Elizabeth
The Life of Elizabeth Taylor
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A serious and in-depth look at one of the great legends of Hollywood by the London film critic and author of Audrey: Her Real Story.
Elizabeth Taylor was perhaps the most “public” of the great stars: an Oscar–winning actress who lived her entire life in the glare of the spotlights. Much has been written about her, but now—with the readability, sensitivity, and thoroughness that have made his previous biographies bestsellers—Alexander Walker explores the roots of Taylor’s extraordinary personality and extraordinary life.
Here is a life to rival the very movies she played in, told with immense candor, wit, and sympathy: from her privileged London childhood, the enormous influence of her strong-willed mother, and her swift rise to stardom in such films as National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, and the catastrophe-ridden Cleopatra; to her six husbands, her desperate need to love and be loved, her obsession with jewelry, and the amazing resilience that helped her weather not only condemnation for “the most public adultery in history,” but also dramatic illnesses that brought her to the verge of death—and, according to her, beyond.
Using scores of unpublished documents and interviews with those who knew Taylor best, as well as his own meetings with her over thirty years, Alexander Walker recreates the comedies and tragedies in the life of a woman whose rewards and scandals have become the stuff of legend.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Film critic for the London Evening Standard , Walker presents one of the world's most chronicled women, whose turbulent life has been eerily reflected, or anticipated, in her movies and plays: from National Velvet and Cleopatra (on the set of which she fell in love with Richard Burton) to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Private Lives. Walker shows how Taylor has indulged her passions, re-created herself in the image of each new lover, husband or project, and in due course flourished after rounds of combat with the public, the press, her weight and illness. Unfortunately, Walker repeats himself and reaches unsuccessfully--and unnecessarily--for dramatic effect. For example, referring to Taylor's fourth husband, Eddie Fisher, a protege of her third husband, Mike Todd--who died in a plane crash in 1958--Walker writes: ``He stepped into Todd's shoes, and ultimately into his bed.'' Photos not seen by PW.
