60 Fun Facts About Elizabeth Taylor

In which city was Elizabeth Taylor born in 1932?

Her American parents ran a Bond Street art gallery; she held dual citizenship from birth.

Which US ambassador urged Taylor's father to bring the family home to America in 1939?

Sara and the children sailed first on the SS Manhattan and moved in with her grandfather in Pasadena.

Taylor's famous eyes were rimmed by dark double eyelashes caused by what?

Her blue eyes appeared violet; Universal's casting director nonetheless said 'her eyes are too old, she doesn't have the face of a child'.

Which studio dropped Taylor after a year and one film before MGM signed her?

Her only Universal film was There's One Born Every Minute (1942).

In her first starring role, at 12, Taylor plays a girl who wants to ride as a jockey in which race?

Filming was delayed for months so she could grow an inch or two; she called it 'the most exciting film' of her career.

MGM proposed Taylor use which screen name, an idea she and her parents refused?

The studio did make her wear braces and pull two baby teeth, but she kept her hair, eyebrows and name.

MGM published a 1946 book of Taylor's writings about her pet what?

Nibbles and Me came with paper dolls and colouring books in her likeness.

Which March sister did Taylor play in the 1949 Little Women, her last adolescent role?

Time put her on the cover that year and called her 'a jewel of great price, a true sapphire'.

Taylor's 1950 wedding to hotel heir Nicky Hilton was organised by MGM to publicise which film?

The marriage lasted eight months; Hilton was abusive and she suffered a miscarriage during one of his outbursts.

Taylor called A Place in the Sun (1951) the first film she was asked to act in. Which novel was it based on?

She plays the socialite who comes between Montgomery Clift and his pregnant girlfriend Shelley Winters.

Which role in Ivanhoe (1952) did Taylor find too small in a story she thought superficial?

The film was still one of MGM's biggest hits, earning $11 million in worldwide rentals.

Taylor was loaned to Paramount for Elephant Walk (1954) after which original star fell ill?

She played a British woman on her husband's tea plantation in Ceylon.

Which co-star of Giant (1956) died in a car crash days after finishing filming?

Filming in Marfa, Texas, was miserable; director George Stevens tried to 'break her will'.

Which film brought Taylor her first Academy Award nomination?

MGM hoped the Civil War drama would be another Gone with the Wind; she found her mentally disturbed Southern belle fascinating but disliked the film.

How did Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, die two weeks into her filming Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?

She returned to work three weeks later, saying acting 'was the only time I could function' and that she 'became Maggie'.

Taylor's affair with Eddie Fisher broke up his marriage to which actress, her close friend?

The press rebranded her from grieving widow to 'homewrecker'; she and Reynolds reconciled in the 1960s.

For which film, in which she played a call girl and which she hated, did Taylor win her first Oscar?

It was her last film under her MGM contract; she demanded it be shot in New York with Eddie Fisher in a sympathetic role.

For Cleopatra, Taylor became the first movie star to be paid how much for a single role?

Fox also gave her 10% of the gross and shot in Todd-AO, the widescreen process whose rights she had inherited from Mike Todd.

During the Cleopatra shoot in 1961, Taylor's near-fatal pneumonia required which procedure?

One news agency wrongly reported her death; Fox scrapped the footage and restarted in Rome with a new director and a new Mark Antony.

What was Cleopatra's final cost, making it the most expensive film made up to that point?

It was 1963's biggest hit yet took years to break even and nearly bankrupted Fox, which sued Taylor and Burton.

On which Italian island were Taylor and Richard Burton photographed on a yacht, confirming their affair?

A sociologist called the photo a turning point after which celebrities could no longer keep private lives separate.

For what did the Vatican condemn Taylor and Burton during the Cleopatra affair?

There were also calls in Congress to bar them from re-entering the United States.

How many films did Taylor and Richard Burton make together?

They earned a combined $88 million in a decade; Burton joked they generated 'more business activity than one of the smaller African nations'.

For which film did Taylor win her second Oscar, playing a 50-year-old in wig and ageing makeup?

She suggested Mike Nichols direct despite his lack of film experience, and it drew the best reviews of her career.

Taylor's first stage role, in a 1966 Oxford Doctor Faustus, was which non-speaking character?

Burton produced it as a film the next year; it grossed just $600,000.

Which director cast Taylor, who had no Shakespeare experience, in The Taming of the Shrew?

He said it made her performance interesting because she 'invented the part from scratch'.

Which old friend did Elizabeth Taylor want for Reflections in a Golden Eye before he died and Brando replaced him?

They had made A Place in the Sun, Raintree County and Suddenly, Last Summer together.

For playing a blonde diner waitress in Hammersmith Is Out (1972), Taylor won which award?

Roger Ebert wrote that 'the spectacle of Elizabeth Taylor growing older and more beautiful continues to amaze the population'.

Taylor's sixth husband, John Warner, held what office?

