1966 Israel MOVIE Hebrew POSTER Film SANDPIPER Richard BURTON Elizabeth TAYLOR

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Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,803) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 276313722824 1966 Israel MOVIE Hebrew POSTER Film SANDPIPER Richard BURTON Elizabeth TAYLOR. The Sandpiper is a 1965 film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, directed by Vincente Minnelli. Now with a third incident a judge (Torin Thatcher) orders her to send the boy to an Episcopal boarding school where Dr. Edward Hewitt (Burton) is headmaster, and his wife Claire (Eva Marie Saint) teaches.

DESCRIPTION : Here for sale is a 50 years old EXCEPTIONALY RARE and ORIGINAL Photo Jewish Judaica Isdraeli POSTER for the ISRAEL 1966 PREMIERE of the American drama  film "THE SANDPIPER" . Directed by VINCENTE MINNELLI . Starrig among others : RICHARD BURTON , ELIZABETH TAYLOR , EVA MARIE SAINT , CHARLES BRONSON to name only a few , in the small rural town of NATHANYA in ISRAEL.  The cinema-movie hall " CINEMA SHARON" , A legendary Israeli version of "Cinema Paradiso" was printing manualy its own posters , And thus you can be certain that this surviving copy is ONE OF ITS KIND.  Fully DATED 1966 . Text in HEBREW and ENGLISH . Please note : This is NOT a re-release poster but a PREMIERE - FIRST RELEASE projection of the film , Only one year after its release in 1965 in Europe , USA and worldwide . The ISRAELI distributors of the film have given it an INTERESTING and quite archaic and amusing advertising and promoting accompany text.  The new Hebrew name they provided the film with was " LOVE FOR ADULTS ONLY"  . The condition is very good . Folded twice.  Clean . GIANT size around 28" x 38" ( Not accurate ) . Printed in red and blue on white  paper .  ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images )  Poster will be sent rolled in a special protective rigid sealed tube.

AUTHENTICITY : This poster is guaranteed ORIGINAL from 1966 ( Fully dated )  , NOT a reprint or a recently made immitation.  , It holds a life long GUARANTEE for its AUTHENTICITY and ORIGINALITY.

PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal & All credit cards .

SHIPPMENTSHIPP worldwide via registered airmail $ 25. Poster will be sent rolled in a special protective rigid sealed tube. Handling around 5-10 days after payment. 

The Sandpiper is a 1965 film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, directed by Vincente Minnelli.[3] Contents 1 Plot2 Cast3 Production 3.1 Title3.2 Location3.3 Real-Life Parallels3.4 Home media4 Reception5 Awards6 See also7 References8 External links Plot Laura Reynolds (Taylor) is a free-spirited, unwed single mother living with her young son Danny (Morgan Mason) in an isolated California beach house. She makes a modest living as an artist and home-schools her son out of concern that he will be compelled to follow stifling conventional social norms in a regular school. Danny has gotten into some trouble with the law through two minor incidents, which are in his mother's eyes innocent expressions of his natural curiosity and conscience rather than delinquency. Now with a third incident a judge (Torin Thatcher) orders her to send the boy to an Episcopal boarding school where Dr. Edward Hewitt (Burton) is headmaster, and his wife Claire (Eva Marie Saint) teaches. Edward and Claire are happily married with two young sons, but their life has become routine and their youthful idealism has been tamed by the need to raise funds for the school and please wealthy benefactors. At an initial interview, there is a momentary immediate attraction between Laura and Edward, but this quickly turns into tension brought on by their greatly differing world views and Laura's dislike of religion. Finally she storms out. She attempts to flee the area with Danny but the police quickly catch them and take the boy away to the school. He initially has trouble fitting in because his mother's home schooling has placed him far in advance of boys his age in many subjects; the standard course of instruction at the school leaves him restless and bored. At Claire's suggestion, Edward visits Danny's mother to learn more about his upbringing. Laura's unconventional morals initially disturb Edward, as they conflict with his religious beliefs. After visiting her several more times he finds her irresistible and cannot get her out of his mind. They begin a passionate extramarital affair. At first Laura tells herself that Edward is a fling like her other lovers, but to her surprise she finds herself falling in love with him, becoming jealous of his wife Claire. He struggles with guilt, while she urges him to accept the rightness of their love. Meanwhile, Danny flourishes after Edward relaxes school rules and allows the boy to choose more advanced classes. A jealous former lover (Robert Webber) of Laura's exposes the affair by making a remark to Edward within earshot of his wife. At first Claire is distraught, but later they quietly discuss it in the light of how their lives diverged from the idealism of the first years of their marriage. Edward declares that he still loves Claire and that he will end the affair. Still, they agree to a temporary separation while each decides what they want to do with their future. When Edward tells Laura that he confessed to his wife, she is outraged at what she perceives as an invasion of her privacy, and they part angrily. He resigns his position at the school and decides to travel. The school year over, Laura tells Danny that they can move away, but he has put down roots at the school and wants to stay there. As a parting gift, Edward arranges for Danny to attend tuition-free. His mother has a moment of pain but realizes Danny's need to make his own choices and agrees. On Edward's way out of town, he stops at Laura's place for a silent farewell, she and the boy down on the beach, he high up on the bluff above looking down at them. Cast Elizabeth Taylor as Laura ReynoldsRichard Burton as Dr. Edward HewittEva Marie Saint as Claire HewittCharles Bronson as Cos EricksonRobert Webber as Ward HendricksJames Edwards as Larry BrantTorin Thatcher as Judge ThompsonTom Drake as Walter RobinsonDouglas Henderson as Paul SutcliffMorgan Mason as Danny Reynolds Production Title The character Laura Reynolds nurses a sandpiper with a broken wing, as Edward Hewitt looks on. The bird lives in her home until it is healed and then flies free, though it comes back occasionally. This sandpiper is used as a central symbol in the movie, illustrating the themes of growth and freedom. Location The Sandpiper is one of the very few major studio pictures ever filmed in Big Sur, and the story is specifically set there. The film includes many location shots of Big Sur landmarks, including Pfeiffer Beach, Point Lobos State Reserve, Bixby Creek Bridge, the Coast Gallery (where Laura exhibits her artwork), and a pivotal scene shot on a sound stage built to resemble the restaurant Nepenthe.