Taylor was publicly ridiculed for putting on weight in her 40s, but by her 55th birthday was en bonne forme and more glamorous than ever, having “dropped from 180-odd to 122 pounds.” Her 1987 book, Elizabeth Takes Off, tells the story of how she did it and, more importantly, of her extraordinary life.
Despite her petite size - in her youth, she had a 19-inch waist - Elizabeth could, one journalist observed, "outdrink any man I have ever known, including Burton".
Over the years, her catalogue of ailments included a brain tumour, skin cancer, pneumonia and she underwent three hip replacements. One of the most debilitating of her ailments was scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. Taylor was born with the condition and suffered back problems all her life as a result.
Later, while under sedation for a caesarean section, she was given a tubal ligation without her knowledge. As a child actress and product of the MGM studio system, Elizabeth was given pills to pep her up and pills to calm her down – starting her on a path that would see her in and out of rehab in later years.
And, well, she must have loved playing that part, because Liz would infamously walk down the aisle eight times (to seven husbands, marrying Richard Burton twice) over the next 40 years. Her first wedding took place in 1950, at the age of 18, and she didn't stop until her last stint as bride in 1991, at the age of 59.
All other terms of Taylor's revocable living trust have remained private, as intended. It's rumored that the trust passed the majority of her assets to her children, grandchildren, and to various charities. Taylor's AIDS work saw her address the General Assembly at the United Nations.
Taylor famously donned the prop for the 1963 production of "Cleopatra." After filming, the wig was kept safe by British wigmaker, Stanley Hall, who then passed it on to a Hollywood makeup artist.
When having her own chat, Taylor reportedly utilized the words “no” and “ridiculous” after ballooning to 180-plus pounds following oral surgery and a diet of ice cream and malted milk.
The Early Years. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London, 1932, to a prominent American art dealer and former stage actress. Taylor was born with a thick layer of black hair covering her body, a rare condition known as hypertrichosis. She also had a double row of eyelashes.
The late Elizabeth Taylor was famous for her double eyelashes. She had a medical condition that causes a person to develop a greater than normal number of eyelashes. Some people like Taylor are born with a full second row of eyelashes due to this genetic mutation called distichiasis.
In developing her into a new star, MGM required her to wear braces to correct her teeth, and had two of her baby teeth pulled out. The studio also wanted to dye her hair and change the shape of her eyebrows, and proposed that she use the screen name "Virginia", but Taylor and her parents refused.
Liz Taylor's head-turning looks may, at least partly, have been due to a rare genetic mutation that resulted in her having two rows of eyelashes on each eyelid rather than one. The technical term for this disorder is distichiasis.
Having met at Mocambo nightclub — per Entertainment Weekly — in Los Angeles the year before, Taylor was only 18 when she wed then-23-year-old hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton on May 6, 1950. However, the ill-fated eight-month marriage began crumbling even before their 14-week European honeymoon was over.
How old was Richard Burton when he married Elizabeth Taylor?
Elizabeth was thirty-two and Richard was thirty-eight, he was her fifth husband and she became his second wife. The minister started the ceremony by saying, “You have gone through great travail in your love for each other.” They had been hounded and harassed, pilloried and praised.
Taylor's final resting place at Forest Lawn -- the same place of burial for her longtime friend Michael Jackson -- is in the memorial park's Great Mausoleum "sheltered beneath a soaring marble Michelangelo angel," Morrison said.
“It was very strange,” she said the other afternoon. “I still had an English accent.” (She was born in London to American parents, and the family returned to the United States at the outbreak of war in 1939.) “If I remember, I had to put on an American accent. But I don't think I've ever seen the film.
