Oscar Profile #158: Elizabeth Taylor

Born February 27, 1932 in London, England to American parents working in London, Elizabeth Taylor came to the U.S. during World War II. A strikingly beautiful child, she auditioned for the movies and was immediately signed by Universal who cast her in 1942’s There’s One Born Every Minute. Dropped by Universal after just the one film, she was immediately picked up by MGM who quickly cast her in three outstanding films, 1943’s Lassie, Come Home and 1944’s The White Cliffs of Dover and Jane Eyre. Then came her fourth MGM film, National Velvet which made her a star at the age of 12.

After her starring role opposite Mickey Rooney in National Velvet it was second leads in major films and leads in minor ones until 1950’s Father of the Bride and its sequel, 1951’s Father’s Little Dividend increased her value to the point where she would never play second fiddle to another actress again.

Stunningly beautiful in 1951’s A Place in the Sun, it would be several years before Taylor would be taken seriously as an actress. She was well on her way to becoming as famous for her marriages as she was for her film roles. She married hotel heir Nicky Hilton in May, 1950 and divorced him in February, 1951. She married Michael Wilding, father of two of her four children, in February, 1952.

In 1956 she starred in Giant for which she received the first strong notices of her career for her performance rather than her looks. Divorced from Wilding in January, 1957, she married producer Mike Todd the following month and attended the 1956 Oscars with him two months later when he won for Around the World in 80 Days. By the time the next Oscars rolled around, he would be dead in a plane crash and she would be an Oscar nominee herself for the first time for Raintree County. She was nominated again for the following year’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof even though she was by then in the midst of her greatest notoriety for “stealing” best friend Debbie Reynolds’ husband Eddie Fisher, whom she would marry in May, 1959.

Nominated for the third year in succession for 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer, she won on her fourth successive nomination for 1960’s BUtterfield 8, a film she loathed and made only to end her MGM contract. Most people, including Taylor herself, believed she really won because she almost died during an illness that necessitated an emergency tracheotomy. It happened on the set of Cleopatra, for which she became the first actress to have been paid a million dollars. Her rumored romance with co-star Richard Burton kept the film in the headlines and drew millions to the box office when the film was released in 1963. The film cost so much to make, however, that it failed to make a profit.

Divorced from Fisher in March, 1964, she married Burton that same month. They would divorce in June, 1974, remarry in October, 1975 and divorce for good in August, 1976. In all, they made eleven films together, most of them not worthy of either of their talents, but they did have 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Viriginia Woolf? for which Taylor received her second Oscar.

Taylor’s marriage to Virginia Senator John Warner from December, 1976 to November, 1982 slowed her career down, but didn’t stop it. Nothing from this period, however, added anything to her legend. She met her seventh husband (eighth if you count Burton twice), Larry Fortensky, while in rehab for alcoholism and was married to him from October, 1991 to October, 1996.

Best known in her later years for her charity work, particularly regarding AIDS causes after the 1985 death of her Giant co-star and friend, Rock Hudson, Taylor suffered through many illnesses and death scares, finally succumbing to congestive heart failure on March 23, 2011 at the age of 79.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951), directed by George Stevens

Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy had been filmed twenty years earlier by Josef von Sternberg with Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sidney and Frances Dee in the roles now played by Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters and Taylor. In that version, the part of the mousy factory worker played by Sidney was the more prominent female character. In this version, all eyes are on the alluring Taylor as the rich girl protagonist Clift falls head over heels for to the consternation of a pregnant Winters. Taylor’s “white lilac” gown caused a fashion sensation and sold many patterns and copies. Nominated for nine Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Clift) and Actress (Winters), it won six including Best Director and Black-and-White Costume Design primarily for Taylor’s gown.

GIANT (1956), directed by George Stevens

Taylor received the first good notices for her acting rather than her looks since 1944’s National Velvet, filmed when she was twelve years old.

As Edna Ferber’s Maryland born and raised heroine, who marries rich cattle rancher Rock Hudson and relocates to Texas, Taylor slowly manages to charm several generations of her neighbors including James Dean, Sal Mineo, Chill Wills and Jane Withers, while raising free-thinking children Carroll Baker and Dennis Hopper, all of whom turn in excellent performances.

Nominated for nine Oscars including Best Picture, two Best Actors (Hudson, Dean) and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge as Hudson’s protective sister who dies early on), the film won just one for Stevens’ stalwart direction. Baker was nominated as well, albeit for her star-making role in that year’s Baby Doll.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958), directed by Richard Brooks

Much of Taylor’s smoldering performance was captured while she was in shock over the death of husband Mike Todd in a plane crash. Despite censor demanded watering down of Tennessee Williams’ play, the acting pyrotechnics between Taylor, Paul Newman as her alcoholic husband and Burl Ives as her dying father-in-law keep it afloat. There are also fine contributions form Judith Anderson, Jack Carson and Madeleine Sherwood.

Nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Newman), Actress (Taylor) and Director, the film won none. Burl Ives, an obvious choice for Best Supporting Actor, was listed by MGM as a lead actor for the film and could not be nominated in support under Academy rules in force at the time. He won the year’s Best Supporting Oscar instead for The Big Country, a part that owes more than a little to his Big Daddy.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The movie censors successfully had all references to homosexuality removed from the film version of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but there wasn’t much they could do to camouflage the subject in Williams’ Suddenly, Last Summer. The story centers on dragon lady Katharine Hepburn trying to convince psychiatrist Montgomery Clift to have her niece, Taylor, lobotomized to keep her from telling the truth about the death of her son “Sebastian”. Shocking revelations regarding cannibalism put up a enough of a smokescreen to get the homosexuality past the perplexed censors in the now fast changing cinema marketplace.

The film was nominated for three Oscars, two for Best Actress (Hepburn and Taylor) and Best Black-and-White Art Direction and Set Design.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966), directed by Mike Nichols

Generally regarded as the film that put the final nails in the coffin of the Production Code, newspapers and magazines competed to get the news out to the movie-going public as to how many times certain heretofore banned words were spoken during the course of the film.

Bette Davis campaigned hard for the role of the harridan wife of the college professor she wanted to play opposite Henry Fonda, but Warner Bros. figured they could bring in more customers with a frumpy Taylor and disheveled Burton.

Nominated for thirteen Oscars including Best Picture, Actor (Burton), Actress (Taylor), Supporting Actor (George Segal), Supporting Actress (Sandy Dennis) and Director, the film won five including Best Actress and Supporting Actress. Taylor, incensed that hubby Burton didn’t also win, refused to send the customary thank-note to the Academy.