• Elizabeth Taylor, Big Hollywood style icon. Liz Taylor is one of those iconic figures who seemed, for a period, larger than life. Her death at 79 (she died of congestive heart failure on Wednesday) ends the life of a woman who defined a certain era of big-screen cinema — both on-screen and off. Especially off. In a lot of ways, she set the template for the kind of Hollywood you see today — one where divorces are a common fact of life and everyone keeps their last name. But as a figure to be admired, you don’t get any better than Taylor. Here are some quick bits about her life.

Three key years in the actress’ life

• 1944 As a child, Taylor starred in “National Velvet,” a story about a child who fell in love with her horse. (She had to … the other option was Mickey Rooney.) It was her first major hit.
• 1960 Taylor, by now a major star, was making $1 million a picture with her starring role in “Cleopatra,” a movie beset by delays and, after inflation, a budget larger than “Avatar.”
• 1964 Taylor married Richard Burton, and the already-inseparable couple started working together much more — including in such classics as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

Other key facts and figures on Taylor’s life

• 8 marriages in her day — she married Richard Burton TWICE

• two number of Academy Awards she won for her acting; she also won a humanitarian award in 1992
• three number of other nominations she earned … though she was shut out for some of her early films

• $325M amount invested in AIDS research by amFAR, started by Taylor and others in 1985
• 69.42 number of carats in the Taylor-Burton Diamond, a frickin’ huge diamond Taylor owned
• first Taylor’s voice was famously used for Maggie Simpson’s first words source

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink