Paramount Pictures for the film after her original star, Vivien Leigh, got sick.
In the fall, Taylor starred in two more films. Beau Brummell is a period-era film of the District, another project in which she was cast against her wishes. Taylor did not like history movies in general, because their complicated costumes and makeup required him to get up earlier than usual to prepare, and then stated that he gave one of the worst performances of his career at Beau Brummell. The second film is Richard Brooks' The Last Time I Saw Paris , based on a short story of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though he wanted to be cast in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Taylor liked the movie, and then stated that it "convinced me that I wanted to be an actress rather than yawn through parts". While The Last Time I Saw Paris is not as profitable as many other MGM movies, it gets positive reviews. Taylor became pregnant again during production, and had to agree to add another year to his contract to make up for the period spent on maternity leave.
Critical acclaim (1956-1960)
In the mid-1950s, the American film industry began to face serious competition from television, resulting in the studio producing fewer films, and focusing on their quality. The change was in Taylor's favor, who finally found an interesting role after several years of career disappointment. After lobbying director George Stevens, he won the lead female role in Giant (1956), an epic drama about the farm dynasty, starring Rock Hudson and James Dean. Her filmmaking in Marfa, Texas, was a difficult experience for Taylor, when she was at loggerheads with Stevens, who wanted to destroy her desire to make it easier to direct, and often sick, resulting in delays. To further complicate production, Dean died in a car accident just days after completing the filming; grieving Taylor still had to film a reaction shot into the scene with them. When Giant was released a year later, it became a box-office success, and was widely praised by critics. Though not nominated for an Academy Award like his star partner, Taylor's performance also earned positive reviews, with Variety calling it "surprisingly smart", and The Manchester Guardian praised it as "a shocking revelation from an unexpected gift ", and named him one of the film's strongest assets.
MGM subsequently reunited Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Raintree County (1957), a Civil War drama that is expected to replicate the success of Gone with the Wind (1939). Taylor discovered his role as a mentally disturbed Southern Fale, but overall did not like the film. Although the film failed to be the type of success that MGM had planned, Taylor was nominated for the first time for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Taylor considers his next appearance as Maggie the Cat in screen adaptation from Tennessee Williams playing on the "high point" career, despite coinciding with one of the most difficult periods in his personal life. After completing Raintree Country , she has divorced Wilding and married producer Mike Todd. He had just completed two weeks of filming in March 1958, when Todd was killed in a plane crash. Although he was destroyed, the pressure from the studio and the knowledge that Todd had huge debts caused Taylor to return to work only three weeks later. She later stated that she was "by the way... being Maggie", and the acting "was the only time I could function" in the weeks following Todd's death.
During production, Taylor's private life attracted further public attention when she began having an affair with singer Eddie Fisher, whose marriage to actress Debbie Reynolds has been idealized by the media as the union of "American lover". The affair - and the subsequent Fisher divorce - transformed Taylor's public image from a grieving widow to a "homewrecker". MGM used the scandal to its advantage by displaying a picture of Taylor posing on the bed in a n  ° gligÃÆ' © e in a movie promotional poster. Cat earned $ 10 million in American cinema alone, and made Taylor the second most profitable star of the year. He received a positive appraisal for his performance, with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times calling it "great", and Variety praising him for "good interpretation, perceptive interpretation". Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA.
The next Taylor film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz ' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), is another Tennessee Williams adaptation, and co-starred Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn. Independent production generated Taylor $ 500,000 to play the role of a highly traumatized patient in a mental institution. Although the film is a drama about mental illness, childhood trauma, and homosexuality, it is again promoted by Taylor's sex appeal; both the trailer and the poster show it in a white swimsuit. The strategy worked, because the film was financially successful. Taylor received her third Academy Award nomination and her first Golden Globe for Best Actress for her performance.
In 1959, Taylor owed one more movie to MGM, which was decided to be BUtterfield 8 (1960), a drama about high-class prostitutes. The studio correctly calculates that Taylor's public image will make it easier for the audience to associate it with the role. He hated the movie for the same reason, but had no choice in this regard, though the studio approved of his demands for filming in New York and incorporated Eddie Fisher in a sympathetic role. As predicted, BUtterfield 8 is a huge commercial success, the best-selling $ 18 million in world rentals. Crowther writes that Taylor "looks like a million dollars, on stoat or in negligence," while Variety states that he gives "a hot and stinging description with one or two brilliantly executed parts in it." Taylor won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Cleopatra and another movie with Richard Burton (1961-1967)
After finishing his MGM contract, Taylor starred in 20th Century-Fox's Cleopatra (1963) - a historic epic which, according to film historian Alexander Doty, made him more famous than ever. She became the first actress to be paid $ 1 million for a role; Fox also gives 10% of the movie's profits, as well as filming in Todd-AO, a widescreen format that inherits his rights from Mike Todd. Film production - characterized by expensive sets and costumes, constant delays, and scandals caused by Taylor's extramarital relationship with his opponent Richard Burton - followed by the media, with Life proclaiming it as "Most Talking About Movies Ever Created ". Filmmaking first started in England in 1960, but had to be stopped several times due to bad weather and poor Taylor's health. In March 1961, he developed an almost fatal pneumonia, which required tracheotomy; one news agency even reported that he had died. Once he recovers, Fox discards the filmed material, and transfers production to Rome, turns his director into Joseph Mankiewicz, and actor plays Mark Antony to Burton. The film was finally completed in July 1962. The film's final cost was $ 62 million, making it the most expensive film ever made up to that point.
Cleopatra became the biggest box office success of 1963 in the United States; the film earned $ 15.7 million at the box office. Regardless, it took several years for the film to regain its production costs, which drove Fox to near bankruptcy. The studio openly blamed Taylor for production problems and did not manage to sue Burton and Taylor for allegedly damaging the movie with their behavior. The film reviews mixed with the negative, with critics finding Taylor overweight and his voice too thin, and unfavorably comparing it to classically trained English stars. In retrospect, Taylor called Cleopatra a "low point" in his career, and stated that the studio cut the scene that gives "core characterization".
Taylor intends to follow Cleopatra with a star actor in the black comedy Fox What A Way to Go! (1964), but negotiations fail, and Shirley MacLaine has been cast, instead. Meanwhile, film producers are eager to take advantage of the scandals surrounding Taylor and Burton, and they then starred together at Anthony Asquith's The V.I.P.s (1963), which reflects the headlines about them. Taylor plays a famous model who is trying to leave her husband for a lover, and Burton is her millionaire husband. Released soon after Cleopatra , it became a box-office success. Taylor also paid $ 500,000 to appear on CBS special television, Elizabeth Taylor in London, where she visited city landmarks and recited passages from works by famous British writers.
After finishing The V.I.P.s , Taylor took two years off from the movie, where Burton and he divorced their spouses and married each other. Supercouple continued to star in films in the mid-1960s, generating a combined $ 88 million over the next decade; Burton once stated, "They say we generate more business activity than one of the smaller African countries." Alexander Walker compares these films with "picture gossip columns", because the role of their films often reflects their public personality, while Doty has noted that most of Taylor's films during this period seem to "conform to, and reinforce, the image of an indulgent, rude , immoral or immoral, and appetizing (in many ways the word) 'Elizabeth Taylor ' ". The first joint project of Taylor and Burton following his hiatus is the romantic drama of Vincente Minelli The Sandpiper (1965), about a forbidden love affair between a bohemian artist and a priest married in Big Sur, California. The reviews were mostly negative, but earned a successful $ 14 million at the box office.
Next project, Who Were Virginia Woolf? (1966), featuring the most critical performance of Taylor's career. He and Burton starred as Martha and George, middle-aged couples who experienced a marital crisis. To play the 50-year-old Martha, Taylor gained weight, wore a wig, and used make-up to make her look old and tired - in stark contrast to her public image as a glamor movie star. At Taylor's suggestion, theater director Mike Nichols was hired to direct the project, though he had less experience with the film. Production is different from what he has done before, because Nichols wants to really train the game before starting filming. Woolf is considered a breakthrough for mature and uncensored language themes, and opened for "noble" reviews. Variety writes that "Taylor's characterization is at once sensual, malicious, cynical, sad, disgusting, lustful, and gentle," and Stanley Kauffmann of The New York Times stated that he " doing the best job of his career, sustainable and urgent ". The film also became one of the biggest commercial success of the year. Taylor received his second Academy Award, BAFTA, National Review Board, and New York City Film Criticism award for his performance.
In 1966, Taylor and Burton also performed Doctor Faustus for a week at Oxford to benefit the Oxford University Dramatic Society; She starred in and she appeared in her first stage role as Helen of Troy, the part that does not need talking. Despite receiving generally negative reviews, Burton produced it into a film, Doctor Faustus (1967), with the same player. It was also criticized by critics and earned just $ 600,000 at the box office. The next project of Taylor and Burton, Franco Zeffirelli The Taming of the Shrew (1967), which they also produced together, was more successful. This poses another challenge for Taylor, because he is the only actor in the project with no previous experience doing Shakespeare; Zeffirelli later stated that this made his appearance interesting, as he "found part of the beginning". Critics found the game to be the right thing for the couple, and the film became a box-office success with $ 12 million in gross income.
Taylor's third film was released in 1967, John Huston Reflection in the Golden Eye , was the first without Burton since Cleopatra . It was a drama about an oppressed homosexual and his unfaithful wife, and was originally scheduled to become Taylor's closest friend, Montgomery Clift. His career has declined over the years due to substance abuse issues, but Taylor is determined to secure his involvement in the project, even offering to pay for insurance. However, Clift died of a heart attack before filming began; he was replaced by Marlon Brando. Reflection is a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release. The last film of Taylor and Burton this year is the adaptation of Graham Greene The Comedians , who received mixed reviews and was a box office disappointment.
Career down (1968-1979)
Taylor's career declined in the late 1960s. His weight grew, nearing middle age, and did not fit in with New Hollywood stars like Jane Fonda and Julie Christie. After several years of almost constant media attention, the public has also exhausted Burton and him and criticized their jet set lifestyle. In 1968, Taylor starred in two films directed by Joseph Losey - Boom! , and Secret Ceremony - both are critical and commercial failures. The first, based on Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Does Not Stop Here Again , presents itself as an aging, married, and Burton-like millionaire who appears on the Mediterranean island in which he retired. Secret Ceremony is a psychological drama which also stars Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum. Taylor's third film with George Stevens, The Only Game in Town (1970), where he played a Las Vegas show girl having an affair with a compulsive gambler, played by Warren Beatty, was unsuccessful.
The three films in which Taylor acted in 1972 were somewhat more successful. Zee and Co. , which describes Michael Caine and him as a troubled couple, won him David at Donatello for Best Foreign Actress. He later appeared with Burton in the adaptation of Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood ; Despite its small role, the manufacturer decided to give it a top bill to benefit from his fame. Her third film role of the year was to play blond restaurant waiter at the parody of Peter Ustinov Faud Hammersmith Is Out, his tenth collaboration with Burton. Though overall unsuccessful, Taylor received some good reviews, with Vincent Canby from The New York Times writing that he had a certain "vulgar, obsolete" charm, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times states, "Elizabeth Taylor's increasingly old and more beautiful spectacle continues to amaze residents". His performance won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival.
Taylor and Burton's last film is Harlech Television His Divorce, Divorce Hers (1973), deserves to be named when they divorce the following year. The films released in 1973 are the British thriller ( Night Watch (1973) and the American drama Ash Wednesday (1973). For the latter, in which she starred as a woman who experienced some plastic surgery in an attempt to save her marriage, she received a Golden Globe nomination. The only film released in 1974, the adaptation of Italian Muriel Spark The Driver's Seat (1974), was a failure.
Taylor took fewer roles after the mid-1970s, and focused on supporting her sixth career husband, Republican John Warner. In 1976, he participated in the Soviet-American fantasy movie The Blue Bird (1976), a critical failure and box office, and had a small role in the television movie Victory in Entebbe (1976), and in 1977, he sang in the adaptation of a critical panning film from Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music (1977).
Stage and role of television; retired (1980-2007)
After the semi-retirement period of the film, Taylor starred in The Mirror Crack'd (1980), adapted from the mystery novel Agatha Christie and featuring ensemble players from the studio age, such as Angela Lansbury, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis. Wanting to challenge himself, he later appeared in his first substantial stage role, playing Regina Giddens in Broadway Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. Instead of describing Giddens in a negative light as often in previous productions, Taylor's idea was to show him as a victim of circumstances, explaining, "He's a murderer, but he says, 'Sorry friends, you put me in this position' ". Production premiered in May 1981, and had six months sold out despite mixed reviews. Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that Taylor's performance as "Regina Giddens, that fierce South Goddess... began with caution, quickly collecting steam, and then exploding into a black and thunderous storm who may just knock you out of your seat ", while Dan Sullivan of Los Angeles Times stated," Taylor presents the possibility of Regina Giddens, as seen through the personality of Elizabeth Taylor.There are several acting in it, such as as well as some personal appearance. "He appeared as a cruel Helena Cassadine socialist in the daytime soap opera General Hospital in November 1981. The following spring, he continued to perform The Little Foxes > in London's West End, but received most of the negative reviews from the British press.
Driven by the success of The Little Foxes, Taylor and producer Zev Buffman founded the Elizabeth Taylor Repertory Company. The first and only production was the comedic rise of No Lonely Coward Private Lives, starring Taylor and Burton. It aired in Boston in the spring of 1983, and although commercially successful, received generally negative reviews, with critics noting that the two stars were in poor health - Taylor admitted to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center after the drama ended, and Burton died. next year. After the failure of Private Lives , Taylor dissolved his theater company. The only other project of the year was the television movie Between Friends.
From the mid-1980s, Taylor acted primarily in television production. He made brilliant acting in the soap opera Hotel and All My Children in 1984, and played the brothel guard in the North and South history mini-series in 1985 She also starred in several television movies, playing gossip columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland (1985), a "faded movie star" in the drama There Must Be a Pony (< 1986), and the characters are based on Poker Alice in the West of repute (1987). He re-united with director Franco Zeffirelli to appear in the French-Italian biography film Young Toscanini (1988), and has the last major role in his career in the television adaptation of Sweet Bird of Youth 1989), Tennessee Williams's fourth play. During this time, he also began receiving honorary awards for his career - Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1985, and the Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award Film in 1986.
In the 1990s, Taylor focused his time on HIV/AIDS activism. Some of his acting roles include characters in the animated series Captain Planet and Planeteers (1992) and The Simpsons (1992, 1993), and acting in the four CBS series - The Nanny , Can not Love Fast , Murphy Brown , and High Society - in one night in February 1996 to promote his new scent. His last released theatrical film is a highly critical, but commercially highly successful film, The Flintstones (1994), where he plays Pearl Slaghoople in a short supporting role. Taylor received American and British awards for his career: AFI Life Achievement Award in 1993, honors Screen Actors Guild in 1997, and BAFTA Fellowship in 1999. In 2000, he was made Dame by Queen Elizabeth II. After supporting the role in the television film It's Old Broads (2001) and in the animated sitcom God, Devil and Bob (2001), Taylor announces that he retired from acting devoting his time to philanthropy. He gave one last public show in 2007, when James Earl Jones and he played the Love Letters game on AIDS benefits at Paramount Studios.