[4] Real-Life Parallels The film was released at the height of Taylor and Burton's fame. It capitalized on their notoriety as one of the world's most famous couples and their well-known romantic adventures. Although they portrayed adulterous lovers, they were married on March 15, 1964, shortly before filming began. The film's theme of adultery closely mirrored their own personal lives at the time, as Taylor very publicly conducted an affair with Burton while married to Eddie Fisher, and Burton had done the same while married to Welsh actress Sybil Williams. Home media The DVD, released in 2006, includes two short films the filmmakers shot along with the movie, one about Big Sur and its artist colony, featuring narration by Burton, and another about the bust of Elizabeth Taylor that was commissioned from a Big Sur artist for use as a prop in the movie. Reception By 1976 Variety estimated the film had earned $7 million in theatrical rentals in North America.[5] Awards The Sandpiper won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "The Shadow of Your Smile"; music by Johnny Mandel and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. See also List of American films of 1965 References 1. · Haber, J. (1968, Jan 14). 'Baggy pants' ransohoff changes suits, image. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from  · · "The Sandpiper, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2013. · · The Sandpiper at the Internet Movie Database · · Hanning, Scott. "The Central Coast Traveler". Retrieved 2012-05-18. · "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 44 The Sandpiper (1965) Screen: Love Along Big Sur Seacoast:Elizabeth Taylor Stars With Richard Burton By BOSLEY CROWTHER Published: July 16, 1965 THAT shabby old Hollywood custom of pretending to a great piety while flirting around with material that is actually suggestive and cheap has seldom been more adroitly practiced than in Martin Ransohoff's "The Sandpiper," which opened at the Music Hall yesterday. Built up to give the impression that it is taking a disapproving view of an adulterous affair between a free-thinking woman and an Episcopal clergyman, it is really a slick and sympathetic sanction of the practice of free love—or, at least, of an illicit union that is supposedly justified by naturalness. And because it has Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the leading roles, the indelicacy of its implications is just that much more intrusive and cheap. Actually, the most distasteful aspect of this picture, which was made from a script by Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilson, based on a story by Mr. Ransohoff, is that it uses the formidable Miss Taylor to rationalize values and views that are immature, specious, meretricious and often ridiculous. When she, as the artist-mother of a 9-year-old illegitimate son, lectures the clergyman-headmaster of a California private school on why atheism is desirable and why she doesn't wish to put her son in his charge, he is made to concede that maybe he is "pompous" in politely disputing her. And when she presents the example of a sandpiper with a broken wing to drive home her favorite argument that every creature should be permitted to "fly free," he is forced to swallow this romantic twaddle, just as the audience is supposed to do. Likewise, when he abandons caution and succumbs to her arguments and charms, it is he who is made to appear awkward because he has a sense of guilt. And finally, when he walks away from her—and likewise from his wife and his job—it is he who is made to seem degraded in the face of her sustained righteousness. In short, all the best of it is given to the woman, whom Miss Taylor plays with the lofty and elegant assurance of a chicly dressed, camera-pampered star. Her arty and shallow pretensions of a bold, humanistic philosophy are never intelligently challenged. And Mr. Burton is compelled to play the clergyman in an annoyingly solemn, apologetic way. However, there are a lot of handsome and diverting incidentals in this film—a lot of scenic and environmental details to give it a sophisticated air and look. Much of it was shot on location in the coastal area of California's Big Sur, with the rugged and beautiful seacoast to give the color cameras much grandeur on which to dwell. And Vincente Minelli, as director, has captured the style and charm of an artist's beach house and the clatter and splash of an artist's friends. Charles Bronson and James Edwards represent the more forthright of these, and Eva Marie Saint is lucid and sincere as the clergyman's wife. Robert Webber as an oily school patron, Torin Thatcher as a judge and Morgan Mason as the overly precocious son of the heroine are up to what they have to do. A viewer who is not careful may be deceived by the tricky blend of piety and physical allurements that Miss Taylor presents. But don't let it fool you. It's the same old Hollywood stuff. On the stage at the Music Hall are the Arirang Korean Dance Group; Binder and Binder, specialty act; Pat Theriault, banjoist, the ballet company and the Rockettes. The Cast THE SANDPIPER, screenplay by Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilson, from an original story by Martin Ransohoff; directed by Vincente Minelli; produced by Mr. Ransohoff for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the Radio City Music Hall, Avenue of the Americas at 50th Street. Running time: 116 minutes. Laura Reynolds . . . . . Elizabeth Taylor Dr. Edward Hewitt . . . . . Richard Burton Claire Hewitt . . . . . Eva Marie Saint Cos Erikson . . . . . Charles Bronson Ward Hendricks . . . . . Robert Webber Larry Brant . . . . . James Edwards Judge Thompson . . . . . Torin Thatcher Walter Robinson . . . . . Tom Drake Danny Reynolds . . . . . Morgan Mason Richard Burton, CBE (/ˈbɜrtən/; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh stage and cinema actor[1] noted for his mellifluous baritone voice and his acting talent.