Elizabeth taylor

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (Hampstead, London, February 27, 1932-Los Angeles, California, March 23, 2011), also known as Liz Taylor, was an Anglo-American film, theater and television actress. She developed an artistic career in the United States that spanned more than sixty years, in which she gained popularity mainly as an actress in Hollywood movies.

Her first film role was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942) —for Universal Pictures—, alongside Hugh Herbert. However, his period of greatest popularity would occur in the mid-1940s, with youth films such as National Velvet, from 1944. From the 1950s, his film roles were increasingly important and he was recognized for her acting skills for drama, consecrating herself with films such as Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and BUtterfield 8 (1960), for which he received a large number of awards and distinctions. It was directed by prestigious directors such as Vincente Minnelli or Richard Brooks, and acted alongside actors such as Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, James Dean, Rock Hudson or Paul Newman.

Her role as Cleopatra in the eventful and controversial 1963 film of the same name was highly praised, as was her performance in Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). In 1981 she made her Broadway debut in The Little Foxes , for which she received favorable reviews. In the mid-1980s, she became an activist for humanitarian causes, especially the fight against AIDS. The rest of her career was mainly linked to the television medium, participating in soap operas such as General Hospital and All My Children , and in comedies such as The Nanny . Her removal from her screens came in 2001 with the TV movie These Old Broads.

Among his multiple awards, he won three Oscars (one of them honorary), five Golden Globes, three British BAFTA Awards and the David de Donatello. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for which she received the title of Dame, equivalent to the masculine Sir.

Recognized for her spectacular and dazzling beauty, she was also extremely popular for her stormy private life and her passion for jewelry.

In 1999 the American Film Institute named her the seventh best female star of the first hundred years of American cinema.

Biography

Early years and education

Taylor with his parents in 1947.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in Hampstead, London. She was the younger of the two children of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897-1968) and Sara Sothern (née Sara Viola Warmbrodt, 1895-1994), Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929. Her parents were originally from Arkansas. Francis Taylor was an art dealer and Sara was a former actress whose stage name was 'Sara Sothern'. Sothern retired from the stage in 1926, when she married Francis in New York City. Taylor's names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Mary Elizabeth (Rosemond) Taylor. One of her maternal great-grandparents was Swiss.

Colonel Víctor Cazalet, one of his closest friends, had an important influence on his family. A wealthy bachelor, a member of Parliament and a close friend of Winston Churchill, Cazalet was a great fan of art and theater and encouraged the Taylor family to move to America. Furthermore, as a Christian Scientist and lay preacher, his ties to the family were spiritual. He also became Elizabeth's godfather. On one occasion, when she was suffering from a severe infection as a child, she stayed by her bedside for weeks. She "begged" being in her company: "Mother, please call Victor and invite him to come sit with me."

Biographer Alexander Walker suggests that Elizabeth converted to Judaism at the age of 27 and her continued support for Israel may have been influenced by opinions she heard at home. Walker notes that Cazalet was active in campaigning for a Jewish homeland and her mother also worked in various charities, including raising sponsorship funds for Zionism.

At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons. Shortly before the start of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. She first traveled with her mother and brother, landing in New York City in April 1939, while her father stayed in London to wrap up business in her art business, arriving in November. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where her father opened a new art gallery, which included many paintings that were imported from England. The gallery soon attracted many Hollywood celebrities who appreciated her modern European paintings. According to Walker, the gallery "opened many doors for the Taylors, taking them directly into the society of money and prestige" within the Hollywood film community.

Artistic career

Beginnings

Taylor, 8, 1940.

Shortly after settling in Los Angeles, Taylor's mother discovered that people in Hollywood "usually saw a future movie for every pretty face." Some of her mother's friends, and even strangers, insisted that Taylor screen test for the role of Scarlett O'Hara's daughter in the film Gone with the Wind. Gone with the Wind), which was being filmed. Her mother refused the idea, because she never had the interest that her daughter was a child actress and in any case, her idea was to return to England after the war.

Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper introduced the Taylors to Andrea Berens, the girlfriend of John Cheever Cowdin, chairman and major shareholder of Universal Pictures. Berens insisted to Sara that she take the time to go with her daughter to see Cowdin, assuring that she had been dazzled by the impressive beauty of the girl. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also took an interest in Taylor as did Louis B. Mayer, head of the study. As a result, both Universal Pictures and MGM were willing to hire her. When Universal learned that MGM was equally interested, Cowdin quickly phoned Universal and offered him a seven-year deal.

Taylor appeared in her first film at the age of nine in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), her only Universal film.

Some speculate that she failed to meet Cowdin's expectations, and that even her beautiful eyes failed to impress him. Taylor's eyes were violet in color, with a rare mutation that made her possess a double row of lashes.

First roles

Taylor in the trailer A Date with Judy (1948).

Taylor was cast in the Lassie dog film Lassie Come Home (1943) with child star Roddy McDowall, with whom she would share a lifelong friendship. The film received favorable attention for the actors, and MGM signed Taylor to a conventional seven-year contract, starting at $100 a week with periodic increases. Her first job under the new contract was a loan-out to 20th Century Fox to play the character of Helen Burns in a film version of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1943). Taylor returned to England to appear in the film The White Rocks of Dover (1944), under the MGM label.

Taylor's persistence in pursuing the role of Velvet Brown in the film Fire of Youth made her a star at the age of 12. Her character was that of a girl who saves a horse from being slaughtered and later, with the help of a friend, she trains it to participate in the Grand National. The film, in which he co-starred with young actor Mickey Rooney and American newcomer Angela Lansbury, became a huge hit on its release in December 1944. Many years later, Taylor called it "the most exciting movie" ever made. he had never done, although the film brought back some of his back problems years later, due to a fall from a horse during filming. Viewers and critics alike "fell in love" with Elizabeth Taylor when she saw her in the film.

Fire of Youth grossed over $4 million domestically and MGM signed Taylor to a new long-term contract. Due to the success of the film, Taylor was cast in another film with a similar theme, Courage of Lassie (1946). The success of the film led to another contract for Taylor, which stipulated that she was to receive $750 per week. Her roles as the neurotic Mary Skinner on a loan to Warner Brothers in Life with Father (1947), Cynthia Bishop in Cynthia (1947), Carol Pringle in That's the Way They Are (1948) and Susan Prackett in Julia Misbehaves (1948) were successful. Taylor built a reputation as a competent and successful teen actress, being nicknamed "One-Shot Liz" (referring to her ability to shoot a scene in one take) and a promising career. Taylor's performance in the classic Little Women (1949) was her last role as a teenager.

The transition to adult roles

In October 1948, Taylor sailed aboard the RMS Queen Mary bound for England to begin filming Conspirator. Unlike other child actors, Taylor made an easy transition into adult roles. By then, Taylor already had the figure of a mature woman. Conspirator flopped at the box office, but the story of an 18-year-old American girl who falls head over heels for a 38-year-old British Guards officer (Robert Taylor) was praised by critics for being her first film. adult role in a movie.

Her first big box office success in an adult role came as Kay Bancos in the comedy Father of the Bride (The father of the bride, 1950), opposite Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett. The film spawned a sequel, The Father Is Grandfather (1951). The film did well at the box office, but it would be Taylor's next picture that would determine the course of her career as a dramatic actress.

By late 1949, Taylor had begun filming George Stevens' A Place in the Sun. Upon its release in 1951, Taylor drew acclaim for her portrayal of Angela Vickers, a spoiled socialite who stands between George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) and his impoverished pregnant girlfriend Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters).. In 1991, the film would be included among those preserved by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress of the United States for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Other films in which he was involved were Ivanhoe (1952), with Robert Taylor and Joan Fontaine, The Path of the Elephants (1954) and The Last The Time I Saw Paris (1954), in which her role as Helen Willis Ellsworth was based on that of Zelda Fitzgerald and, although she was pregnant with her second child, Taylor went ahead with the film.

Taylor at a scene The cat on the roof of zinc.

