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She was born in Hampstead, London, England, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897-1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1896-1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929.
Though sometimes referred to as "Liz", she is not fond of that name and prefers her given name to be pronounced Eee-lizabeth. Her first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born Elizabeth Mary Rosemond. When she was born, Taylor was both a British and an American citizen, having acquired British citizenship by being born on British soil under the principle of Jus soli, and American citizenship through her parents under the principle of Jus sanguinis.
Both of her American parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was Sara Sothern. Sara retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York. It was also reported that her father was a weak figure who always capitulated to her mother.
At the age of three, Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons. Shortly after the begin of World War II, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother took the children first, while her father remained in London to wrap up matters in the art business. They settled in Los Angeles, California, where Sara's family, the Warmbrodts, were then living.
Taylor's mother Sara was a domineering figure who controlled Elizabeth's life from the outside with single-minded determination. She had similarly exerted her influence on her husband Francis, a shy and retiring man whom she attempted to mold into a confident, outgoing man. Taylor was never truly allowed to bond with her father, who was by and large a peripheral figure in a life dominated by her mother and her mother's obsession with public image. Even in 1968 when her father died and Taylor began crying at the funeral, her mother intervened. 'But I'm not crying dear. If a man's widow isn't crying it isn't good form for others to do so. It makes me seem unfeeling.'
Her mother also exerted influence on Taylor's life well into adulthood. After her marriage to Warner ended, with her weight ballooning she intervened at first with cruel prods and then by arranging a tea party. At this tea party her mother asked each of the elderly guests when they last felt they could've been described as gorgeous. Finally she turned to her daughter and enquired 'How about you dear?' There was an uncomfortable pause before Taylor replied 'My moment is yet to come, Mother.' Sara Taylor raised her glass and said 'I knew it! You'll be beautiful again! Prove them all fools.' She continued 'And if you avoid letting it slip in the first place you'll save us both a lot of trouble.'
Sara's pride in Taylor though, knew no bounds. Her house was covered with photos of Taylor in her prime and she used to demand of visitors 'Look at my daughter. Now if she is not the most beautiful woman in the world I don't know who is.'
Despite their often difficult relationship, Sara was always her daughter's biggest champion and when she died in 1994.
 Taylor appeared in her first motion picture at the age of nine for Universal. They let her contract drop, and she was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first movie with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), which drew favorable attention. After a few more movies, the second on loan-out to 20th Century Fox, she appeared in her first leading role and achieved child star status playing Velvet Brown, a young girl who trains a horse to win the Grand National in Clarence Brown's movie National Velvet (1944) with Mickey Rooney. National Velvet was a big hit, grossing over US$4 million at the box-office, and she was signed to a long-term contract. Gene Tierney originally was offered the role in MGM's National Velvet but production was delayed so Tierney signed with Fox. The rest is Hollywood history.
She attended school on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot and received a diploma from University High School in Los Angeles on January 26, 1950, the same year she was first married at age 18.
Elizabeth Taylor won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performances in BUtterfield 8 (1960), which co-starred then husband Eddie Fisher, and again for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which co-starred then-husband Richard Burton and the Supporting Actress Oscar-winner, Sandy Dennis.
Taylor was nominated for Raintree County (1957) with Montgomery Clift, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Paul Newman, and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Clift, Katharine Hepburn and Mercedes McCambridge.
 In 1963, she became the highest paid movie star up until that time when she accepted US$1 million to play the title role in the lavish production of Cleopatra for 20th Century Fox. It was during the filming of that movie that she worked for the first time with future husband Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony. Movie magazines, the forerunners of today's tabloids, had a field day when Taylor and Burton began an affair during filming; both stars were married to other people at the time. She was even accused by a Vatican newspaper of having descended into "erotic vagrancy." A lot of people thought of Elizabeth Taylor as a "Scarlet Woman". She and many others disagree with that strongly. Richard Burton was quoted as saying: "You'd be surprised at the morals of many women stars who are regarded by the public as goody-two-shoes. They leap into bed with any male in grabbing distance. That's what makes me mad when I read stuff hinting Liz is a scarlet woman because she's been married five times.
She has also appeared a number of times on television, including the 1973 made-for-TV movie with then husband Richard Burton, titled Divorce His - Divorce Hers. In 1985, she played movie gossip columnist Louella Parsons in Malice in Wonderland opposite Jane Alexander, who played Hedda Hopper, and also appeared in the mini-series North and South. In 2001, she played an agent in These Old Broads. She has also appeared on a number of other TV shows, including the soap operas General Hospital and All My Children and the animated The Simpsons; once as herself, and once as the voice of Maggie.
Taylor has also acted on the stage, making her Broadway and West End debuts in 1982 with a revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. She was then in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives (1983), in which she starred with her former husband, Richard Burton. The student-run Burton-Taylor theatre in Oxford was named for the famous couple after Burton appeared as Doctor Faustus in the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) production of the Marlowe play. Elizabeth Taylor played the ghostly, wordless Helen of Troy, who is entreated by Faustus to 'make [him] immortal with a kiss'.
Taylor has been married eight times to seven husbands:
1. Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (May 6, 1950 - January 29, 1951) (divorced)
2. Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952 - January 26, 1957) (divorced, 2 sons)
3. Michael Todd (February 2, 1957 - March 22, 1958) (widowed, 1 daughter)
4. Eddie Fisher (May 12, 1959 - March 6, 1964) (divorced, adopted daughter)
5-6. Richard Burton (March 15, 1964 - June 26, 1974) (divorced) and a second time (October 10, 1975 - July 29, 1976) (divorced)
7. John Warner (December 4, 1976 - November 7, 1982) (divorced)
8. Larry Fortensky (October 6, 1991 - October 31, 1996) (divorced)
with Eddie Fisher |
with Richard Burton |
Taylor and Wilding had two sons, Michael Howard Wilding (b. January 6, 1953), and Christopher Edward Wilding (b. February 27, 1955). She and Todd had one daughter, Elizabeth Frances Todd, called "Liza," (b. August 6, 1957). And in 1964, she and Fisher started adoption proceedings for a daughter, whom Burton later adopted, Maria Burton (b. August 1, 1961).
In 2005, she partnered with Jack and Monty Abramov of Mirabelle Luxury Concepts in Los Angeles to introduce the House of Taylor Jewelry. In 2005, House of Taylor Jewelry formed a partnership with Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a design-and-marketing firm with more than US$1 billion in annual sales. She has also launched three perfumes, "Passion," "White Diamonds," and "Black Pearls," that together earn an estimated US$200 million in annual sales. In the Fall of 2006, Dame Elizabeth Taylor celebrated the 15th anniversary of her White Diamonds perfume, one of the top-10 best selling fragrances for more than the past decade.
Taylor has devoted much time and energy to AIDS-related charities and fundraising. She helped start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) after the death of her former co-star and friend, Rock Hudson. She also created her own AIDS foundation, Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF). By 1999, she had helped to raise an estimated US$50 million to fight the disease.
Recently, in the year 2006, Taylor donated US$40,000 to the AIDS New Orleans Aids task force, a charity designed for the New Orleans population with AIDS and HIV. The NO/AIDS task force estimated that about 7,400 residents were infected with HIV before Hurricane Katrina. Taylor and Macy's donated a 37 ft "CareVan," equipped with examination tables and X-Ray equipment.
In the early 1980s she moved to Bel-Air, which is her current home. The fenced and gated property is on tour maps sold at street corners and is frequently passed by tour guides.
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