[2][3] Establishing himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, with a memorable performance of Hamlet in 1964, Burton was called "the natural successor to Olivier" by critic and dramaturg Kenneth Tynan. An alcoholic,[3] Burton's failure to live up to those expectations[4] disappointed critics and colleagues and fueled his legend as a great thespian wastrel.[3][5] Burton was nominated seven times for an Academy Award without ever winning. He was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. In the mid-1960s Burton ascended into the ranks of the top box office stars,[6] and by the late 1960s was one of the highest-paid actors in the world, receiving fees of $1 million or more plus a share of the gross receipts.[7] Burton remains closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. The couple's turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news.[8] Contents 1 Childhood and education2 Early acting career3 Hollywood and later career 3.1 Stage career3.2 Hollywood career in the 1950s and 1960s3.3 Later career3.4 Oscars3.5 Television3.6 Books and articles4 Personal life and views 4.1 Health issues4.2 Death5 Awards and nominations6 Filmography7 Stage productions8 Television9 Soundtrack10 Box office ranking11 Honors12 Bibliography13 References14 Further reading15 External links Childhood and education Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Neath Port Talbot, Wales. He grew up in a working class, Welsh-speaking household, the 12th of 13 children.[9] His father, also named Richard Walter Jenkins, was a short, robust coal miner, a "twelve-pints-a-day man" who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks. Burton later claimed, by family telling, that "He looked very much like me ... That is, he was pockmarked, devious, and smiled a great deal when he was in trouble. He was, also, a man of extraordinary eloquence, tremendous passion, great violence."[10]:23 Burton was born in Pontrhydyfen, where his father and some of his brothers were coal miners Burton was less than two years old in 1927 when his mother, Edith Maude (née Thomas), died on 31 October 1927 at age 44[11] after giving birth to her 13th child.[12] His sister Cecilia and her husband Elfed took him into their Presbyterian mining family at their terraced house on Caradoc Street in Taibach,[13] in the town of Port Talbot (an English-speaking steel town).[9][14] Whilst staying with Cecilia, Burton attended nearby Eastern Primary School on Incline Row.[13] Burton said later that his sister became "more mother to me than any mother could have ever been ... I was immensely proud of her ... she felt all tragedies except her own". Burton's father would occasionally visit the homes of his grown daughters but was otherwise absent.[15]:7, 10 Also important in young Burton's life was Ifor (Ivor), his brother, 19 years his senior. A miner and rugby player, Ifor "ruled the household with the proverbial firm hand".[16]:7 Whilst attending Port Talbot Grammar School (now Dyffryn Lower Comprehensive School) Burton showed a talent for English and Welsh literature, demonstrating an excellent memory, though his consuming interest was sports – rugby (in fact famous Welsh centre Bleddyn Williams said in his autobiography that Burton could have gone far as a player[17]), cricket, and table tennis[18] He later said, "I would rather have played for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at the Old Vic."[15]:17 He earned pocket money by running messages, hauling horse manure, and delivering newspapers. He started to smoke at the age of 8 and drink regularly at 12.[10]:25–26 Inspired by his schoolmaster, Philip H. Burton, he excelled in school productions, his first being The Apple Cart.[10]:29 Philip Burton could not legally adopt young Richard due to their age difference; Burton was one year short of the minimum twenty years required.[19]:47 Richard Jenkins (as the young man was still known) displayed early-on an excellent speaking and singing voice, winning an Eisteddfod prize as a boy soprano. He left school at age 16 for full-time work. He worked for the local wartime Co-operative committee, handing out supplies in exchange for coupons, but then considered other professions for his future, including boxing, religion and singing.[10]:27 When he joined the Port Talbot Squadron of the Air Training Corps as a cadet, he re-encountered Burton, his former teacher, who was the commander. He joined a youth drama group led by Leo Lloyd, a steel worker and avid amateur thespian, who taught him the fundamentals of acting. Burton, who recognised the youth's talent, then adopted him as his ward and Richard returned to school. Being older than most of the other boys, he was very attractive to some of the girls.[10]:30–31 Philip Burton later said, "Richard was my son to all intents and purposes. I was committed to him."[10]:34 Philip Burton tutored his charge intensely in school subjects, and also worked at developing the youth's acting voice, including outdoor voice drills which improved his projection.[15]:38 In 1943, at age 18, Richard Burton (who had taken his teacher's surname but would not change it by deed poll for several years[16]:41), was allowed into Exeter College, Oxford, for a special term of six months study, made possible because he was an air force cadet obligated to later military service. He subsequently served in the RAF (1944–1947) as a navigator. Burton's eyesight was too poor for him to be considered pilot-material.