Alexander Walker - Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth

ALSO BY ALEXANDER WALKER

The Celluloid Sacrifice: Aspects of Sex in the Movies

Stardom: The Hollywood Phenomenon

Stanley Kubrick Directs

Hollywood, England: The British Film Industry in the Sixties

Rudolph Valentino

Double Takes: Notes and Afterthoughts on the Movies

Superstars

The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay

Garbo

Peter Sellers: The Authorized Biography

Joan Crawford

Dietrich

No Bells on Sunday: The Journals of Rachel Roberts

(Edited with a Documentary Biography)

National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties

Bette Davis

Vivien: The Life of Vivien Leigh

Its Only a Movie, Ingrid: Encounters On and Off Screen

Zinnemann: An Autobiography (with Fred Zinnemann)

Fatal Charm: The Life of Rex Harrison

Audrey: Her Real Story

as translator

Robert Benayoun, Woody Allen: Beyond Words

ALEXANDER WALKER

Copyright 1990, 1997 by Conundrum Limited

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

First published in Great Britain in 1990 by
George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited, London

Revised edition first published in Great Britain in 1997
by Orion Books, Ltd., London

Due to a typographical error,
pages 371 and 372 have been left intentionally blank.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walker, Alexander.

Elizabeth / Alexander Walker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9524-1
1. Taylor, Elizabeth, 1932. 2. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited

StatesBiography. I. Title.

PN2287.T18W25 1990
791.43028092dc20
[B]

90-21610

Grove Press
841 Broadway
New York, NY 10003

02 03 04 05 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

FOR RICHARD SCHICKEL

Turn on the siren, said the bride-to-be,
and let them know Im coming.

between pp. 83

Elizabeths mother, Sara Sothern, on stage in The Fool (Mander & Mitchenson Theatre Collection)

Heathwood, the house where Elizabeth was born (Tim Anderson/Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

The Taylor family in their London period: Sara, Elizabeth and Howard (British Film Institute)

Elizabeth with her pony Betty (British Film Institute)

Elizabeth at play with friends in Hampstead, circa 1938 (Susan Endacott)

At home in Beverly Hills, circa 1942 (British Film Institute)

I held Nibbles to my face and kissed him (Syndication International)

Howard shows his sister the latest dance Steps (Syndication International)

Graduation: Elizabeth with her mother (British Film Institute)

A daughter impatient to take the driving wheel (Syndication International)

Elizabeth with Lassie (Syndication International)

With King Charles, her horse in National Velvet (Syndication International)

In Cynthia, Jimmy Lydon carried her home from the school prom (British Film Institute)

and gave her her first screen kiss (British Film Institute)

With Jane Powell in A Date with Judy (British Film Institute)

A star with homework to do: on the set of The Conspirator (British Film Institute)

between pp. 211

A Place in the Sun: the rich girl touched by tragedy (British Film Institute)

That Tell mama tell mama everything look: Elizabeth and Montgomery Clift (British Film Institute)

On location for A Place in the Sun (Syndication International)

Art anticipates life: with Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride (Rex Features)

Thinner with anxiety in Love Is Better Than Ever (Syndication International)

Francis and Sara Taylor make a rare visit to the set of Love Is Better Than Ever (British Film Institute)

On the receiving end: with Fernando Lamas in The Girl Who Had Everything (British Film Institute)

With Rock Hudson in Giant (Rex Features)

With James Dean in Giant (Rex Features)

Poster for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (British Film Institute)

As Maggie, the sexually frustrated wife in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Paul Newman (Syndication International)

A famous pose in Suddently, Last Summer (Frank Spooner/Liaison/GAMMA)

Elizabeth and Burton: their first scene together in Cleopatra (Rex Features)

The official photograph of Elizabeth as Queen of the Nile (British Film Institute)

Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz supervises Cleopatras nude bath scene (British Film Institute)

The Burtons at war (Syndication International)

and peace: Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archives)

Knockabout comedy in The Taming of the Shrew (Syndication International)

Elizabeth and Men: with Marlon Brando in Reflections in a Golden Eye (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archives)

Director Joseph Losey orchestrates a row between Elizabeth and Mia Farrow in Secret Ceremony (Rex Features)

Grand guignol in Night Watch (Rex Features)

Elizabeth takes to the stage for The Little Foxes (Syndication International)

between pp. 371

Elizabeth and Nick Hilton cut the cake at the Wedding of Weddings (Popperfoto)

The romance with Michael Wilding begins to sizzle (British Film Institute)

With Mike Todd at their wedding in Acapulco (Topham)

With Mike Todd: the look that says it all (Topham)

All good friends at Ascot: Mike Todd and Elizabeth with Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (British Film Institute)

Widowed and a Jewish convert, Elizabeth marries Eddie Fisher (Rex Features)

The Fishers entertain Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra (Syndication International)

The Burtons at last (Rex Features)

Richard and Elizabeth at the height of their joint fame (Topham)

The farmer takes a wife: Elizabeth and John Warner (Camera Press)

The Wilding children with their mother and step-father Eddie Fisher (British Film Institute)

Montgomery Clift with little Liza Todd (British Film Institute)

A day out with the family (Rex Features)

With some of Richard Burtons brothers and sisters (Syndication International)

Just one of the many crowded exits from hospital: following her miracle recovery from pneumonia in March 1961 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson Archives)

Convalescing with Bob Kennedy (Syndication International)

With Burton and Clint Eastwood, Elizabeth shows off her dogs (Syndication International)

Showing off some of her jewellery collection (Rex Features)

With Aristotle Onassis (Rex Features)

With Henry Wynberg (Syndication International)

With Malcolm Forbes (Rex Features)

With Larry Fortensky (Rex Features)

Before Elizabeth took off: the launch tour for Passion (Syndication International)