Elizabeth Taylor was born in London on February 27, 1932. At age 3, she already had extensive ballet training and danced for British princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose at London's Hippodrome. Her family moved to the United States at the onset of World War II.
In 1942, she made her screen debut with a small part in the comedy There's One Born Every Minute. She starred in more than 50 movies during her lifetime including Lassie Come Home, National Velvet, Father of the Bride, A Place in the Sun, Giant, Raintree County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Cleopatra, and The Taming of the Shrew. She won two Academy Awards for Butterfield 8 in 1960 and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. She also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her advocacy for AIDS research and for other causes in 1993.
She was married a total of eight times and her husbands included Michael Todd, Eddie Fisher, and Richard Burton. She wrote several books during her lifetime including Elizabeth Takes Off on Self-Esteem and Self-Image, Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir, and Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry. She died of congestive heart failure on March 23, 2011 at the age of 79.
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