Elizabeth Taylor (aka Dame Elizabeth Taylor) was one of the world's most famous film stars, recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty, lavish jewels and distinctive dark blue eyes, often described as violet. National Velvet (1944) was Taylor's first success (as a child star), and she went on to star in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and others. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963) and married her costar Richard Burton. Taylor and Burton appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award. Starting in the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made only occasional appearances in television and theatre. Her much-publicized personal life included eight marriages and several life-threatening illnesses. From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1993. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Legion of Honour, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, who named her seventh on their list of the "Greatest American Screen Legends". Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands (married twice to actor Richard Burton). Her other six husbands were: Conrad "Nicky Hilton, Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher (whom she controversially stole from his then wife actress Debbie Reynolds), John Warner and Larry Fortensky. Taylor had a long-running and extremely close friendship with the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Taylor died of congestive heart failure in March 2011 at the age of 79, having suffered many years of ill health.
