Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) British/American, Hollywood Memorabilia Signed Headshot. Color photo of the actress in her heyday in a green dress. Signed in red pen middle right. Framed.
Overall Size: 16 x 13 1/4 in.
Sight Size: 9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27th, 1932 in London, England. She received dual British-American citizenship as her parents were United States citizens originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. In 1939 the family returned to the United States due to fear of impending war in Europe, settling in Beverly Hills, California. Taylor became a child actress at the age of 9, and was contracted with Universal for one year before switching to MGM, where she appeared in several small pictures before getting her first starring role opposite Mickey Rooney in National Velvet at the age of 12. Her life became a rigorously scheduled combination of school courses, studio lot shoots, and dancing and singing lessons, all at the direction of MGM management. At the age of 15 they began cultivating a more mature public image of her as a “normal” teenager, and in 1949 she was featured on the cover of Time Magazine as the leader of Hollywood’s next generation of stars. In 1950 she married hotel-chain heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, and gained critical acclaim as well as commercial success for the first time the following year when she appeared in A Place in the Sun. However, her divorce from Hilton after only eight months caused a public scandal that led to difficulties with MGM, and her next seven-year contract came about only after she remarried, this time to British actor Michael Wilding, and gave birth to her first child to improve her image. By the mid-1950s the American film industry was changing due to competition from television, and Taylor finally found a more challenging role in Giant (1956), an epic drama about a ranching dynasty which co-starred Rock Hudson and James Dean. Her next film, Raintree County, brought her first nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress, but during production she divorced Wilding and married producer Mike Todd. She had completed only two weeks of filming on her next project, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, when Todd was killed in a plane crash. This marked the beginning of numerous periods of self-destructive behavior, as she began an affair with singer Eddie Fisher that led to his divorce from Debbie Reynolds. Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA for the role in 1959, and again for Suddenly, Last Summer in 1960, which won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. Her final work with MGM, BUtterfield 8, at last earned her an Academy Award in 1961, with her second coming in 1967 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Much of the 1960s and 70s were marred by her tumultuous affair (and marriage to–twice) with Richard Burton, as well as many health issues including an emergency tracheotomy caused by pneumonia. Nevertheless, they became the definitive silver screen supercouple for a time with roles in Cleopatra (1963) and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). Her film career was in decline by the 1980s, but she continued to work on stage and in television, earning Tony Award nominations as well as Presidential Medals and other acknowledgements. Her final two marriages, to John Warner and Larry Fortensky, both ended in divorce. The death of her co-star Rock Hudson propelled her into HIV/AIDS activism, making her one of the most beloved gay icons in history. A style, fashion, and feminine icon nearly all of her life, she was plagued with illness and self-doubt until the end, and died from congestive heart failure on March 23rd, 2011 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Her legacy as one of the last stars of classical Hollywood and one of the first modern celebrities remains unrivaled, and her impact on feminist cinema unparalleled.
