Elizabeth Taylor: A life in pictures

Born in Hampstead, north London, Elizabeth Taylor moved to Hollywood as a child and made her feature film debut at the tender age of nine. Stardom followed courtesy of roles in the likes of Lassie Come Home, National Velvet and Little Women. Photograph: Kobal Not for Taylor the crash-and-burn fate of the average child star. By the early 1960s she was the Hollywood’s highest paid star (‘If someone’s dumb enough to pay me a million dollars to make a movie,’ she said, ‘I’m not dumb enough to turn it down). For good measure, she won a brace of best actress Oscars - for her roles in Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Photograph: Kobal Away from the cameras, Taylor was married eight times (twice to the same man - Richard Burton). Husband number one was the American hotel heir Conrad ‘Nicky’ Hilton. It supposed to be forever; they divorced within a year. Photograph: Kobal Husbands aside, Liz Taylor enjoyed a passionate, long-standing friendship with fellow actor Montgomery Clift, the doomed, anguished mainstay of the Method school who she first worked with on A Place in the Sun. In her view, Clift was ‘the most gorgeous thing in the world and easily one of its best actors’. Photograph: Kobal Taylor promptly ditched third spouse Eddie Fisher after meeting Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra ‘I don’t remember much about Cleopatra,’ she said later. ‘There were a lot of other things going on’. Their relationship was loving but tempestuous. They were married first from 1964 to 1974 and then again between 1975 and 1976. Photograph: Kobal By the 1980s, Taylor was already cutting back on her film roles. Following the death of Rock Hudson, she helped start the American Foundation for Aids Research, and later spearheaded the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation. She refused to attend the 2005 Academy Awards because of her opposition to the Iraq war. Photograph: Neil Munns/PA In 2005 she was an ardent supporter of Michael Jackson during his trial for child abuse. Taylor’s verdict: ‘I think he is one of the finest people to hit this planet and, in my estimation, he is the true king of pop, rock and soul.’ Photograph: Robert Mecea/AP One of Liz Taylor’s last great roles came when she provided the voice of the hitherto silent Maggie Simpson in the 1992 episode ‘Lisa’s First Word’. She reportedly had to record her one, lone word (‘Daddy’) a handful of times before producers were satisfied. Photograph: Public domain Taylor’s various heath problems provided no end of copy for the supermarket tabloids. She battled cancer, pneumonia, and congestive heart failure. She broke her back five times and had both hips replaced. In later years her advanced osteoporosis meant that she was largely confined to a wheelchair. Photograph: Paul Smith/Empics Elizabeth Taylor died on 23 March 2011, aged 79. Photograph: Kobal