[18] Early acting career In the 1940s and early 1950s Burton worked on stage and in cinema in the United Kingdom. Before his war service with the Royal Air Force, he starred as Professor Higgins in a YMCA production of Pygmalion. He earned his first professional acting fees with radio parts for the BBC.[10]:35 He had made his professional acting debut in Liverpool and London, appearing in Druid's Rest, a play by Emlyn Williams (who also became a guru), but his career was interrupted by conscription in 1944.[15]:44 Early on as an actor, he developed the habit of carrying around a book-bag filled with novels, dictionaries, a complete Shakespeare, and books of quotations, history, and biography, and he enjoyed solving crossword puzzles. Burton could, given any line from Shakespeare's works, recite from memory the next several minutes of lines.[20] His love of language was paramount, as he famously stated years later, with a tearful Elizabeth Taylor at his side, "The only thing in life is language. Not love. Not anything else."[15]:43 In 1947, after his discharge from the RAF, Burton went to London to seek his fortune. He immediately signed up with a theatrical agency to make himself available for casting calls.[10]:45 His first film was The Last Days of Dolwyn, set in a Welsh village about to be drowned to provide a reservoir. His reviews praised him for his "acting fire, manly bearing, and good looks."[10]:48 Burton met his future wife, the young actress Sybil Williams, on the set, and they married in February 1949. They had two daughters, but divorced in 1963 after Burton's widely reported affair with Elizabeth Taylor. In the years of his marriage to Sybil, Burton appeared in the West End in a highly successful production of The Lady's Not for Burning, alongside Sir John Gielgud and Claire Bloom, in both the London and New York productions. He had small parts in various British films: Now Barabbas Was A Robber; Waterfront (1950) with Robert Newton; The Woman with No Name (1951); and a bigger part as a smuggler in Green Grow the Rushes, a B-movie.[15]:70–71 Reviewers took notice of Burton: "He has all the qualifications of a leading man that the British film industry so badly needs at this juncture: youth, good looks, a photogenic face, obviously alert intelligence, and a trick of getting the maximum of attention with a minimum of fuss."[10]:51 In the 1951 season at Stratford, he gave a critically acclaimed performance and achieved stardom as Prince Hal in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 opposite Anthony Quayle's Falstaff. Philip Burton arrived at Stratford to help coach his former charge, noting in his memoir that Quayle and Richard Burton had their differences about the interpretation of the Prince Hal role. Richard Burton was already demonstrating the same independence and competitiveness as an actor that he displayed off-stage in drinking, sport, or story-telling.[15]:73 Kenneth Tynan said of Burton's performance, "His playing of Prince Hal turned interested speculation to awe almost as soon as he started to speak; in the first intermission local critics stood agape in the lobbies."[10]:51 Suddenly, Richard Burton had fulfilled his guardian's wildest hopes and was admitted to the post-War British acting circle which included Anthony Quayle, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Hugh Griffith and Paul Scofield. He even met Humphrey Bogart, a fellow hard drinker, who sang his praises back in Hollywood.[10]:56 Lauren Bacall recalled, "Bogie loved him. We all did. You had no alternative." Burton bought the first of many cars and celebrated by increasing his drinking.[15]:73–74 The following year, Burton signed a five-year contract with Alexander Korda at £100 a week, launching his Hollywood career. Hollywood and later career Richard Burton in the film Cleopatra (1963) In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star; on the recommendation of Daphne du Maurier, he was given the leading role in My Cousin Rachel opposite Olivia de Havilland.[10]:59 Burton arrived on the Hollywood scene at a time when the studios were struggling. Television's rise was drawing viewers away and the studios looked to new stars and new film technology to staunch the bleeding. 20th Century Fox negotiated with Korda to borrow him for this film and a further two at $50,000 a film. The film was a critical success. It established Burton as a Hollywood leading man and earned him his first Academy Award nomination and the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor. In Desert Rats (1953), Burton plays a young English captain in the North African campaign during World War II who takes charge of a hopelessly out-numbered Australian unit against the indomitable Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason). Mason, another actor known for his distinctive voice and excellent elocution, became a friend of Burton's and introduced the new actor to the Hollywood crowd. In short order, he met Judy Garland, Greta Garbo, Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, and Cole Porter, and Burton met up again with Humphrey Bogart.[15]:82 At a party, he met a pregnant Elizabeth Taylor (then married to Michael Wilding) whose first impression of Burton was that "he was rather full of himself. I seem to remember that he never stopped talking, and I had given him the cold fish eye."[10]:60 The following year he created a sensation by starring in The Robe, the first film to premiere in the wide-screen process CinemaScope, earning another Oscar nomination. He replaced Tyrone Power, who was originally cast in the role of Marcellus, a noble but decadent Roman in command of the detachment of Roman soldiers that crucified Jesus Christ. Haunted by his guilt from this act, he is eventually led to his own conversion. Marcellus' Greek slave (played by Victor Mature) guides him as a spiritual teacher, and his wife (played by Jean Simmons) follows his lead, although it will mean both their deaths. The film marked a resurgence in Biblical blockbusters.[15]:85 Burton was offered a seven-year, $1 million contract by Darryl F. Zanuck at Fox, but he turned it down, though later the contract was revived and he agreed to it.