Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was a child star in hugely
successful films like Lassie Come Home and National Velvet.
As an Adult actress, Elizabeth Taylor was nominated
for Academy Awards for her starring roles in the films: Raintree
County, made in 1957 opposite Montgomery Clift; Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, made in 1958 opposite Paul Newman, and Suddenly
Last Summer, a film made in 1959 where Elizabeth Taylor starred
with Montgomery Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.
And in 1963, Elizabeth Taylor became the highest
paid movie star up until that time when she accepted $1 million
to play the title role in the 20th Century Fox production
of Cleopatra. It was during the filming of that movie that
she worked for the first time with future husband Richard
Burton, who played Mark Antony. Movie magazines, the forerunners
of today's tabloids, had a field day when Taylor and Burton
began an affair during filming; both stars were married to
other people at the time. She was even accused by a Vatican
newspaper of having descended into "erotic vagrancy."
In response to characterizations of Taylor as a scarlet woman,
Richard Burton was quoted as saying: "You'd be surprised
at the morals of many women stars who are regarded by the
public as goody-two-shoes. They leap into bed with any male
in grabbing distance. That's what makes me mad when I read
stuff hinting Liz is a scarlet woman because she's been married
five times. She's only had five men in her life whereas those
goody-two-shoes have lost count." The Burton Taylor romance
became legendary.
Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress
in a Leading Role for her performances in Butterfield 8, a
film made in 1960, where she co-starred with then husband
Eddie Fisher, and again for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,
a film made in 1966, where she co-starred with the love of
her life, husband Richard Burton.
Tim Rees
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