Movie icon Elizabeth Taylor died today at the age of 79. The actress had been in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles for six weeks due to congestive heart failure.
Where do you start a blog about a superstar like Elizabeth Taylor? Do you talk about her beauty, her battle with addiction and weight gain, her award winning acting, her many husbands and scandalous affairs, her philanthropy, her seemingly odd friendship with Michael Jackson, her love of animals?
One thing is for sure – Elizabeth Taylor lived life to the fullest. Even though she went through some scandalous times, Taylor died a truly beloved superstar, the likes this old world may never see again.
If you wondered why Taylor was officially a dame (and not in the Frank Sinatra sense), it is because she was born in London in 1932. Her mother was an actress and encouraged Taylor, who began acting at the age of nine when she appeared in There’s One Born Every Minute.
She continued to act through her teens. She starred in National Velvet in she was 12, but suffered a back injury when she was thrown from a house. She would be plagued with that injury for the rest of her life.
Due to the success of that film and other during her teen years, she easily transitioned into adult roles. After Father of the Bride was released in 1950, she starred in A Place In the Sun the next year. She won critical acclaim for this role.
Speaking of brides, Taylor became a bride for the first time when she married Conrad “Nicky” Hilton in May 1950 not long after she turned 18. It wasn’t a happy marriage and the couple divorced after nine months.
But, as you know, Taylor wasn’t ready to give up on love just yet. Over the next 10 years, while making films like Giant and Butterfield 8 (which earned her her first Oscar), she married Michael Wilding (from 1952 until 1957), Michael Todd (from 1957 until his death in 1958) and Eddie Fisher.
Tomorrow, I will blog more about Taylor’s life.