Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (born 27 February 1932), also known as Liz Taylor, is an Anglo-American actress. She is known for her acting skills and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle, including many marriages. Taylor is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's golden years, as well as a larger-than-life celebrity.
Early years (1932–1942) :
Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of north-west London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929. Both of her parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was Sara Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York City. Taylor's two first names are in honour of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor. A dual citizen of the UK and the U.S., Taylor was born both a British subject and an American citizen, the former by being born on British soil under the principle of jus soli, and the latter through her parents under the principle of jus sanguinis.
At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons with Vaccani. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, arriving in New York in April 1939,while her father remained in London to wrap up matters in the art business, arriving in November. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.
The Taylors climbed the proverbial social ladder with far greater ease in Hollywood than they had in London. Among some of Francis Taylor's earliest clientele in his Beverly Hills Hotel art gallery were some of Hollywood's leading stars, among them Howard Duff, Vincent Price, James Mason, Alan Ladd and Greta Garbo. Another high visibility client was Hollywoodgossip columnistHedda Hopper. Hopper's initial interest in visiting the gallery stemmed from a longstanding friendship she enjoyed with Thelma Cazalet-Keir. Cazalet-Keir who hosted Hopper whenever the latter visited London, wrote to her and asked if she wouldn't mind boosting the new gallery in her widely read newspaper column. In her column she not only plugged the gallery as a new must-see in the Los Angeles art world she also drew attention to Sara Taylor's ill-fated stage career as well as to her "beautiful eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth." The columnist noted that producer David O. Selznick had not yet cast all the minor roles in his new picture Gone With The Wind, the most talked about motion picture epic in pre-production at that time. According to Hopper, although Taylor had never acted professionally, she seemed an excellent choice to play Bonnie Blue, the daughter of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The idea was straight away squelched by Francis Taylor who had no interest in letting his seven-year-old daughter pursue an acting career.
Through Hopper, the Taylors were introduced to Andrea Berens, a wealthy English socialite and also fiancée of Cheever Cowden, chairman and major stockholder of Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Berens insisted that Sara bring Elizabeth to see Cowden, who she was adamant would be taken away by Elizabeth's breathtaking dark beauty. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon took interest in the British youngster as well but she failed to secure a contract with them after an informal audition with producer John Considine proved that she couldn't sing. However, on 18 September 1941, Universal Pictures signed Elizabeth to a six-month renewable contract at $100 a week. Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine in There's One Born Every Minute, her first and only film for Universal Pictures. Less than six months after she signed with Universal, her contract was reviewed by Edward Muhl, the studio's production chief. Muhl met with Taylor's agent, Myron Selznick (brother of David) and with Cheever Cowden. Muhl challenged Selznick's and Cowden's constant support of Taylor: "She can't sing, she can't dance, she can't perform. What's more, her mother has to be one of the most unbearable women it has been my displeasure to meet." Universal cancelled Taylor's contract just short of her tenth birthday in February 1942. Nevertheless on 15 October 1942, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed Taylor to $100 a week for up to three months to appear as Priscilla in Lassie Come Home.
Career :
Adolescent star :
Lassie Come Home starred child star Roddy McDowall, with whom Taylor would share a lifelong friendship. Upon its release in 1943, the film received favorable attention for both McDowall and Taylor. On the basis for her performance in Lassie Come Home MGM signed Taylor to a conventional seven-year contract at $100 a week but increasing at regular intervals until it reached a hefty $750 during the seventh year. Her first assignment under her new contract at MGM was a loan-out to 20th Century Fox for the character of Helen Burrows in a film version of the Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre (1944). During this period she also returned to England to appear in another Roddy McDowall picture for MGM, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). But it was Taylor's persistence in campaigning for the role of Velvet Brown in MGM's National Velvet that skyrocketed Taylor to stardom at the tender age of 12. Taylor's character, Velvet Brown, is a young girl who trains her beloved horse to win the Grand National. National Velvet, which also costarred beloved American favorite Mickey Rooney and English newcomer Angela Lansbury, became an overwhelming success upon its release in December 1944 and altered Taylor's life forever. Also, many of her back problems have been traced to when she hurt her back falling off a horse during the filming of National Velvet. National Velvet grossed over US$4 million at the box office and Taylor was signed to a new long-term contract that raised her salary to $30,000 per year. To capitalize on the box office success of Velvet, Taylor was shoved into another animal opus, Courage of Lassie, in which the popular canine, cast as an Allied combatant in World War II, regularly outsmarts the Nazis, with Taylor going through another outdoors role. The 1946 success of Courage of Lassie led to another contract drawn up for Taylor earning her $750 per week, her mother $250, as well as a $1,500 bonus. Her roles as Mary Skinner in a loan-out to Warner Brothers' Life With Father (1947), Cynthia Bishop in Cynthia (1947), Carol Pringle in A Date with Judy (1948) and Susan Prackett in Julia Misbehaves (1948) all proved to be successful. Her reputation as a bankable adolescent star and nickname of "One-Shot Liz" (referring to her ability to shoot a scene in one take) promised her a full and bright career with Metro. Taylor's portrayal as Amy, in the American classic Little Women (1949) would prove to be her last adolescent role. In October 1948, she sailed aboard the RMS Queen Mary travelling to England where she would begin filming on Conspirator, where she would play her first adult role. Read more Click Here
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