Dame Elizabeth Taylor
(1932-2011), ActressSitter in 21 portraits
Born in London to American parents living in Britain, she made her film debut in 1942. Her career moved with increasing acclaim from roles as a child in films such as National Velvet (1944) and Little Women (1948) to parts in Tennessee Williams' adaptations like Suddenly Last Summer (1959). Taylor fell in love with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra (1962) and married him in 1964. They appeared together in several films including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) for which she won a second Academy Award and The Taming of the Shrew (1967). Latterly she devoted her energies to raising fund for AIDS research. She was created a Dame in 1999.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Yousuf Karsh
bromide print, 1946
NPG P254
by Yousuf Karsh
bromide print, 1946
NPG P490(74)
by Peter Basch
vintage bromide print, 1955
NPG P786
Dame Elizabeth Taylor with her children (Michael Wilding Jr, Christopher Wilding and Liza Todd)
by Eve Arnold
bromide print, 1963
NPG P767
by Angus McBean
bromide print, 1966
NPG P910
by Charles Adams
bromide print, 1950
NPG x88180
Dame Elizabeth Taylor; Conrad Hilton, Jr
for Planet News
bromide press print, June 1950
NPG x139883
by Norman Parkinson
C-type colour print, 1953
NPG x34522
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print on white card mount, 1954
NPG x14216
Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
by Michael Peto
modern bromide print from original negative, October 1963
NPG x137670
'Liz Taylor cuts Burton's hair'
for London Express News and Feature Services
bromide press print, March 1964
NPG x139881
Dame Elizabeth Taylor as 'Kate' in 'The Taming of the Shrew' with seven other members of the cast
by Bob Penn
R-type colour print, 1967
NPG x88698
Noël Coward; Dame Elizabeth Taylor; Richard Burton and an unknown woman
by Jane Bown
bromide print, 1968
NPG x28637
by Cecil Beaton
bromide print, 1971
NPG x40377
Richard Burton; Dame Elizabeth Taylor
by Terry O'Neill
bromide fibre print, 1971
NPG x126133
by Norman Parkinson
colour print on card mount, 1972
NPG x30127
David Bowie; Dame Elizabeth Taylor
by Terry O'Neill
bromide print, 1975
On display in Room 16 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG x88495
Dame Elizabeth Taylor; John William Warner
by Terry O'Neill
bromide print, 1976
NPG x88496
by Norman Parkinson
C-type colour print, 1977
NPG x28805
Related People
- Richard Burton (husband)
- Conrad Hilton, Jr (husband)
- John William Warner (husband)
- Christopher Wilding (son)
- Michael Wilding (husband)
- Michael Wilding Jr (son)
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