[15]:87 It has been suggested that remarks Burton made about blacklisting Hollywood while filming The Robe may have explained his failure to ever win an Oscar, despite receiving seven nominations. In 1954, Burton took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, a role he would reprise in the film version twenty years later. He was also the narrator, as Winston Churchill, in the highly successful 1960 television documentary series The Valiant Years.[10]:90 Stage career Burton as King Arthur with Roddy McDowall in the Broadway presentation of Camelot Julie Andrews with Burton in Broadway's Camelot Burton was still juggling theatre with film, playing Hamlet and Coriolanus at the Old Vic theatre in 1953 and alternating the roles of Iago and Othello with the Old Vic's other rising matinee idol, John Neville. Hamlet was a challenge that both terrified and attracted him, as it was a role many of his peers in the British theatre had undertaken, including John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier.[15]:93 Bogart, on the other hand, warned him as Burton left Hollywood, "I never knew a man who played Hamlet who didn't die broke."[10]:67 Once again, Philip Burton provided expert coaching. Claire Bloom played Ophelia, and their work together led to a turbulent affair.[15]:94 His reviews in Hamlet were good but he received stronger praise for Coriolanus. His fellow actor Robert Hardy said, "His Coriolanus is quite easily the best I've ever seen" but Hamlet was "too strong".[15]:93 Burton appeared on Broadway, receiving a Tony Award nomination for Time Remembered (1958) and winning the award for playing King Arthur in the musical, Camelot (1960), directed by Moss Hart and written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.[10]:67 Julie Andrews, fresh from her triumph in My Fair Lady, played Guenevere to Burton's King Arthur, with Robert Goulet as Lancelot completing the love triangle. The production was troubled, with both Loewe and Hart falling ill, numerous revisions upsetting the schedule and the actors, and the pressure- building due to great expectations and huge advance sales. The show's running time was nearly five hours. Burton took it all in his stride and calmed people down with statements like "Don't worry, love." Burton's intense preparation and competitive desire served him well. He was generous and supportive to others who were suffering in the maelstrom. According to Lerner, "he kept the boat from rocking, and Camelot might never have reached New York if it hadn't been for him."[10]:93 As in the play, both male stars were enamoured of their leading lady, newly married Andrews. When Goulet turned to Burton for advice, Burton had none to offer, but later he admitted, "I tried everything on her myself. I couldn't get anywhere either."[10]:94 Burton's reviews were excellent, Time magazine stated that Burton "gives Arthur the skilful and vastly appealing performance that might be expected from one of England's finest young actors." The show's album was a major seller. The Kennedys, newly in the White House, also enjoyed the play and invited Burton for a visit, establishing the link of the idealistic young Kennedy administration with Camelot. He then put his stage career on hold to concentrate on film, although he received a third Tony Award nomination when he reprised his Hamlet under John Gielgud's direction in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history (136 performances).[10]:148 The performance was immortalised both on record and in a film, which played in US theatres for a week in 1964, as well as being the subject of books written by cast members William Redfield and Richard L. Sterne. Burton took the role on just after his marriage to Taylor. Since Burton disliked wearing period clothing, Gielgud conceived a production in a "rehearsal" setting with a half-finished set and actors wearing their street clothes (carefully selected while the production really was in rehearsal). Burton's basic reading of Hamlet, which displeased some theatre-goers, was of a complex manic-depressive personality, though during the long run he varied his performance considerably, as a self-challenge and to keep his acting fresh. On the whole, Burton had good reviews. Time said that Burton "put his passion into Hamlet's language rather than the character. His acting is a technician's marvel. His voice has gem-cutting precision."[10]:144 The opening night party was a lavish affair, attended by six hundred celebrities who paid homage to the couple. The most successful aspect of the production was generally considered to be Hume Cronyn's performance as Polonius, winning Cronyn the only Tony Award he would ever receive in a competitive category. After his Hamlet, Burton did not return to the stage for twelve years. He did, however, accept the role of Humbert Humbert in Alan Jay Lerner's musical adaptation of Lolita entitled Lolita, My Love but withdrew and was replaced by his friend and fellow Welshman John Neville. His performance as psychiatrist Martin Dysart in Equus won him a special Tony Award in 1976 for his appearance, but he had to make Exorcist II: The Heretic – a film he hated – before Hollywood producers would allow him to repeat his role in the 1977 film version. His final starring stage performance was in a critically reviled 1983 production of Noël Coward's Private Lives, opposite his ex-wife Elizabeth Taylor. Most reviewers dismissed the production as a transparent attempt to capitalise on the couple's celebrity, although they grudgingly praised Burton as having the closest connection to Coward's play of anyone in the cast. Hollywood career in the 1950s and 1960s In terms of critical success, Burton's Hollywood roles throughout the 1950s did not live up to the early promise of his debut. Burton returned to Hollywood to star in Prince of Players, another historical Cinemascope film, this time concerning Edwin Booth, the famous American actor and brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. A weak script undermined a valiant effort by Burton, although the view of director Philip Dunne was that "The fire and intensity were there, but that was all. He hadn't yet mastered the tricks of the great movie stars, such as Gary Cooper."