Elizabeth Taylor, the actress who dazzled generations of moviegoers with her stunning beauty and whose name was synonymous with Hollywood glamour, died on Wednesday, March 23 (2011) in Los Angeles. She was 79.A spokeswoman at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said Ms. Taylor died at 1:28 a.m. Pacific time. Her publicist, Sally Morrison, said the cause was complications of congestive heart failure. Ms. Taylor had had a series of medical setbacks over the years and was hospitalized six weeks ago with heart problems.
In a world of flickering images, Elizabeth Taylor was a constant star. First appearing on screen at age 10, she grew up there, never passing through an awkward age. It was one quick leap from “National Velvet” to “A Place in the Sun” and from there to “Cleopatra,” as she was indelibly transformed from a vulnerable child actress into a voluptuous film queen.
In a career of some 70 years and more than 50 films, she won two Academy Awards as best actress, for her performances as a call girl in “Butterfield 8” (1960) and as the acid-tongued Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966). Mike Nichols, who directed her in “Virginia Woolf,” said he considered her “one of the greatest cinema actresses.”
When Ms. Taylor was honored in 1986 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, “More than anyone else I can think of, Elizabeth Taylor represents the complete movie phenomenon — what movies are as an art and an industry, and what they have meant to those of us who have grown up watching them in the dark.” (Source: New York Times)
What's your favorite Elizabeth Taylor movies? My list---
"National Velvet" (1945)
National Velvet tells the ever popular tale of two determined youths and one spirited thoroughbred that join forces to attain a seemingly impossible victory. Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor) is a small girl with a big dream--- first prize in the renowned Grand National Steeplechase. With the aid of her shrewd pal (Mickey Rooney), she transforms “Pie”--- an unruly rogue of a horse which she won in a raffle--- into a viable contender. But Velvet soon learns that it will take more than hard work and dedication to achieve her goal. She will also need love, family, friendship, trust… and the help of that elusive and mysterious property that can only be described as the magical power of childhood dreams. (Product Description)
"Father of the Bride" (1950)
The Bride Gets the Thrills! Father Gets the Bills!
"I would like to say a few words about weddings," a weary man says from the middle of a muddle of rice and scattered bottles. What follows is a warm, witty look at what it means to be Father of the Bride.
Spencer Tracy is the father and Elizabeth Taylor the bride in this lively Vincente Minnelli-directed classic. Taylor is glowingly showcased - and reflected in three mirrors when first seen in a wedding gown. Tracy's performance captures every loving father's exasperations and joys as the day approaches. It also captured the fourth of his nine Best Actor Academy Award nominations. The film also earned nominations for Best Picture and Screenplay. Here comes the bride, there goes dad's wallet - and everyone's heart. What sparkling fun! (Product Description)
"I would like to say a few words about weddings," a weary man says from the middle of a muddle of rice and scattered bottles. What follows is a warm, witty look at what it means to be Father of the Bride.
Spencer Tracy is the father and Elizabeth Taylor the bride in this lively Vincente Minnelli-directed classic. Taylor is glowingly showcased - and reflected in three mirrors when first seen in a wedding gown. Tracy's performance captures every loving father's exasperations and joys as the day approaches. It also captured the fourth of his nine Best Actor Academy Award nominations. The film also earned nominations for Best Picture and Screenplay. Here comes the bride, there goes dad's wallet - and everyone's heart. What sparkling fun! (Product Description)
"A Place in the Sun" (1951)
George Stevens' stunning adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy garnered six Academy Awards (including Best Director and Best Screenplay) and guaranteed immortality for screen lovers Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Clift stars as George Eastman, a poor young man determined to win a place in respectable society and the heart of a beautiful socialite (Elizabeth Taylor) . Shelley Winters plays the factory girl whose dark secret threatens Eastman's professional and romantic prospects. Consumed with fear and desire, Eastman is ultimately driven to a desperate act of passion that unravels his world forever. (Product Description)
"Giant" (1956)
Giant is a movie of huge scale and grandeur in which three generations of land-rich Texans love, swagger, connive and clash in a saga of family strife, racial bigotry and conflict between cattle barons and newly rich oil tycoons. It's also one of the most beloved works of director George Stevens, who won an Academy Award for this film, one of the 10 Oscar nominations the film earned. (Product Description)
"Raintree County" (1957)
Humongous MGM attempt to outdo Gone with the Wind, with (Montgomery) Clift as a small town Hoosier who makes the mistake of marrying Southern belle (Elizabeth) Taylor before the outbreak of the Civil War. Solid acting and memorable Johnny Green score help compensate for rambling, overlong script; Clift was disfigured in near fatal car accident during production, and his performance understandably suffers for it. (Leonard Maltin)
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958)
Nothing is ever what it seems in Big Daddy's house. The rich old man believes he's in perfect health, but the reality is he's dying of cancer. And then there's Brick (Paul Newman), Big Daddy's favorite son, whose drunken abusiveness threatens not only his inheritance, but also his marriage to the sensous Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor). So when Big Daddy finally learns the truth about his illness and discovers the shocking secret behind Brick's mysterious behavior, he is forced to give his self-pitying son the toughest advice he can: "I've got the guts to die, boy...have you got the guts to live?" (Product Description)
"Suddenly, Last Summer" (1959)
Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn each received 1960 Oscar nominations for Best Actress in this gripping adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play. Beautiful Catherine Holly (Taylor) is committed to a mental institution after witnessing the horrible death of her cousin at the hands of cannibals. Catherine's aunt, Violet Venable (Hepburn), tries to influence Dr. Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift), a young neurosurgeon, to surgically end Catherine's haunting hallucinations. By utilizing injections of sodium pentothal, Dr. Cukrowicz discovers that Catherine's delusions are in fact true. He then must confront Violet about her own involvement in her son's violent death. (Product Description)
"Butterfield 8" (1960)
Lots Of Men Knew Her Number. No One Knew Her Heart.
Gloria Wondrous awakens in a luxurious bedroom that's not hers. She swallows a jolt of distilled courage, tosses aside $250 left by an admirer, leaves a scornful reply in lipstick on the mirror, dials her service for messages and slips into a mink coat she finds in the closet. The day and the movie are off to a roaring start.
Moviegoers and Hollywood left a message of "Hurrah!" for Elizabeth Taylor and Butterfield 8. Audiences made the film, co-starring Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher as a married lover and platonic friend who matter to Gloria, a box-office hit. And Taylor won her first Best Actress Academy Award as the call girl whose life comes with a complete set of emotional baggage. For a glossy, good time, don't call. Watch. (Product Description)
Gloria Wondrous awakens in a luxurious bedroom that's not hers. She swallows a jolt of distilled courage, tosses aside $250 left by an admirer, leaves a scornful reply in lipstick on the mirror, dials her service for messages and slips into a mink coat she finds in the closet. The day and the movie are off to a roaring start.
Moviegoers and Hollywood left a message of "Hurrah!" for Elizabeth Taylor and Butterfield 8. Audiences made the film, co-starring Laurence Harvey and Eddie Fisher as a married lover and platonic friend who matter to Gloria, a box-office hit. And Taylor won her first Best Actress Academy Award as the call girl whose life comes with a complete set of emotional baggage. For a glossy, good time, don't call. Watch. (Product Description)
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton are ideal as malevolent couple Martha and George in first-time film director Mike Nichols's searing film of Edward Albee's groundbreaking Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?. Taylor won her second Academy Award (and New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and British Film Academy Best Actress Awards). Burton matches her as her emotionally spent spouse. George Segal and Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Sandy Dennis score as another couple straying into their destructive path. The movie won a total of five Academy Awards and remains after four decades a taboo-toppling landmark. (Product Description)
"The Taming of the Shrew" (1967)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton sparkle and amuse as Katharina and Petruchio in William Shakespeare's comic look at male chauvinism and women's lib in the 16th century. Petruchio, a poverty-stricken gentleman from Verona, journeys to Padua in search of a wealthy wife. There he encounters the fiery Katharina, a self-willed shrew who leads Petruchio on a merry chase before he successfully circumvents her attempts to avoid marriage. Their honeymoon becomes a humorous battle of wit and insult with Kate as determined to maintain her independence as Petruchio is to "tame" her. When the embattled couple returns to Padua, Kate helps Petruchio win a wager that he is the most obedient of wives. But in reality, the shrewish Kate has found a more effective way to dominate her mate. (Product Description)