Other businesses
HIV/AIDS activism
Taylor was one of the first celebrities to participate in HIV/AIDS activism, helping to collect more than $ 270 million for the cause. He began his philanthropic work in 1984, after becoming frustrated with the disease being discussed extensively, but very little was done about it. He then explained to Vanity Fair that he "decided that by my name I could open a certain door, that I was a commodity in me - and I'm not speaking as an actress." I can take my Fame hate and try to stay away for years - but you can never stay away from it - and use it to do something good I want to retire but the tabloids do not let me think: If you will mess up me I will use you.
Taylor embarked on his philanthropic efforts by helping organize and by hosting the first beneficial AIDS fundraiser for the Los Angeles AIDS Project. In August of 1985, Dr. Michael Gottlieb and he founded the National AIDS Research Foundation after his friend and former rock star Hudson announced that he was dying of the disease. The following month, the foundation joins the AIDS Foundation. Mathilde Krim to establish American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Because AMFAR focused on funding research, Taylor founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) in 1991 to raise awareness and provide support services for people living with HIV/AIDS, paying their own overhead. His belief continues, and 25% of the image royalties and similarity are donated to ETAF. In addition to his work for people affected by HIV/AIDS in the United States, Taylor plays a role in expanding amfAR operations to other countries; ETAF also operates internationally.
Taylor testified before the Senate and House to Ryan's White Treat Rules in 1986, 1990, and 1992. He persuaded President Ronald Reagan to recognize the disease for the first time in a speech in 1987, and publicly criticized President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton for lack of interest in fighting the disease. Taylor also founded Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center to offer free HIV/AIDS testing and care at the Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D. C., and the Elizabeth Taylor Endowment Fund for the UCLA Clinical AIDS Research and Education Center in Los Angeles. By 2015, business partner Taylor Kathy Ireland claims that Taylor is running an illegal "underground network" that distributes drugs to Americans suffering from HIV/AIDS during the 1980s, when the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved them. The claim was challenged by several people, including former amfAR vice president for development and external affairs, former publicist of Taylor, and activists involved in Project Inform in the 1980s and 1990s.
Taylor is honored with several awards for his philanthropic work. He was appointed Honorary Legion of the French Legion in 1987, and received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1993, the Lifetime Award Award for Screen Actors Actors for Humanitarian service in 1997, GLAAD Vanguard Award in 2000, and Presidential Presidency Medal in 2001.
Fragrance and jewelry brands
Taylor was the first celebrity to create her own fragrance collection. In collaboration with Elizabeth Arden, Inc., he began by launching two best-selling perfumes - Passion in 1987, and White Diamonds in 1991. Taylor personally oversaw the manufacture and production of each of the 11 perfumes marketed in his name. According to biographer Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger, he earned more money through his perfume collection than during his acting career, and after his death, the Guardian British newspaper estimated that a majority of his estimates were $ 600 million- $ 1 billion estate consists of income from fragrances. In 2005, Taylor also founded a jewelry company, House of Taylor, in collaboration with Kathy Ireland and Jack and Monty Abramov.
Personal life
Marriage, relationships, and children
Throughout his adult life, Taylor's personal life, and especially his eight marriages, attracted a large amount of media attention and public resistance. According to the biographer Alexander Walker, "Whether he likes it or not... marriage is a mythical matrix that begins to surround Elizabeth Taylor from [when he was sixteen]". MGM set it up to date, Glenn Davis football champion in 1948, and the following year, he was briefly engaged to William Pawley, Jr., son of US ambassador William D. Pawley. The film conglomerate Howard Hughes also wanted to marry her, and offered to pay her six-figure parents if she wanted to be his wife. Taylor declined the offer, but instead eagerly married young, for "rather puritan outbursts and beliefs" led him to believe that "love is synonymous with marriage." Taylor then describes herself as "immature emotionally" during this time because of her sheltered childhood, and believes that she can gain independence from her parents and MGM through marriage.