[10]:71 Next came Alexander the Great (1956), written, directed and produced by Robert Rossen, with Burton in the title role, on loan to United Artists, again with Claire Bloom co-starring. Contrary to Burton's expectations, the "intelligent epic" was a wooden, slow-paced flop.[10]:75 In The Rains of Ranchipur, Burton plays a noble Hindu doctor who attempts the spiritual recovery of an adulteress (Lana Turner). Critics felt that the film lacked star chemistry, with Burton having difficulty with the accent, and relied too heavily on Cinemascope special effects, including an earthquake and a collapsing dam. Burton returned to the theatre in Henry V and Othello, alternating the roles of Iago and Othello. He and Sybil then moved to Switzerland to avoid high British taxes and to try to build a nest-egg, for themselves and for Burton's family.[10]:75 He returned to film again in Sea Wife, shot in Jamaica and directed by Roberto Rossellini. A young Joan Collins (then called by the tabloids "Britain's bad girl") plays a nun shipwrecked on an island with three men. But Rossellini was let go after disagreements with Zanuck. According to Collins, Burton had a "take-the-money-and-run attitude" toward the film.[10]:75–77 Then in 1958, he was offered the part of Jimmy Porter, "an angry young man" role, in the film version of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger, a gritty drama about middle-class life in the British Midlands, directed by Tony Richardson, again with Claire Bloom as co-star. Though it didn't do well commercially (many critics felt Burton, at 33, looked too old for the part), and Burton's Hollywood box-office aura seemed to be diminishing, Burton was proud of the effort and wrote to his mentor Philip Burton, "I promise you that there isn't a shred of self-pity in my performance. I am for the first time ever looking forward to seeing a film in which I play".[15]:125 Next came The Bramble Bush and Ice Palace in 1960, neither important to Burton's career. After playing King Arthur in Camelot on Broadway for six months, Burton replaced Stephen Boyd as Mark Antony in the troubled production Cleopatra (1963). Twentieth Century-Fox's future appeared to hinge on what became the most expensive movie ever made until then, reaching almost $40 million.[10]:97 The film proved to be the start of Burton's most successful period in Hollywood; he would remain among the top 10 box-office earners for the next four years. During the filming, Burton met and fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor, who was married to Eddie Fisher. The two would not be free to marry until 1964 when their respective divorces were complete. On their first meeting on the set, Burton said "Has anyone ever told you that you're a very pretty girl?" Taylor later recalled, "I said to myself, Oy gevalt, here's the great lover, the great wit, the great intellectual of Wales, and he comes out with a line like that."[10]:103 In their first scenes together, he was shaky and missing his lines, and she soothed and coached him. Soon the affair began in earnest and Sybil, seeing this as more than a passing fling with a leading lady, was unable to bear it. She fled the set, first for Switzerland, then for London. The gigantic scale of the troubled production, Taylor's bouts of illness and fluctuating weight, the off-screen turbulence—all generated enormous publicity, which by-and-large the studio embraced. Zanuck stated, "I think the Taylor-Burton association is quite constructive for our organization."[10]:118But not necessarily for Burton. "Make up your mind, dear heart", cabled Laurence Olivier to him at this time. "Do you want to be a great actor or a household word?" Burton replied, "Both".[21] The six-hour film was cut to under four, eliminating many of Burton's scenes, but the result was viewed the same—a film long on spectacle dominated by the two hottest stars in Hollywood. Their private lives turned out to be an endless source of curiosity for the media, and their marriage was also the start of a series of on-screen collaborations. Eventually, the film did well enough to recoup its great cost. Burton and Ava Gardner in The Night of the Iguana (1964) Burton played Taylor's tycoon husband in The V.I.P.s, an all-star film set in the VIP lounge of London Airport which proved to be a box-office hit. Then Burton portrayed the archbishop martyred by Henry II in the title role of Becket, turning in an effective, restrained performance, contrasting with Peter O'Toole's manic portrayal of Henry.[10]:130 In 1964, Burton triumphed as defrocked Episcopal priest Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana directed by John Huston, a film which became another critical and box-office success. Richard Burton's performance in The Night of the Iguana may be his finest hour on the screen, and in the process helped put the town of Puerto Vallarta on the map (the Burtons later bought a house there). Part of Burton's success was due to how well he varied his acting with the three female characters, each of whom he tries to seduce differently: Ava Gardner (the randy hotel owner), Sue Lyon (the nubile American tourist), and Deborah Kerr (the poor, repressed artist).[10]:135 Against his family's advice, Burton married Elizabeth Taylor on Sunday 15 March 1964, in Montreal. Ever optimistic, Taylor proclaimed, "I'm so happy you can't believe it. This marriage will last forever".[10]:140 At the hotel in Boston, the rabid crowd clawed at the newlyweds, Burton's coat was ripped and Taylor's ear was bloodied when someone tried to steal one of her earrings.