who was elizabeth taylor

Elizabeth Taylor was a British-American actress born on February 27, 1932, in London, England, and passed away on March 23, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. She was renowned for her striking beauty, iconic violet eyes, and portrayals of strong-willed, volatile characters. Elizabeth Taylor began her career as a child actor in the early 1940s and rose to become one of the most popular and highest-paid stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. Taylor won two Academy Awards for Best Actress: one for "Butterfield 8" (1960) and another for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966). Beyond her acting career, she was a prominent activist, co-founding the American Foundation for AIDS Research and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, for which she received numerous humanitarian awards. She was married eight times to seven men, including two marriages to actor Richard Burton. Taylor was also a pioneering businesswoman, negotiating one of the first million-dollar contracts and launching a successful fragrance line. She was honored with many accolades, including the French Legion of Honour and the Presidential Citizens Medal, and was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.