Following a more substantial role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in the George Stevens epic Giant (Giant, 1956), Taylor was nominated for a the Academy for "Best Actress" for the film The Tree of Life (1957), an ambitious production set in the Civil War, designed to emulate the success of Gone with the Wind. At the height of her beauty, she starred opposite Paul Newman in the romantic drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ( The cat on a hot tin roof , 1958), adaptation of the play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. She received multiple positive reviews, her second Oscar nomination for & # 34; Best Actress & # 34; and her first nomination for the BAFTA award as & # 34; Best British Actress & # 34;.

During the 1950s and 1960s, he became one of the biggest stars in the Hollywood firmament thanks to his presence in the aforementioned titles and in others such as Suddenly, Last Summer (De Suddenly Last Summer, 1959), alongside Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift (which would earn him his first Golden Globe and another Oscar nomination). Liz Taylor and Montgomery Clift maintained a close friendship until the actor's death in 1966.

With A Marked Woman (1960), where she played a luxury prostitute, Liz Taylor would win her first Oscar for "Best Actress," after adding four nominations in consecutive years, a record matched only by Marlon Brando. At the end of the 1950s, her rivalry with Marilyn Monroe, the other great star of 20th Century Fox studios, intensified, although they specialized in different roles: Taylor opted for tormented, temperamental and problematic characters, and Marilyn became famous as prototype of sex symbol, mostly in comedies.

Taylor in the trailer Cleopatra.

His star status was reinforced with the most expensive film in history up to then: Cleopatra (1963). For this film, Elizabeth Taylor was the first actress to sign a contract for the (by then astronomical) sum of one million dollars. However, several incidents led her to surpass this record: the multiple delays and setbacks of the shooting, and a percentage of the box office contemplated in her contract caused her to end up receiving her salary multiplied by her seven. It was on the set of this film where she met Richard Burton; they started an affair while they were both married, which caused a huge scandal.

Starting in the mid-1960s, his participation in the cinema began to lose strength, although he still had the opportunity to take part in several prominent films, such as The Indomitable Woman (directed by Franco Zeffirelli), Reflections in a Golden Eye, with Marlon Brando (directed by John Huston) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, said to be her best performance, next to Richard Burton. For this work, which in a certain way reflected the real disagreements of her protagonists, Taylor received her second Oscar for "Best Actress".

Irruption in television (1973-1979)

Taylor and Richard Burton acting like Jane and Martin Reynolds in Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973).

Starting in the 1970s, Taylor's film career declined sharply, and she began taking roles on television and on stage. The first film made for television in which she participated was Divorce His-Divorce Hers , from 1973, in which she shared a scene with her then-husband Richard Burton and was directed by Waris Hussein. It was a drama in which the marriage formed by Jane and Martin Reynolds comes to an end after 18 years. That same year she attended the San Sebastian International Film Festival to present her new film One hour at night ; She was going through a difficult time due to her recent separation from Richard Burton. Her stay was as fleeting as it was controversial, but Taylor showed signs of her kind character, not exempt from capricious traits typical of her star status. In 1976, she shot with Ava Gardner and Jane Fonda The Blue Bird, a film for children directed by George Cukor, which received neutral reviews and did not do too well commercially.

In 1977, he acted alongside Diana Rigg and Len Cariou in the film adaptation of the musical A Little Night Music (Sweet Vienna), with a script by Ingmar Bergman and directed by Harold Prince. It received mostly negative reviews.

Cinema, theater and television (1980-1989)

Later, he starred in The Broken Mirror (1980), based on a story by Agatha Christie, along with Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak and his personal friend Rock Hudson, under the direction of Guy Hamilton. It was a feature film that received good reviews.

She participated in two plays on Broadway: The Little Foxes (1981), held at the Martin Beck Theatre, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for "Best Actress principal of a work"; and Private Lives (1983), directed by Milton Katselas at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It should be added that she was also the executive producer of both.

In the early 1980s, Liz Taylor appeared in episodes of the popular soap operas General Hospital and All My Children. From then on, her appearances on television increased considerably, being the protagonist in 1983 of Between Friends, a telefilm written by the screenwriter Shelley List and with the special participation of Carol Burnett, and in 1984 appearing as a guest actress in an episode of the drama series Hotel.

