Elizabeth Taylor

Born February 27, 1932, in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was the daughter of art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor and retired stage actress Sara Sothern. She appeared in her first film, "There's One Born Every Minute," at the age of ten.

She married seven times: Conrad N. Hilton Jr., British actor Michael Wilding, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, actor Richard Burton, John Warner, and Larry Fortensky. She had four children and nine grandchildren.

Her film and television credits are extensive, spanning decades and including "National Velvet," "A Place in the Sun," "Giant," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "Suddenly, Last Summer," "Butterfield 8," "Cleopatra," "The V.I.P.s," "The Sandpiper," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "The Taming of the Shrew," "Doctor Faustus," "Reflections in a Golden Eye," "Boom!," "X, Y and Zee," "Under Milk Wood," "Ash Wednesday," "A Little Night Music," "North and South," "Lassie Come Home," "Courage of Lassie," "Life with Father," "Little Women," "Conspirator," "Father of the Bride," "Father's Little Dividend," "Ivanhoe," "The Girl Who Had Everything," "Rhapsody," "Elephant Walk," "Beau Brummell," "The Last Time I Saw Paris," and "Raintree County."

She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role — for "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." The American Film Institute honored her with its Life Achievement Award in 1993, and she was celebrated at the 2002 John F. Kennedy Center Honors.

Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame on New Year's Eve, 1999. One of the first celebrities to champion HIV/AIDS activism, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor co-founded the National AIDS Research Foundation and raised more than $270 million for relief efforts. On March 25, 2011, the marquees of Broadway theaters were dimmed in her honor.