Taylor was 18 when he married Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, Jr., heir of the Hilton Hotels chain, in the Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills on May 6, 1950. MGM organized a large and expensive wedding, which became a major media event. In the weeks after their marriage, Taylor realized that he had made a mistake; not only did he and Hilton have little in common, but he was also rude and heavy drinker. She was granted a divorce in January 1951, nine months after their marriage.
Taylor married his second husband, British actor Michael Wilding - a man 20 years older than him - in a low ceremony at Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952. He first met him in 1948 while filming The Conspirator > in England, and their relationship began when he returned to Ivanhoe movie in 1951. Taylor found their age difference interesting, because he wanted "peace and friendship security" of their relationship; she hopes that the marriage will help her career in Hollywood. They have two sons: Michael Howard (born 1953), and Christopher Edward (born 1955). As Taylor grew older and more confident, he began to move away from Wilding, whose failed career was also a source of marital discord. When he went to shoot Giant in 1955, Confidential gossip magazine caused a scandal by claiming that he had entertained strippers in their homes. Taylor and Wilding announced their separation in July 1956, and divorced in January 1957.
Taylor married his third husband, theater and film producer Mike Todd, in Acapulco, Mexico, on February 2, 1957. They had one daughter, Elizabeth "Liza" Frances (born 1957). Todd, known for his publicity stunts, boosted media attention for their marriage; for example, in June 1957, he held a birthday party at Madison Square Garden, attended by 18,000 guests and broadcast on CBS. His death in a plane crash on March 22, 1958, caused Taylor to crash. He was entertained by Todd and his friend, singer Eddie Fisher, with whom he soon began an affair. Because Fisher is still married to actress Debbie Reynolds, the affair resulted in a public scandal, with Taylor branded a "homewrecker". Taylor and Fisher were married at Temple Beth Sholom in Las Vegas on May 12, 1959; He then states that he married her just because of his sadness.
While filming Cleopatra in Italy in 1962, Taylor began having an affair with his opponent, Welsh actor Richard Burton, even though Burton was also married. Rumors about the affair began to circulate in the media, and were confirmed by their paparazzi shots on a cruise ship in Ischia. According to sociologist Ellis Cashmore, the publication of the photograph is a "turning point", starting a new era in which it becomes difficult for celebrities to keep their private lives apart from their public image. The scandal caused Taylor and Burton to be criticized for "erotic vagrancy" by the Vatican, with calls also at the US Congress to ban them from reentry into the country. Taylor was granted a divorce from Fisher on March 6, 1964, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and married Burton nine days later in a private ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal. Burton then adopted Liza Todd and Maria Burton (born August 1, 1961), a German orphan who Taylor's adoption process had begun when married to Fisher.
Dubbed "Liz and Dick" by the media, Taylor and Burton starred together in 11 films, and led the jet-set lifestyle, spent millions on "feathers, diamonds, paintings, designer outfits, travel, food, liquor, cruises, and a jet ". Sociologist Karen Sternheimer states that they "became a home industry of speculation about their alleged excessive life.From a massive expenditure report [...] affairs, and even an open marriage, the couple came to represent a new era of 'gotcha' coverage of celebrities, at "They divorced for the first time in June 1974, but reconciled, and remarried in Kasane, Botswana, on October 10, 1975. The second marriage lasted less than a year, ending in a divorce in July 1976. The relationship Taylor and Burton often happen. referred to as a "medieval marriage" by the media, and he later stated, "After Richard, the people in my life were there to hold the coat, to open the door.All people after Richard were just a company." Soon after his final divorce from Burton, Taylor meets his sixth husband, John Warner, a Republican politician from Virginia. They married on December 4, 1976, after which Taylor concentrated on working for his election campaign. As soon as Warner was elected to the Senate, he began to find his life as the wife of a politician in Washington, D.C, boring and lonely, becoming depressed, overweight, and increasingly addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol. Taylor and Warner parted ways in December 1981, and divorced a year later in November 1982.