Taylor at the Deauville American Film Festival in 1985.

In 1985, he starred in the TV movie Malice in Wonderland, a true story about the rivalry between journalists Louella Parsons (played by Taylor) and Hedda Hoper. The production received mixed reviews, but it still turned out to be one of the top television events of the year and generated high ratings in the Nielsen Ratings. Her next project was the miniseries North and South (1985), a Civil War drama based on the homonymous trilogy of novels written by John Jakes, where she played the role of Madam Conti, the owner of a brothel. Most of her roles around this time were in TV movies that did not receive the critical acclaim of her early work in the medium but continued to be embraced by audiences, including Poker Alice (1987).

In 1988, Taylor filmed Young Toscanini, her first theatrically released feature film since The Mirror Crack'd eight years earlier, in which she recreated the singer of opera Nadina Bulichoff. It starred C. Thomas Howell and was directed by Franco Zeffirelli. However, the film received negative reviews and did not do well commercially. The following year, Taylor returned to work in the television medium. She starred opposite Mark Harmon, Valerie Perrine, Ronnie Claire Edwards and Rip Torn in an adaptation of Sweet Bird of Youth , directed by Nicolas Roeg. Said telefilm updated a play (already made into a film with Geraldine Page and Paul Newman) based on the homonymous novel by Gavin Lambert.

Television targeting (1989-2001)

In 1989, he starred in the television movie Sweet Bird of Youth, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play of the same name, directed by Nicolas Roeg. Taylor portrayed a fading movie actress who suffers from alcoholism and drug addiction.

Beginning in the 1990s, Taylor's film career turned almost entirely to television. For example, she voiced the character Maggie Simpson in an episode of the popular FOX animated series The Simpsons in 1992 and made a brief cameo appearance in an episode of the sitcom starring by Fran Drescher The Nanny, in 1994.

Her last film appearance —also her first since her performance in Young Toscanini six years earlier— was in The Flintstones (1994), a live-action version of the eponymous animated series from the 1960s. There he worked alongside John Goodman, Rick Moranis, Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O'Donnell, among others. The film elicited mixed reactions: it was financially successful, but received mostly negative reviews. For her work, Taylor was nominated for a Golden Raspberry in the category of & # 34; Worst Supporting Actress & # 34;.

Towards the end of his career, he began receiving honors and recognition for his long career in entertainment. In 1999, she received the BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for her and in 2000 she was declared a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. She retired from the screens with the television movie These Old Broads (2001), opposite Debbie Reynolds, Shirley MacLaine and Joan Collins.

In March 2003, Taylor declined an invitation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to attend the 75th Academy Awards as a sign of his opposition to the Iraq War. On December 1, 2007, the actress participated in a benefit performance of the play Love Letters, in which she shared the scene with James Earl Jones. Tickets were priced at $2,500 and proceeds went to Taylor's charitable foundation.

Personal Life

Marriages, romances and children

Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands. Her husbands in chronological order were:

Taylor with her daughter Liza and her husband Mike Todd, 1957.

• Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (6 May 1950-29 January 1951); Taylor believed she was in love with the young heir, but also wanted to escape her mother's control. Hilton gave himself to the "game, drink and abusive behavior" and she and her parents, horrified, provoked an involuntary abortion, and marriage ended in divorce after nine months.

• Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952-26, January 1957); British actor twenty years older than her.

• Mike Todd (2 February 1957-22 March 1958); film producer who died a year later in an aviation accident. Although his relationship was tumultuous, Taylor later referred to him as one of the three loves of his life, along with Burton and the jewels.

• Eddie Fisher (12 May 1959-6 June 1964); after a period of only six months of widowhood he met, in 1959, the best friend of Mike Todd, the singer Eddie Fisher, then married to his best friend Debbie Reynolds. His relationship was initially friendly, but Fisher leaned on it and decided to leave his wife. The new couple contracted marriage in the middle of one of the most sound scandals of the time. For this wedding the actress became Judaism, Fisher's belief. Liz Taylor was stunned stolen-husbandAlthough already in her maturity, she and Debbie Reynolds reconciled.

