1. Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011 In Memory of the Great
Actress
2.
Today we tell about the film star Elizabeth Taylor. She made
over sixty films during her long career in Hollywood. She was
famous for her striking beauty, violet eyes and shining black hair.
Taylor was equally known for her complex private life and eight
marriages. Beginning in the nineteen eighties, she also raised
millions of dollars to support AIDS research.
CLEOPATRA: Without you, Antony, this is not a world I want to
live in, much less conquer. Because for me, there would be no love
anywhere. Do you want me to die with you? I will. Or do you want me
to live with you? Whatever you choose.
3.
That was Elizabeth Taylor playing the queen of Egypt in the
nineteen sixty-three movie Cleopatra. She earned over one million
dollars for her work in this movie. At the time, this was the most
money ever paid to an actor for a single film. It was also one of
the most costly movies ever made. Cleopatra was a larger-than-life
movie for a larger-than-life actress.
4.
Elizabeth Rosemund Taylor was born in nineteen thirty-two to
American parents living in London. Her father Francis was an art
dealer. Her mother Sara had worked as a stage actress before her
marriage. The Taylors left England in nineteen thirty-nine and
moved to southern California. Elizabeths beauty soon caught the
attention of movie studio officials.
She made her first movie, Theres One Born Every Minute, at the
age of ten. This was followed a year later by Lassie Come Home. But
it was the nineteen forty-four film, National Velvet that made her
a star.
5.
Twelve-year-old Elizabeth Taylor starred as Velvet Brown, a
girl living in a village in England. She saves a horse and trains
him for an important race, which she wins.
During the nineteen forties Elizabeth Taylor played many roles
in movies about families. Not all child actors in Hollywood were
successful later playing adult roles. But Taylor easily went from
playing children to playing teenagers and adults. In nineteen
fifty, she played the bride in the popular film Father of the
Bride.
That was also the year of her first marriage, to the wealthy
businessman Conrad Nicky Hilton. But their marriage ended in
divorce the next year. Speaking after her first divorce, Taylor
reportedly said that she had been able to fit in the clothing of a
sexy woman since she was fourteen years old. She said her troubles
started because she had a womans body and a childs emotions.
6.
Elizabeth Taylor would quickly become as famous for her private
life as she was for her acting career. The media often wrote about
her many marriages and love affairs. In nineteen fifty-two she
married the British actor Michael Wilding, with whom she had two
sons.
Five years later they divorced, and she married the film
producer Mike Todd. The couple had one daughter, Liza. Mike Todd
died in nineteen fifty-eight in a plane crash. One of his close
friends was the singer Eddie Fisher. He was married to a good
friend of Elizabeth Taylor, the popular actress Debbie Reynolds.
Eddie Fisher left his wife in order to marry Elizabeth Taylor. Many
people were shocked and angered by this behavior.
7.
Elizabeth Taylor once said that during the first part of her
career, she did not make a huge effort as an actress. She said this
changed in nineteen fifty-one with the movie A Place in the Sun. It
tells a tragic story about a young man and his relationship with
two women. Here is a famous scene with her co-star, Montgomery
Clift.
GEORGE: I am the happiest person in the world.
ANGELA: The second happiest.
GEORGE: Oh, Angela, if I could only tell you how much I love
you, if I could only tell you all.
ANGELA: Tell Mama, tell Mama all.
Critics praised Elizabeth Taylor for the depth she brought to
this movie. She expressed both innocence and intense sensuality.
She began to receive wide praise for her fine and expressive
acting. And, she began to receive richer, more interesting
roles.
8.
One of these was in the movie Giant with Rock Hudson and James
Dean. It tells the story of a wealthy cattle rancher in Texas and
his family.
JETT: I guess youre about the best looking gal weve seen around
here in a long time, I think. Prettiest I think Ive seen down
here.
LESLIE: Why thank you, Jett. Thats a very nice compliment. And
Im going to tell my husband Ive met with your approval.
The movie was a big success. James Dean did not live to see the
movie completed. He died in a car accident in nineteen fifty-five
before the movie was released the next year. Elizabeth Taylor
received Academy Award nominations for several films she made
starting in the late nineteen fifties. The first was for the
nineteen fifty-seven movie Raintree County.
9.
The next year she starred in a film version of the Tennessee
Williams play, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She plays a beautiful wife
who is having marriage troubles. Her alcoholic husband is played by
Paul Newman. Many critics consider this one of her best
movies.
MAGGIE: Oh Brick! How long does this have to go on, this
punishment? Havent I served my term? Cant I apply for a
pardon?
BRICK: Lately, that finishing school voice of yours sounds like
you was running upstairs to tell someone the house is on fire.
MAGGIE: Is it any wonder? You know what I feel like? I feel all
the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
BRICK: Then jump off the roof, Maggie, jump off it. Now cats
jump off roofs and they land uninjured. Do it. Jump.
MAGGIE: Jump where! Into what?
10.
Taylors third Academy Award nomination was for another movie
based on a Tennessee Williams play called Suddenly Last
Summer.
In nineteen sixty, it was her turn to win. She received her
first Academy Award for her work in Butterfield 8. Her second
Academy Award for acting came six years later for her role in Whos
Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She starred in this movie opposite her
husband at the time, the Welsh actor Richard Burton.
MARTHA: In fact, he was sort of a flop. A great big, fat
flop.
GEORGE: Stop it, Martha.
MARTHA: I hope that was an empty bottle, George. You cant
afford to waste good liquor. Not on your salary. Not on an
associate professors salary.
11.
The movie was based on a play by Edward Albee. For this role,
Elizabeth Taylor gained a great deal of weight in order to look the
part of the aging wife of a college professor. Whos Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? received great praise. But it was Taylors first
movie with Burton that had made history.
Cleopatra received a great deal of attention for bringing
together Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Both stars were
married to other people at the time. But they began a widely
publicized love affair while filming the movie.
12.
Burton and Taylor would eventually marry and divorce each other
twice. They made many movies together and led a life of extreme
fame and wealth.
Taylor later said she remained madly in love with Burton for
his entire life. She said she would have married him a third time
had he not died unexpectedly in nineteen eighty-four.
Elizabeth Taylors last two marriages also ended in divorce. She
was married to Senator John Warner of Virginia and, later, to a
builder named Larry Fortensky .
13.
Throughout her life, Elizabeth Taylor faced many health
problems. She nearly died twice of pneumonia. She had back, hip,
heart and weight problems. In the nineteen eighties, she battled
drug and alcohol abuse. She entered a medical center for treatment
and was very open with the public about her struggles.
She spent much of her time working on her charity and business
projects. She gave her name to several hugely successful
perfumes.
In nineteen eighty-five, she helped create amFAR, the American
Foundation for AIDS Research. She did this during a period when
many people believed those infected with the disease were immoral
and few recognized its danger
14.
Reports say she helped raise over a hundred million dollars for
AIDS research and patients. In nineteen ninety-one she started the
Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. The organization helps people
around the world who are living with AIDS.
Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure in two thousand eleven
at the age of seventy-nine. AIDS researcher Mathilde Krim told USA
Today that the actress was always known for her beauty, success and
jewelry. But she said Elizabeth Taylor was also a woman of extreme
intelligence, independence, courage and a deep concern for
others.