Elizabeth Taylor: A Legendary Life in Ten Unforgettable Films
Elizabeth Taylor, the first actress to command a million-dollar salary, navigated eight marriages while garnering six Academy Award nominations and winning two. From a child star at nine to a legendary screen icon, Taylor’s world-famous violet eyes reflected both the opulence and the solitary courage of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Here, we celebrate her extraordinary career with ten of her most iconic films, including one that remains unmatched to this day.
Taylor’s Defining Roles
1. Cleopatra (1963)
The Most Expensive Queen in Film History
To portray Cleopatra, Taylor dyed her hair, leading to permanent hair loss, and wore 62 costumes costing millions of dollars. She even underwent a tracheotomy to complete the Nile enthronement scene while seriously ill. The exorbitant production costs nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox, but Taylor’s portrayal resurrected the cunning and allure of the legendary queen.
2. BUtterfield 8 (1960)
Her First Oscar Win
Taylor’s portrayal of a call girl’s vulnerability, sleeping in a phone booth, resonated with the Academy, perhaps overlooking her recent personal tragedy. During the filming of a breakdown scene in a bathroom, she shattered a mirror, cutting her arm but continuing to perform, earning her first Oscar with blood and tears.
3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
The Most Intense On-Screen Couple
As the boozy housewife Martha, Taylor and her husband Richard Burton mirrored their tumultuous real-life relationship, hurling insults and even props at each other. Her improvised line, “Give me ice!” became a classic example of acting prowess. Gaining 15 pounds and appearing without makeup, Taylor secured her second Academy Award.
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
A Southern Gothic Elegy of Desire
As Maggie, a sexually repressed woman in Tennessee Williams’ adaptation, Taylor’s steamy confrontation with Paul Newman in a steam room was cut by 23 minutes. To convey her character’s anxiety, Taylor stayed awake for 36 hours straight, and the sweat stains visible beneath her purple silk dress became a masterclass in villainous acting.
5. A Place in the Sun (1951)
A Star’s Ambitious Transformation
At 19, Taylor embodied a gold digger, and during a pool scene where she seduces Montgomery Clift, her false eyelashes fell off. MGM preserved this unexpected moment in close-up, creating one of cinema’s most authentic gazes of desire and ushering in the era of the “screen siren.”
6. Giant (1956)
A Texas Oil Epic
Taylor aged from a spoiled young girl to an elderly woman with white hair. She endured three heatstrokes while filming a pivotal scene in the 42°C desert while wearing fur. Her final scene with James Dean, where she gently caresses his cheek, became a poignant metaphor for the transition between Hollywood’s old and new eras.
7. Ivanhoe (1952)
A Medieval Beauty in Captivity
As a Jewish princess chained to a stone wall, Taylor engaged in a week-long standoff with the director for refusing to wear a flesh-colored bodysuit. Her eventual compromise resulted in a striking prison close-up, making the juxtaposition of medieval armor and her fair skin a classic cinematic composition.
8. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
A Thrilling Masterpiece
As a wealthy woman confined to a mental institution, Taylor uses a genuine crystal chandelier imported from Venice to knock out Montgomery Clift. To embody her character’s paranoia, she reportedly used hallucinogens. During a chase scene in a corridor, she ran through three pairs of stockings barefoot, earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.
9. Little Women (1949)
A Child Star’s Metamorphosis
At 16, Taylor played Amy, insisting on filming the drowning scene in real snow at -10°C. The shot of her frozen fingers playing Beethoven impressed the author’s descendants, who remarked that she was “more vibrant than the vain girl in the book,” solidifying her status as a superstar.
10. The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
A Shakespearean Benchmark
Alongside her husband Richard Burton, Taylor engaged in on-screen and off-screen slaps, and the theatrical exaggeration was criticized as “over the top,” but it accurately captured Shakespeare’s battle of the sexes. Wearing a 20-pound solid gold headdress for her monologue, Taylor delivered her final box office hit.