• Richard Burton (15 March 1964-26 June 1974 / 10 October 1975 -29 July 1976); met him in 1962, in the filming of Cleopatraand it was his great love, with whom he then married and divorced twice and with whom he adopted his fourth daughter. His constant discussions, his drunk character and controversial statements were the cause of great scandals. Ink rivers ran from the beginning of the publicized film, until his divorce in 1974, his reconciliation in 1975 and his new divorce in 1976. Burton wears it with fast jewelry, such as the Krupp yellow diamond and the Peregrine pearl, which once belonged to Philip II and was reproduced by Velázquez in several royal portraits. When this jewel came out for sale and bought it by Richard Burton, the operation was attempted from Spain, claiming it was false. But it is certainly more famous the 69 carat Taylor-Burton diamond, purchased in 1969 for $1.1 million. Already in the '80s, Liz sold it for triple and spent the money for beneficial purposes in Africa. In December 2011, the actress died, her jewels and valuable dresses were auctioned, reaching astronomical figures.

• John Warner (4 December 1976-7 November 1982); with him he had a unhappy marriage that led her to alcoholism. Elizabeth was about to marry a Mexican lawyer, Victor Luna, with whom she had a car accident days before, which interrupted the marriage; after recovering both decided not to marry.

• Larry Fortensky (6 October 1991-31 October 1996); construction worker he had met at the Betty Ford Center during a detoxification cure. They contracted marriage at Michael Jackson's Neverland Rancho in 1991 and ended up divorced in 1996.

Prior to marrying Hilton, she was engaged to Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis.

Taylor had two sons: Michael Howard (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward (born February 27, 1955), with Michael Wilding. She had a daughter, Elizabeth Frances (born August 6, 1957), with Michael Todd. During her marriage to Eddie Fisher, Taylor began proceedings to adopt a two-year-old girl from Germany, Mary (born August 1, 1961); the adoption process was finalized in 1964, after her divorce.

In 1971, Taylor became a grandmother at age 39. At the time of her death, she was survived by her four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Conversion to Judaism

Following the death of Elizabeth Taylor and the problems with her enormous will, it has been said that the famous actress converted to Judaism at the age of 27, something that, moreover, was already mentioned in the biography of Northern Irish critic Alexander Walker, Elizabeth - The Life of Elizabeth Taylor (Weidenfeld, 1991).

Although Elizabeth Taylor was born in London into a Christian family, her parents, Americans living in the British capital, belonged to Christian Science. From her wedding to Eddie Fisher in 1959 until her death in 2011, Elizabeth Taylor always professed the Jewish faith. In fact, when the British Mandate for Palestine was established, both her mother and her godfather, the influential Colonel Victor Cazalet (a personal friend of Winston Churchill), supported Zionism. She, too, the actress supported him throughout her life, as well as the state of Israel for the past half century.

Her relationship with Michael Jackson

Taylor was also close friends with the late "King of Pop" Michael Jackson. She was precisely the first person to call him that at an awards ceremony, and from there the popular name arose. In addition, Michael Jackson wrote an exclusive song for her birthday, called & # 34; Elizabeth I Love You & # 34;, and a photograph with the two together was included on the cover of Jackson's hit album History .

Years earlier, a youthful scene of the actress was included in the music video for "Leave Me Alone. Jackson dedicated a hit song to her from the album Bad: "Liberian Girl". In 1991 Jackson hosted the actress's wedding to her last husband, Larry Fortensky, at her Neverland Ranch.

In 2005, Elizabeth Taylor attended a series of trials on suspicions of child abuse against Jackson. Taylor was unconditional at all times, declaring in favor of him and denying all the accusations.

Taylor was shocked after the singer's surprise death on June 25, 2009, and was present at Michael Jackson's private burial on September 3, 2009 at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Health problems, illnesses and death

Taylor struggled with health issues throughout her life; Since her divorce from Hilton, Taylor had severe ailments whenever she went through problems in her personal life. Taylor was hospitalized more than seventy times and had at least twenty operations. Newspaper headlines often erroneously announced that Taylor was near death.

