Elizabeth Taylor

 Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE (February 27th 1932 - 23 March, 2011) was a British and American actress. Her career began as a child actor in the 1940s, and was one of the most popular actors of the classical Hollywood film in the 1950s. In the 1960s she became the highest-paid film star in the world , and was a prominent public figure throughout her entire life. The American Film Institute named Taylor the seventh-highest-rated female screen icon of Classic Hollywood cinema in 1999. Taylor was born in London to famous American parents. The family moved to Los Angeles with her family in 1939. After a year, Taylor began her acting career in a minor role in the Universal Pictures film "There's One Born Every minute (1942)." The studio then signed her to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and became a popular teen star after appearing in National Velvet (1944). The actress transitioned into roles of maturity in the 1950s. In that time, she was in the comedy Father of the Bride (1950) and was praised by critics for her performance in the dramatic A Place in the Sun (1951). Taylor wanted to end her career in 1950s, despite being among MGM's most successful actors. Taylor was unhappy with the studio's control, and she disliked many films that they given her. She began receiving more enjoyable roles around the mid-1950s starting with the epic film Giant (1956), and was a part of a number of commercially and critically successful films in the following years. They included two adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959); Taylor won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter. Although she disliked her role as a call-girl in BUtterfield 8 (1960), her final film for MGM in which she was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.During the making of the film Cleopatra in the year 1961, Taylor and co-star Richard Burton started an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal. Despite their public opposition, they continued their relationship and were married in 1964. They were known as "Liz" as well as "Dick" in the press. They appeared together in 11 films, which included The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (65), The Taming of the Shrew(677) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1967). (1966). Taylor received the best reviews of her career for Woolf, winning her second Academy Award and several other awards for her performance. Taylor and Burton separated in 1974, but reconciled soon after they remarried in the year 1975. The second marriage ended in divorce in 1976.Taylor's acting career started to decline in the latter part of the 1960s. However, she continued starring in films up to the mid-1970s. After when she shifted her attention to the career of her husband's sixth, United States Senator John Warner (R-Virginia). In the late 1980s, she acted in her first substantial role on stage and also in a variety of television films and series. Following Sophia Loren, Taylor was the second celebrity to launch her own perfume company. Taylor was among the first celebrities to participate in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In 1985, Taylor co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research and in 1991 , the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. In the early 1990s, until her death in the late 1990s, Taylor devoted her life to charity, for which she received numerous honors, including the Presidential Citizens Medal. Taylor's private life was the subject of the spotlight throughout her career. Taylor was married to seven times, was converted to Judaism and was afflicted with a variety of serious illnesses. She also led a lavish lifestyle that included one of the most valuable personal collections of jewellery in the country. Taylor passed away at the age of 79 in 2011 of congestive cardiac failure after years of suffering from poor health.