After the divorce from Warner, Taylor dated actor Anthony Geary, and was engaged to Mexican lawyer Victor Luna in 1983-1984, and New York businessman Dennis Stein in 1985. He met her seventh husband - and lastly -, construction worker Larry Fortensky, at Betty Ford Center in 1988. They married at Neverland Ranch from his old friend Michael Jackson on October 6, 1991. The marriage returned to media attention, with one photographer skydiving to the ranch and Taylor selling wedding pictures for People for $ 1 million, which he used to start his AIDS foundation. Taylor and Fortensky divorced in October 1996.
Support for Jewish and Israeli causes
Taylor was raised as a Christian Scientist, and moved to Judaism in 1959. Although his two husbands - Mike Todd and Eddie Fisher - were Jews, Taylor declared that he did not convert because of them, but wanted to do it "for a long time," and that there was " comfort and dignity and hope for me in this ancient religion that has lasted for four thousand years... I feel as if I have been a Jew all my life ". Walker believes that Taylor was influenced in his decision by his godfather, Victor Cazalet, and his mother, who was an active supporter of Zionism during his childhood.
After his conversion, Taylor became an active supporter of Jews and Zionists. In 1959, he bought Israeli bonds worth $ 100,000, which led to his film being banned by Muslim countries throughout the Middle East and Africa. He was also banned from entering Egypt to film Cleopatra in 1962, but the ban was lifted two years later after Egyptian officials considered the film to bring positive publicity to the country. In addition to buying bonds, Taylor helped raise funds for organizations such as the Jewish National Fund, and sat on the supervisory board of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
He also advocated the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel, canceled a visit to the Soviet Union for his criticism of Israel over the Six Day War, and signed a letter protesting United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975. 1976, he offered himself as a surrogate host after more than 100 Israeli civilians were held hostage at the skyjacking Entebbe. He has a small role in television movies made about the incident, the Victory in Entebbe (1976), and it is narrated by Genocide (1981), an Academy Award-winning documentary about Disaster.
Jewelry styles and collections
Taylor is considered a fashion icon both for his film costume and his personal style. At MGM, the costumes were mostly designed by Helen Rose and Edith Head, and in the 1960s by Irene Sharaff. His most famous costumes included a white party dress at A Place in the Sun (1951), a Grecian dress on the Cats on the Hot Tin Roof (1958), and the slip and fur coat on BUtterfield 8 (1960). Her make-up look at Cleopatra (1963) started a trend for make-up â € Å"cat-eyeâ € which was done with black eyeliner.
Taylor collects jewelry through his life, and has 33.19-carat (6,638Ã, g) Krupp Diamond, 69.42-carat (13.884Ã, g) Taylor-Burton Diamond, and 50-carat (10Ã, g) La Peregrina Pearl, previously owned by Mary I of England - all three of whom were a gift from Richard Burton's husband. He also published a book about his collection, My Love Affair with Jewelry, in 2002. Taylor helped popularize the work of fashion designers Valentino Garavani and Halston. She received the Lifetime of Glamor Award from the American Board of Fashion Designers (CFDA) in 1997. After her death, her jewelry and fashion collection was auctioned off by Christie to benefit the AIDS Foundation, ETAF. The jewelry sells for $ 156.8 million, and its clothing and accessories are worth $ 5.5 million.
Health and death issues
Taylor struggled with health problems for much of his life. He was born with scoliosis and broke his back while filming the National Velvet in 1944. The fracture was undetectable for several years, although it caused chronic back problems. In 1956, he underwent an operation in which several of his spinal discs were removed and replaced with donated bone. Taylor is also vulnerable to illness and other injuries, which often require surgery; in 1961, he survived an almost fatal pneumonia requiring tracheotomy.