[10]:142 After an interruption playing Hamlet on Broadway, Burton returned to film as British spy Alec Leamas in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Burton and Taylor continued making films together, though the next one, The Sandpiper (1965), was poorly received. Following that, he and Taylor had great success in Mike Nichols's film (1966) of the Edward Albee play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests, played by George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Burton was not the first choice for the role of Taylor's husband. Jack Lemmon was offered the role first, but when he backed off, Jack Warner, with Taylor's insistence, agreed on Burton and paid him his price. Albee preferred Bette Davis and James Mason, fearing that the Burtons' strong screen presence would dominate the film.[10]:155, 163 Nichols, in his directorial debut, managed the Burtons brilliantly. The script, adapted from Albee's play by Hollywood veteran Ernest Lehman, broke new ground for its raw language and harsh depiction of marriage. Although all four actors received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film (the film received a total of thirteen), only Taylor and Dennis went on to win. So immersed had the Burtons become in the roles of George and Martha over the months of shooting that, after the wrap, Richard Burton said, "I feel rather lost."[10]:142 Later the couple would state that the film took its toll on their relationship, and that Taylor was "tired of playing Martha" in real life.[15]:206 Their lively version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1967), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, was a notable success. Later collaborations, however, The Comedians (1967), Boom! (1968), and the Burton-directed Doctor Faustus (1967) (which had its genesis from a theatre production he staged and starred in at the Oxford University Dramatic Society), were critical and commercial failures. Another box office failure was the 1969 film Staircase, in which he and his "Cleopatra" co-star Rex Harrison appeared as a bickering homosexual couple. His fee for Staircase, $1.25 million (equivalent to approximately $8,505,981 in today's funds[22]) plus a share of the gross,[23] made him the highest-paid actor in the world. He did enjoy a final commercial blockbuster with Clint Eastwood in the 1968 World War II picture Where Eagles Dare, a major hit in 1969,[24] for which he received a $1 million fee plus a share of the gross.[7] His last film of the decade, Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), was a commercial and critical disappointment. In spite of those failures, it performed remarkably well at that year's Academy awards (receiving ten nominations, including one for Burton's performance as Henry VIII), which many thought to be largely the result of an expensive advertising campaign by Universal Studios.[25] Later career Because of Burton and Taylor's extravagant spending and his support of his family and others (42 people at one point), Burton agreed to work in mediocre films, which hurt his career. He recognised his financial need to do so, and that in the New Hollywood era of cinema, neither he nor Taylor would be paid as well as at the height of their stardom.[24] Films he made during this period included Bluebeard (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972), The Klansman (1974), and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). He did enjoy one major critical success in the 1970s in the film version of his stage hit Equus, winning the Golden Globe Award as well as an Academy Award nomination. Public sentiment towards his perennial frustration at not winning an Oscar made many pundits consider him the favourite to finally win the award, but on Oscar Night he lost to Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl. In 1976 Burton received a Grammy in the category of Best Recording for Children for his narration of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He also found success in 1978, when he narrated Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds. His distinctive performance became a necessary part of the concept album – so much so that a hologram of Burton was used to narrate the live stage show (touring in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010) of the musical. In 2011, however, Liam Neeson was cast in the part for a "next generation" rerecording, and subsequently also replaced Burton as the hologram character in the stage show. Burton had an international box-office hit with The Wild Geese (1978), an adventure tale about mercenaries in Africa. The film was a success in the UK and Europe but had only limited distribution in the U.S. owing to the collapse of the studio that funded it and the lack of an American star in the movie. He returned to films with The Medusa Touch (1978), Circle of Two (1980), and the title role in Wagner (1983),[26] a role he said he was born to play, after his success in Equus. His last film performance, as O'Brien in Nineteen Eighty-Four, was critically acclaimed,[24] though he was not the first choice for the part. According to the film's director, Michael Radford, Paul Scofield was originally contracted to play the part, but had to withdraw due to a broken leg, then Sean Connery, Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger were all approached before Burton was cast. He had "heard stories" about Burtons heavy drinking, which had concerned the producers.[27] At the time of his death, Burton was preparing to film Wild Geese II, the sequel to The Wild Geese, which was eventually released in 1985. Burton was to reprise the role of Colonel Faulkner, while his friend Sir Laurence Olivier was cast as Rudolf Hess. After his death, Burton was replaced by Edward Fox, and the character changed to Faulkner's younger brother. Oscars He was nominated six times for an Academy Award for Best Actor and once for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – but he never won. His first nomination, for My Cousin Rachel (1952), was for Best Supporting Actor. His subsequent nominations all came in the Best Actor category. He was nominated as Best Actor for The Robe in 1954, but did not receive another nomination until 1965, for Becket, at which time he was one of the most famous actors in the world, due to his relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. Considered a favorite in the 1966 and '67 contests for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), he