She was immediately signed up by Universal Studios in 1941. Her first film “There’s One Born Every Minute” was a failure and Universal Studios cancelled their contract. Luckily she was later on signed up by M-G-M, with whom she did her third movie, “The White Cliffs Of Dover”. This was to remain in the Box Office for nearly a year. Thirteen years after acting in her second movie, “The White Cliffs Of Dover”, she starred in “Giant”, which was a big hit. Her co-star was James Dean. In 1956 at the age of twenty-two she was already earning increasing critical respect as an actress. Tragically, Dean was unable to see the release of the film as he died in a car accident in 1955.
Despite not being given the Academy award, she kept on improving until in 1958 she starred in “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”. This movie was much better than the ones she had done before and received rave reviews from all the critics. Elizabeth was nominated for the Academy Award. Despite losing it, she was regarded as a “hot commodity” in the film world.
Like her acting career, her personal life took off when she first married Nicky Hilton Or, in 1950. It was then that Elizabeth’s personal life began to rival her film career for public attention. However, this limelight soon affected in her acting career causing many flops. Many spread rumours saying that her break up with Nicky in 1951 was because of this negative effect and that she wanted to get on with it and make a future for her. But this was disproved in 1952 when she married Michael Wilding and produced two sons with him. After four years, she divorced him in 1956 and married Mike Todd with whom she had a daughter. After her third divorce, people started thinking bad things about her and stopped taking pity on her.
During the 1940’s, her movies were highly acclaimed and she had every chance of winning an Oscar. She had a very busy year in 1954 coming out with four movies in a row causing major profits in the movie industry. However, in 1959, the flood of public sympathy ended completely due to the end of her marriage and a new engagement to Eddie Fisher. However, her fans came back to her when in March of 1961 she fought death by pneumonia and had to receive a painful emergency tracheotomy.
Fisher was married when Elizabeth fell in love with him and she was denounced for “stealing” him, but soon after the incident of pneumonia she left Fisher to film her famous role as “Cleopatra” which made an estimated $40 million. By this time, she had again fallen in love with Richard Burton her co-star in Cleopatra. Unfortunately, he too was married and Elizabeth Taylor was regarded as a “seductor” of other people’s wives.
After doing “The Mirror Crack’d” in 1980, she proved herself to be a truly great actress and she earned a Tony Award nomination. She called her marriage to Burton the “Great love of her life” but it had to end in 1974. This made headlines in the newspapers, as she had never been serious about any of her relationships before. They remarried in 1975 and gave birth to Maria and just one year after the birth they divorced.
Elizabeth Taylor has had a very exciting life with many husbands and best selling movies and she continued to act until 1994 when “The Flintstones” was released. Devastatingly, In February 1997, Elizabeth entered hospital again for the removal of a brain tumor. The operation was successful but it has had side effects such as baldness and scarring. This meant she no longer does ads. She may not be on the big screen anymore but Elizabeth Taylor will forever be remembered as the beauty that captured our heart for three decades.
