Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE was a legendary British-American actress who began her career in the early 1940s. Her acting career spanned over six decades, and she was one of the immensely popular Hollywood actresses in the 1950s.
She was born in 1932 and began her career as a child star in the 1940s. In the late 1990s, Taylor was named the seventh greatest female actress in classic Hollywood cinema.
During her career, Elizabeth appeared in many top-charting movies, including Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Little Women, National Velvet, Giant, Ivanhoe, The Taming of the Shrew, A Place in the Sun, Life with Father, Lassie, Come Home, Elephant Walk, The Sand Piper, A Date with Judy, Beau Brummell, Cynthia, Secret Ceremony, Night Watch, and The Blue Bird.
Unlike her super successful professional life, Liz had a scandalous personal life; in her search for a perfect soul mate, she tied the knot eight times with seven different men – she married Richard Burton twice.
Her first marriage was with Conrad Hilton when she was only 18 years old. The couple stayed together for only eight months and parted ways after their 14-week honeymoon period because of Conrad’s aggressive and abusive behavior.
Taylor’s second marriage was with Michael Wilding, which took place in 1952. The pair met while Taylor was shooting Ivanhoe – Wilding was 20 years older than her, but her love interest as he had a calm and composed personality, unlike Conrad. Over the course of five years, they welcomed two sons together, Michael and Cristopher. The couple divorced in 1957.
After parting ways with Wilding, Elizabeth moved on to marry film producer Mike Todd. He was 25 years her senior and her greatest admirer. They wed in February 1957 and welcomed one daughter, Liza. In 1958, Todd died in a private plane crash which he named after Elizabeth – The Liz.
After Todd’s death, Liz married Eddie Fisher and lived with him for almost four years. Their marriage ended when the Cleopatra actress fell in love with her costar, Richard Burton, whom he married right after her divorce from Fisher.
“I’ve always admitted that I’m ruled by my passions, and I can’t pretend I didn’t know what I was doing when I became involved with Richard,” she wrote about Richard in her memoir.
The couple stayed together for almost a decade and adopted a daughter together, Maria. In 1974 they ended their marriage. However, after trying hard for the following year, when none of them could get over each other, Liz and Burton remarried in 1975. But their reunion wasn’t successful due to Richard’s infidelity and Liz’s alcohol addiction. In 1976, the pair bid farewell to each other for good.
After Richard, Taylor married John Warner and Larry Fortensky – she stayed with Warner from 1976 to 1982 and Fortensky from 1991 to 1996. Both marriages ended in divorce.
The Cynthia star gave birth to three children in her life and adopted one. She was also a doting grandmother to ten grandchildren. The Hollywood legend passed away in March 2011 at age 79 due to congestive heart failure.
Let’s meet her grandkids and see what they look like today.
Taylor’s first grandchild, Laela Wilding, is the daughter of her first child, Michael Wilding. She was born in 1971 and grew up in California with her parents and loving grandmother. Laela is a graphic designer and also works as a yoga instructor in Portland.
Her younger sister, Naomi deLuce Wilding, was born in 1976 and nearly five years younger than Laela. She co-owns a gallery in Los Angeles with her husband, Anthony Gran. Naomi also works with her elder sister, Laela, with her grandmother’s AIDS Foundation.
“She had an idea that she was responsible for raising the younger generations in the family, you know,” Naomi told Today about her grandmother. “It was important to her that she instilled those values in us, too.”
Taylor’s son, Cristopher Wilding, has two sons – Caleb and Andrew. While Caleb enjoys a private life away from the limelight, Andrew is an actor, producer, and cinematographer who wants to follow in the footsteps of his grandmom.
Elizabeth also has six other grandchildren, Tarquin Wilding, Lowell Wilding, Quinn Tivey, Rhys Tivey, Elizabeth Carson, and Richard McKeown.
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