She found life as a political wife in Washington 'boring and lonely', gained weight and became depressed.

Which Lillian Hellman character did Taylor play on Broadway in 1981 in her first substantial stage role?

The Little Foxes sold out for six months; she played the 'malignant Southern bitch-goddess' as a victim of circumstance.

Taylor became the first celebrity to openly admit herself to which clinic, in December 1983?

She met her seventh husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, there on a return visit in 1988.

Which was Taylor's last theatrically released film, in which she played Pearl Slaghoople?

The 1994 film was panned by critics but a commercial success.

Elizabeth Taylor's four CBS sitcom cameos on one night in February 1996 promoted what?

Her perfumes reportedly earned her more than her entire acting career.

Which two best-selling perfumes did Taylor launch with Elizabeth Arden in 1987 and 1991?

She was only the second celebrity, after Sophia Loren, to launch a perfume brand, and eventually oversaw 11 fragrances.

How many weddings did Taylor have, and to how many men?

Richard Burton got two of the weddings; the second, in Botswana in 1975, lasted less than a year.

Where did Taylor and Burton remarry in October 1975?

They had first married at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal in 1964, ten days after her Mexican divorce from Eddie Fisher.

At whose ranch did Taylor marry her last husband, Larry Fortensky, in 1991?

A photographer parachuted in; she sold the pictures to People for $1 million to seed her AIDS foundation.

To which religion did Taylor convert in 1959?

She insisted it was not for husbands Todd or Fisher; her $100,000 Israeli bond purchase got her films banned across the Arab world.

In 1976 Taylor offered herself as a replacement hostage after which hijacking?

She had a small role in the TV film Victory at Entebbe the same year.

Which famous 50-carat pearl, a gift from Richard Burton, did Taylor own alongside the Krupp Diamond?

Her jewels sold at Christie's for a record $156.8 million after her death, benefiting her AIDS foundation.

How much did Taylor's jewellery fetch at Christie's after her death, a record for a single collection?

Her clothes and accessories added a further $5.5 million.

Which former co-star's AIDS announcement prompted Elizabeth Taylor to co-found a research foundation in 1985?

It merged a month later with Mathilde Krim's foundation to become amfAR.

Roughly how much money did Taylor help raise for HIV/AIDS causes from the mid-1980s?

She testified before Congress three times for the Ryan White Care Act and got Reagan to name the disease in a 1987 speech.

Which president did Taylor persuade to acknowledge AIDS for the first time in a speech in 1987?

She later criticised both Bush and Clinton for lack of interest in fighting the disease.

Which honour did Queen Elizabeth II give Taylor in the 2000 New Year Honours?

She had received the BAFTA Fellowship the previous year and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1993.

Taylor's final public performance, in 2007, was Love Letters with which actor?

It was staged at Paramount Studios; she had retired from acting in 2001.

Taylor broke her back filming which movie, a fracture that went undetected for years?

Born with scoliosis, she had spinal discs replaced with donated bone in 1956 and used a wheelchair in later life.

Of what did Taylor die in March 2011, aged 79?

At her request her funeral began 15 minutes late: 'She even wanted to be late for her own funeral.'

Where does the American Film Institute rank Taylor among the greatest female screen legends?

The 1999 list put Katharine Hepburn first.

Which singer narrated Elizabeth The First, the 2022 podcast series about Taylor released by her estate?

Taylor Swift instead named a track on her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl after her.

A song named after Taylor is the second track on which 2025 Taylor Swift album?

Swift was inspired by a video of Taylor's son saying Swift was the closest match to his mother's popularity and 'chaos'.

Taylor's American parents both originally came from which state?

Both hailed from Arkansas City; her father Francis was an art dealer and her mother Sara Sothern a stage actress.

Which politician served as Taylor's unofficial godfather and an early influence?

The family's London circle also included the artists Augustus John and Laura Knight.

How did Universal's casting director explain her dislike of the child Taylor?

She said 'the kid has nothing... she doesn't have the face of a child', and Universal dropped her after a year.

In Conspirator (1949), Taylor's first mature role, she plays a woman who suspects her husband is what?

She was only 16 when it was filmed; MGM disliked it and delayed release until 1950 fearing diplomatic problems.

How much was Taylor paid for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)?

The independent Tennessee Williams adaptation, scripted by Gore Vidal, co-starred Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn.

Roughly how much did Taylor and Burton's films earn together over the decade after their marriage?

Burton joked that they generated 'more business activity than one of the smaller African nations'.

What was the aptly named 1973 television film that proved to be Taylor and Burton's last together?

They divorced the following year, remarried in 1975 and split again for good.

Which gossip columnist did Taylor play in the 1985 TV film Malice in Wonderland?

The same year she played a brothel keeper in the mini-series North and South.

In which Los Angeles district did Taylor live from 1982 until her death?

Photographer Catherine Opie made a study of the house at 700 Nimes Road in 2011.