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ELIZABETH TAYLOR
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (born 27 February 1932), also known as Liz Taylor, is an English-born British-American actress. Known for her acting skills and beauty, as well as her Hollywood lifestyle, including many marriages. Taylor is considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's golden years, as well as a larger-than-life celebrity.
The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.
Elizabeth Taylor as a young girl. She first achieved fame at the age of twelve thanks to her starring role in National Velvet.
Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of north-west London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and Sara Viola Warmbrodt (1895–1994), who were Americans residing in England. Taylor's older brother, Howard Taylor, was born in 1929. 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 City.
Taylor's two first names are in honour of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor. Taylor was born both a British subject and an American citizen, the former by being born on British soil under the principle of jus soli, and the latter through her parents under the principle of jus sanguinis.
At the age of three, Taylor began taking ballet lessons with Vaccani. Shortly after the beginning 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.
LASSIE COME HOME
The Taylors climbed the proverbial social ladder with far greater ease in Hollywood than they had in London. Among some of Francis Taylor's earliest clientele in his Beverly Hills Hotel art gallery were some of Hollywood's leading stars, among them Howard Duff, Vincent Price, James Mason, Alan Ladd and Greta Garbo. Another high visibility client was Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Hopper's initial interest in visiting the gallery stemmed from a longstanding friendship she enjoyed with Thelma Cazalet-Keir. Cazalet-Keir who hosted Hopper whenever the latter visited London, wrote to her and asked if she wouldn't mind boosting the new gallery in her widely read newspaper column. In her column she not only plugged the gallery as a new must-see in the Los Angeles art world she also drew attention to Sara Taylor's ill-fated stage career as well as to her "beautiful eight-year-old daughter, Elizabeth." The columnist noted that producer David O. Selznick had not yet cast all the minor roles in his new picture Gone With The Wind, the most talked about motion picture epic in pre-production at that time. According to Hopper, although Taylor had never acted professionally, she seemed an excellent choice to play Bonnie Blue, the daughter of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler. The idea was straight away squelched by Francis Taylor who had no interest in letting his seven-year-old daughter pursue an acting career.
Through Hopper, the Taylors were introduced to Andrea Berens, a wealthy English socialite and also fiancée of Cheever Cowden, chairman and major stockholder of Universal Pictures in Hollywood. Berens insisted that Sara bring Elizabeth to see Cowden, who she was adamant would be taken away by Elizabeth's breathtaking dark beauty. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer soon took interest in the British youngster as well but she failed to secure a contract with them after an informal audition with producer John Considine proved that she couldn't sing. However, on 18 September 1941, Universal Pictures signed Elizabeth to a six-month renewable contract at $100 a week.
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor grew from a doll-faced child starlet to become one of the silver screen's most striking beauties, not to mention a compelling actress and one of the world's most famous movie stars. She has been a natural magnet for publicity throughout her life and is one of the most photographed women in history. She even holds the record for the most appearances on the cover of Life Magazine (11). But lest her fame and notoriety overshadow her accomplishments, it is worth remembering that Taylor has received five Best Actresses nominations and two Oscar statuettes over the course of her amazing six-decade career.
MORE: http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Liz_Taylor/liz.htm
NATIONAL VELVET
It is incredibly humbling to post on my blog the queen of the power of pretty, Dame Elizabeth Taylor. To the many who have only been exposed to the last few years of less than glamorous appearances, she has become a caricature. To me she has been the paramount of beauty and glamor with a mystique that will never be in our lifetime. I've been mesmerized by whatever it is they talk about since, of course, she was so talked about throughout my entire life.
CLEOPATRA
© 1963 20th Century Fox
© 1963 20th Century Fox
MORE: http://www.hotflick.net/celebs/elizabeth_taylor.html
Julius Caesar found himself in the middle of a family feud when he arrived in Egypt in 47BC. King Ptolemy XII willed his throne to his ten-year-old son, Ptolemy XIII, and his eighteen-year-old daughter, Cleopatra. The brother and sister were to rule Egypt as husband and wife, but Ptolemy XIII forced his sister from the throne in an attempt to seize total power.
Cleopatra saw an opportunity to return to power when she learned Caesar was in Egypt. She arranged to have herself smuggled into Caesar’s suite by wrapping herself in an ornamental carpet. Caesar unraveled his gift to find the former queen. The sly Cleopatra impressed Caesar. His army defeated the people who had removed Cleopatra from power. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile River while try to escape Caesar’s army.
MORE: http://www.mrdowling.com/702-cleopatra.html
MORE: http://everywhichway.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/cleopatra/
MORE: http://www.moviestore.com/index.html?kid=P202008&
Cleopatra is a 1963 film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Mario Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall and Martin Landau. The music score was by Alex North. It was photographed in 70 mm Todd-AO by Leon Shamroy and Jack Hildyard.
Cleopatra chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra VII, the young Queen of Egypt, to resist the imperialist ambitions of Rome.
Despite being a critical and commercial failure, it was a four-time Academy Award winner.
The film is infamous for nearly bankrupting 20th Century Fox. Originally budgeted at $2 million[2], it was made at a cost of $44 million — the equivalent of $307.5 million in 2009 dollars (see the list of most expensive films to produce), making the movie the third-most costly ever produced worldwide and the second most expensive in the United States after Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which had a budget of US$300,000,000 (accounting for inflation in each case). This was partly due to the fact that the film's elaborate, complicated sets, costumes and props had to be constructed twice, once during a botched shoot in London and once more when the production relocated to Rome.
Filming began in London in 1960. Mankiewicz was brought into the production after the departure of the first director (Rouben Mamoulian), who had in mind African-American actress Dorothy Dandridge for the lead role.[3] He inherited a film which was already $5 million over budget and had no usable footage to show for it. This was in part because the actors originally hired to play Julius Caesar (Peter Finch) and Marc Antony (Stephen Boyd) left due to other commitments. Mankiewicz was later fired during the editing phase, only to be rehired when no one else could piece the film together.
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1963_film)
MORE: http://www.impawards.com/actors/elizabeth_taylor.html
ELIZABETH TAYLOR ON TWITTER: http://twitter.com/DAMEELIZABETH
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