In addition, he is addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. She was admitted to the Betty Ford Center for seven weeks from December 1983 to January 1984, becoming the first celebrity to openly confess herself to the clinic. He relapsed later in the decade, and entered rehab again in 1988. Taylor also struggled with his weight - he became overweight during his marriage to Sen. John Warner, and published a diet book about his experiences, Elizabeth Takes Off (1988). Taylor was a heavy smoker until he suffered a severe pneumonia attack in 1990.
Taylor's health has declined over the last two decades of her life, and she has rarely attended public events in the 2000s. He used a wheelchair because of his back problems, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004. Six weeks after being admitted to hospital, he died of illness at age 79 on March 23, 2011, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His funeral happened the next day at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The service is a private Jewish ceremony headed by Rabbi Jerome Cutler. At Taylor's request, the ceremony begins 15 minutes behind schedule, because according to his representative, "he even wants to be late for his own funeral". He is buried in the Tomb of the Great Tomb.
Legacy
Taylor is one of the last stars of classic Hollywood cinema, and also one of the first modern celebrities. During the era of the studio system, he cited the classic movie star. He is described as different from the "ordinary" people, and his public image is carefully crafted and controlled by MGM. When the classical Hollywood era ended in the 1960s, and paparazzi photography became a normal feature of media culture, Taylor came to define a new type of celebrity, whose personal life is really the focus of public interest. According to Adam Bernstein of The Washington Post, "More than just the role of film, he became famous for being famous, setting up media templates for the generation of entertainers, models, and all variations of semi-somebodies."
Despite the acting awards he won during his career, Taylor's film performances are often ignored by contemporary critics; according to film historian Jeanine Basinger, "No actress has had a more difficult job in getting criticism to accept her on screen as someone other than Elizabeth Taylor... her personality ate her alive." His film role often reflects his personal life, and many critics continue to regard him as always playing alone, rather than acting. In contrast, Mel Gussow of The New York Times stated that "the range of acting [Taylor] was very broad", despite the fact that he never received professional training. Film critic Peter Bradshaw calls him "an actress of sexiness like that is incitement to riot - stuffy and queen at the same time", and "the presence of smart, intelligent, intuitive acting in subsequent years". David Thomson states that "he has the range, nerves and instincts that only Bette Davis had before - and like Davis, Taylor is a monster and a queen, a lover and a hothead, an idiot and a wise woman." The three movies he starred in - National Velvet , Giant , and Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf? - has been stored at the National Film Registry, and the American Film Institute has named her the seventh best-known female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema.
Taylor has also been discussed by journalists and intellectuals interested in the role of women in Western society. Camille Paglia writes that Taylor is a "pre-feminist woman" who "uses sexual power unexplained by feminism and has tried to destroy." Through stars like Taylor, we feel the world's impact from such legendary women as Delilah, Salome, and Helen of Troy. " By contrast, cultural critic M.G. Lord called Taylor an "unintentional feminist," claiming that although he did not identify as a feminist, many of his films had feminist themes and "introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas". Similarly, Ben W. Heineman, Jr., and Cristine Russell wrote in The Atlantic that his role in the Giant reveals stereotypes about women and minorities.
Taylor is considered a gay icon, and receives wide recognition for his HIV/AIDS activist. After his death, GLAAD issued a statement saying that he "is an icon not only in Hollywood, but in the LGBT community, where he works to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and dignity worthy of us all", and Sir Nick Partridge of Terrence Higgins Trust called him "the first major star to openly fight fear and prejudice against AIDS." According to Paul Flynn of The Guardian , he is "a new type of gay icon, someone whose position is not based on tragedy but on his work for the LGBTQ community". Speaking of his charity work, former President Bill Clinton said to his death, "The legacy of Elizabeth will live in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of the people she inspired."
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References
Source
External links
- Official website
- Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF)
- Elizabeth Taylor at IMDb
- Elizabeth Taylor on Broadway Internet Database
- Elizabeth Taylor at Screenonline UK Film Institute
- FBI Notes: Vault - Elizabeth Taylor at vault.fbi.gov
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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