Taylor in his middle age was constantly gaining and losing a great deal of weight, ranging from 120 to 180 pounds in the 1980s. He began with an addiction to tobacco in the mid-1950s and feared he would develop lung cancer, when in In October 1975, X-ray studies showed spots on his lungs, later leading to treatment to avoid developing the disease. Taylor broke her back five times, had two hip replacements, had a hysterectomy, suffered from dysentery and phlebitis, had a perforation in her esophagus, survived a benign brain tumor eradicated in 1997 and skin cancer, and had bouts of pneumonia. who threatened his life on two occasions. In 1983 she admitted to having been addicted to sleeping pills and painkillers for 35 years. She received treatment for her alcoholism and drug addiction, entering the Betty Ford Center for seven weeks from December 1983 to January 1984 and again from the fall of 1988 to early 1989.

On May 30, 2006, Taylor appeared on Larry King Live to refute claims that she had been ill, and denied claims that she had Alzheimer's disease. She started using a wheelchair and when she was asked about it, she stated that she had osteoporosis and that she was born with scoliosis.

The mutation that gave Taylor double eyelashes may also have contributed to her history of heart problems. In November 2004, Taylor announced that she suffered from congestive heart failure, a progressive disease in which the heart weakens, failing to pump enough blood throughout the body, particularly to the lower extremities, such as the ankles and feet. In 2009 she underwent cardiac surgery to place a valve in her heart. In February 2011, new symptoms related to heart failure caused her to be admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment, where she remained until her death at age 79 on March 23, 2011, surrounded by their four children.

She was buried in a private Jewish ceremony, presided over by Rabbi Jerry Cutler, the day after her death, at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Taylor is buried in the Grand Mausoleum, where public access to her grave is restricted.

Legacy

Liz Taylor owed no small part of her celebrity to her eventful life, but her acting career is worth a lot on its own. She received two Oscars, for A Scarred Woman (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and three more nominations, all in the category of "Best Leading Actress". Her first nomination was for the film The Tree of Life in 1957 and she was nominated for the next three years, until 1960 when she was nominated. She reached the record of four nominations in consecutive years, matched only by Marlon Brando. She already in her maturity received a third, honorary Oscar.

Photo of Taylor's file, 1953.

She was a star qualified by the Anglo-Saxon media as «bigger than life»: "a star greater than life itself". She is a remembered female legend of classic Hollywood, thanks to her very photogenic beauty, a long list of relevant films with notable performances, and a turbulent sentimental history.

He knew how to masterfully exploit his disturbing and undeniable sexual appeal and caused people to talk through his controversial romances. Following her affair with Richard Burton (both of whom were married to other couples) a Vatican newspaper accused her of "erotic wandering," a phrase that flooded headlines around the world. Burton snapped at her in her defense, claiming of her that he had only had five partners, all known, while other Hollywood divas would sleep with anyone on the first night (albeit keeping it a secret). Other sources close to the actress coincide in describing her as quite conventional in her love: they say that if she married eight times, it was because she was not prone to fleeting adventures and she wanted to formalize each new relationship with a wedding.

She is probably the actress who was declared "the most beautiful in the world" more times than any other, surpassing even the so-called "most beautiful animal in the world", Ava Gardner. Her face became a symbol of perfection for decades, from her teens in the 1940s to her middle age well into the 1970s.

As famous for her film career as for her sentimental life, Liz Taylor has been the subject of the tabloids for her constant divorces and marriages and for her health problems: excessive alcohol consumption, obesity (she weighed almost 90 kilos, despite his short stature), a spinal injury that required several operations, and a brain tumor. In her last years she attended public events in a wheelchair.

Also famous for his humanitarian work in the fight against AIDS since the death of his friend Rock Hudson, he collaborated with a society dedicated to the fight and investigation of this serious disease. For this reason, she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1992. In addition, that same year she participated in the Freddie Mercury tribute concert, speaking about the prevention necessary to combat AIDS.

Filmography

Awards and distinctions

Oscar Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Awards of the Union of Actors

Golden Laurel Awards

BAFTA Awards

Berlin International Film Festival

David de Donatello Awards

American Film Institute

National Board of Review

New York Critics Association