In 1961, the Eddie Fisher scandal
was still fresh in everyone's mind, but it was becoming old news for
Liz. She dumped him while making the epic, Cleopatra. The film
turned out to be a monumental flop, and despite a nomination for Best
Picture, the expensive spectacle was a critical and box office flop.
The more interesting plot in Cleopatra involved Liz's blooming romance
with her co-star, Richard Burton.
Liz had several marriages
throughout the years, but the world will always consider Burton to be her
one true love. Their tempestuous relationship resulted in not one,
but two marriages, several movies, and plenty of gossip to keep the
columnists employed for years.
In 1966, the two put their
relationship up on the big screen, or at least audiences thought that they
did, when they appeared together in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The film was based on the stage play by Edward Albee, and it looked at the
crumbling relationship between a middle-aged couple, during one stormy
evening. Liz offered a tour-de-force performance - her best ever!
And some suggested that Liz played the closest thing to herself, as the
drunken and fowl mouthed Martha. Bette Davis originally campaigned
for the role, (she was still desperate to get her third Oscar) but Albee
encouraged Jack Warner to give it to Taylor and Burton, citing that their
real life exploits would be great publicity for the film.
Liz won her second Oscar for her
work in the film, but balked at the fact that Burton lost.
"It's nice to win," she said. "But the edge is
certainly taken off because Richard didn't. He was the best actor of
the year." Burton lost out to Paul Scofield for A Man for All
Seasons. Burton would go on to lose seven nominations, never
winning, and sharing the distinction with Peter O'Toole as having the most
nods with no win.
Liz appeared at the Oscar telecast
in 1969, hoping that her presence would help boost her husbands chances at
a win for Best Actor in Anne of a Thousand Days. He lost to John
Wayne, who got the sentimental vote for True Grit, but even Wayne conceded
that Burton deserved it.
Liz entered the seventies with a
serious weight gain, but despite being the subject of many fat jokes, she
was still regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world.
She presented at several Oscar telecasts, but she never did receive
another nomination. Perhaps her most notable appearance was in 1974,
when David Niven introduced her as presenter of Best Picture. While
he was speaking her praises, a streaker ran across the stage. After
the laughter and shock died down, Liz appeared on stage. She had
difficultly finishing her speech, stating that she was still shook
up.
Richard Burton attended the
fiftieth ceremony, where he was nominated for the seventh (and last)
time. Taylor insisted on not attending, as she felt that the night
belonged to her ex-husband. She was wrong, as Richard Dreyfus took
home the Best Actor statue for The Goodbye Girl.
It's interesting that Taylor has
won two Oscar's in her day, and both of them are for roles that might be
considered close to her own persona - or at the very least, would be seen
as such by the world. Be it the materialistic bitch in Butterfield
8, or the drunken shrew in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Taylor, it
would seem, was working on familiar ground.
While Liz was never nominated
again for her acting, she did receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
in 1993. It doesn't matter if you love or if you hate Liz, you can't
deny that she has always been on the forefront, doing things before anyone
else would be even willing to. Liz fought tirelessly to fight AIDS,
and to support research when it wasn't popular to do so. Early on in
her life, she wanted to be regarded as a good actress. In doing so,
she also became
one of the most interesting people of the twentieth century.
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|
Liz
accepts the Jean Hersholt Award in 1993 for her work fighting
AIDS. |
By
the end of the 1950's, Elizabeth Taylor was the most sought after, most glamorous
woman in Hollywood. While her private life was continual tabloid
fodder, her professional career was in overdrive, as she had just won the
Best Actress Oscar for Butterfield 8. For the new decade, she was able to
call the shots, and call them she did! The 1960's proved to be Liz's move
extravagant period.
