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TAYLOR, Elizabeth
Amerikaans filmactrice (1932- )
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* Londen. 27.2.1932 Taylor is van Engelse afkomst. Zij trad reeds als kind op in Amerikaanse films, o.a. Jane Eyre (1943), National velvet (1944), maar hoofdrollen waren pas in de jaren vijftig voor haar weggelegd. Zij trad tweemaal in het huwelijk met de acteur R. Burton. LITT. R. Waterbury, E. Taylor (1964). Education: Byron House School; Hawthorne School; University High School The debatable acting skills of this breathtakingly beautiful, quintessential movie star of the 1950s and '60s have always been overshadowed by her much-publicized, scandal-ridden personal life. The British-born Taylor fled England during WWII and settled in the US. She appeared in her first film, THERE'S ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE (1942), at the age of ten. The following year, Taylor was cast as the young heroine opposite Roddy McDowall in LASSIE COME HOME (1943), which led to a long-term contract with MGM. She became a star at age 12 with her striking performance as horse-crazy Velvet Brown in the children's classic NATIONAL VELVET (1944), a performance about which one British reviewer raved: "whenever she speaks or thinks about horses …: her strange azure eyes gleam and her whole frame trembles with the intensity of her passion." Other early films included THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER (1944), CYNTHIA and LIFE WITH FATHER (both 1947). Before reaching her late teens, Taylor had physically outgrown juvenile parts and was playing young adults. Vincente Minnelli's domestic comedy FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950) and George Stevens's much-lauded A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951) firmly established her as a major adult star. From a pretty child, she had grown into one of the great beauties of the age: black hair, heart-shaped face, violet eyes with thick black lashes, her breathy voice only slightly tinged with her British origins. Stevens' GIANT (1956), meanwhile, forged a new level of respect for Taylor as an actress, and over the next decade she developed into one of the most glamorous and highly-paid movie performers in the world, earning a then-astounding $1 million to star as CLEOPATRA (1963). Atypically for Taylor at that time, the film did less than overwhelming business at the box office, especially with respect to its unprecedented cost (reportedly $40 million). By the early 1950s, Taylor had embarked on her career as a serial bride: her husbands included hotel heir Nicky Hilton, actor Michael Wilding, producer Mike Todd, crooner Eddie Fisher, actor Richard Burton (twice), US Senator John Warner, and construction worker Larry Fortensky. Taylor's glamorous and unapologetically hedonistic persona undoubtedly contributed to her popularity and notoriety, but somewhat limited her critical reputation. She received much sympathy when third husband Todd died in a plane crash, but she was widely criticized for "stealing" Fisher away from his wife, actress Debbie Reynolds. Her much-publicized near-death from pneumonia and her emergency tracheotomy, however, garnered Taylor the forgiveness of the public, but she again made the tabloids when she began an affair with Burton, then still married to his first wife. Taylor's career during these sensational years, though, was at its peak. She was nominated for an Oscar three times—for her crazed belle in RAINTREE COUNTY (1957), for her even better performances as the manipulative Southern beauty in Tennessee Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) and as the overwrought boy-bait in Williams' SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959)—before winning the first of her two Best Actress Oscars for her performance as a disillusioned call girl in the melodrama BUTTERFIELD 8 (1960). Insiders claimed that Taylor's life-threatening illness tipped the scales in her favor for this first win. No one disputed her second Oscar, as she and Burton tore into their roles as an unbalanced, battling middle-aged couple (Taylor was 34) in the blistering WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966). Taylor has been particularly adept at playing somewhat neurotic, man-crazed beauties, and such roles as Maggie "the Cat," Catherine of SUDDENLY and Martha of VIRGINIA WOOLF have given full expression to her talent. But her film career petered out in the 1970s with a series of increasingly bizarre star vehicles (BOOM!, 1968; THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, 1970; HAMMERSMITH IS OUT, 1972; THE BLUE BIRD, 1976. In 1981, Taylor made her Broadway debut as Regina in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, winning a Tony Award nomination. The following year, she brought the production to London's West End. With Zev Bufman, Taylor formed the Elizabeth Theater Group which produced revivals of The Corn Is Green, starring Cicely Tyson and Peter Gallagher, and Noel Coward's Private Lives, that reteamed Taylor with her ex-husband Richard Burton. Taylor has also acted in the occasional TV movies, sometimes in questionable casting. She made highly entertaining appearances in RETURN ENGAGEMENT(NBC, 1978), as a dancer turned history professor, MALICE IN WONDERLAND (CBS, 1985), as gossip columnist Louella Parsons to Jane Alexander's Hedda Hopper, POKER ALICE(CBS, 1987), as a Bible-toting madam, and Tennessee Williams' SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH (NBC, 1989). She has also turned up on innumerable awards and benefit shows and interviews, as well as guesting on her favorite soap, "General Hospital," and on such sitcoms as "Here's Lucy," "The Simpsons," as the voice of Baby Maggie, "The Nanny" and "Murphy Brown." After the AIDS death of friend and co-star Rock Hudson in 1985, Taylor helped to launch the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), campaigned vigorously on behalf of AIDS patients, and criticized lack of government funding in fighting the disease. Disillusioned with AmFAR, she created her own Elizabeth Taylor Foundation for AIDS in 1993. She has also launched several successful perfumes, whose promotional ads play up Taylor's status as one of the last of Hollywood's old-time glamour stars. In 1993, she was presented the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, as well as a Jean Hersholt Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Taylor made a cameo appearance as Fred's mother-in-law in the feature film THE FLINTSTONES (1994), but her career as an "actress" has more or less remained dormant. Her career as a "star," however, has remained undimmed, as every drug or alcohol problem, weight gain or loss, troubled friendship and brush with death has been treated with mass hysteria by the media. She tried to legally block the TV miniseries LIZ: THE ELIZABETH TAYLOR STORY (NBC, 1995), but, by that time, even she had to realize that she had become 'public domain'. Filmografie Elizabeth Taylor1942 THERE'S
ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE 1944 NATIONAL VELVET 1944 THE WHITE
CLIFFS OF DOVER 1950 FATHER OF
THE BRIDE
1951 CALLAWAY
WENT THATAWAY
1956 GIANT (zie foto rechts)
1957 RAINTREE COUNTY 1958 CAT ON A
HOT TIN ROOF
1966 WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? 1967 THE
COMEDIANS 1972 X, Y AND ZEE 1973 ASH
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