lost to Lee Marvin and Paul Scofield, respectively. His performance in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) was bested by John Wayne in True Grit and his comeback performance in Equus (1977) was topped by Richard Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl. In contrast to the Oscars, where he was an also-ran, Burton was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. From 1982, he and Becket co-star Peter O'Toole shared the record for the male actor with the most nominations (7) for a competitive acting Oscar without ever winning. In 2007, O'Toole was nominated for an eighth time (and subsequently lost), for Venus (however, O'Toole received an Academy Honorary Award in 2003). Television Burton rarely appeared on television, although he gave a memorable performance as Caliban in a televised production of The Tempest for The Hallmark Hall of Fame in 1960. Later appearances included the television film Divorce His – Divorce Hers (1973) opposite then-wife Elizabeth Taylor (a prophetic title, since their first marriage would be dissolved less than a year later), a remake of the classic film Brief Encounter (1974) that was considered vastly inferior to the 1945 original, and a critically applauded performance as Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm (1974). Wagner, a film he made about the life of Richard Wagner (noted for having the only onscreen teaming of Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in the same scenes) was shown as a television miniseries in 1983 after failing to achieve a theatrical release in most countries due to its nine-hour running time. Burton enjoyed a personal triumph in the American television miniseries Ellis Island in 1984, receiving a posthumous Emmy Award nomination for his final television performance. Television played an important part in the fate of his Broadway appearance in Camelot. When the show's run was threatened by disappointing reviews, Burton and co-star Julie Andrews appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show to perform the number What Do The Simple Folk Do?. The television appearance renewed public interest in the production and extended its Broadway run. Burton showed a subtle flair for comedy in a 1970 guest appearance with Elizabeth Taylor on the sitcom Here's Lucy, where he recited, in a plumber's uniform, a haunting excerpt of a speech from Shakespeare's Richard II. He later parodied this role in an episode of the television show The Fall Guy. In 1997, archive footage of Burton was used in the first episode of the television series Conan.[28] Books and articles In 1964 Burton wrote a brief memoir of his childhood, A Christmas Story.[29] Set in a small mining town in Wales, this "smart and deeply felt"[30] story is told from the perspective of a young, motherless boy on the night before Christmas. It was published in 1968, and is written in the tradition of A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas—an author Burton refers to in his first sentence, which begins, "There were not many white Christmases in our part of Wales in my childhood..."[31] Burton kept a written record of his experiences and thoughts in the form of a daily journal or a private diary. This began when he was 14 years old, and it continued, though he would sometimes set the project aside. It was eventually published posthumously in 2012 as The Richard Burton Diaries.[32][33] Burton occasionally though rarely wrote magazine articles, including his article that appeared in Look Magazine in 1969, "Who Cares About Wales? I Do."[34] Personal life and views Burton was married five times and he had four children. From 1949 until their divorce in 1963, he was married to Welsh actress/producer Sybil Williams, with whom he had two daughters, Katherine "Kate" Burton (born 10 September 1957) and Jessica Burton (born 1959).[35] He was married twice, consecutively, to actress Elizabeth Taylor, from 15 March 1964 to 26 June 1974 and from 10 October 1975 to 29 July 1976. Their first wedding took place in Montreal,[20] and their second wedding occurred, 16 months after their divorce, in Chobe National Park in Botswana. In 1964, the couple adopted a daughter from Germany, Maria Burton (born 1 August 1961). Burton adopted Taylor's daughter by the late producer Mike Todd, Elizabeth Frances "Liza" Todd Burton (born 6 August 1957).[36] The relationship Burton and Taylor portrayed in the film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was popularly likened to their real-life marriage.[37] Burton disagreed with others about Taylor's famed beauty, saying that calling her "the most beautiful woman in the world is absolute nonsense. She has wonderful eyes, but she has a double chin and an overdeveloped chest, and she's rather short in the leg."[38] In August 1976, a month after his second divorce from Taylor, Burton married model Suzy Miller, the former wife of Formula 1 Champion James Hunt;[39] the marriage ended in divorce in 1982. From 1983 until his death in 1984, Burton was married to make-up artist Sally Hay. In 1957 he became a tax exile, moving to Switzerland, where he lived until his death. In 1968 Burton's elder brother, Ifor, slipped and fell, breaking his neck, after a lengthy drinking session with Burton at the actor's second home in Céligny, Switzerland. The injury left him paralysed from the neck down.[40] His younger brother Graham Jenkins opined it may have been guilt over this that caused Burton to start drinking very heavily, particularly after Ifor died in 1973.[41] In a February 1975 interview with his friend David Lewin he said he "tried" homosexuality. He also suggested that perhaps all actors were latent homosexuals, and "we cover it up with drink".[42] In 2000, Ellis Amburn's biography of Elizabeth Taylor suggested that Burton had an affair with Laurence Olivier and tried to seduce Eddie Fisher[page needed], although this was strongly denied by Burton's younger brother Graham Jenkins.[43] Burton was a heavy smoker from the time he was just eight years old; and by his own admission in a December 1977 interview with Sir Ludovic Kennedy,[where?] Burton was smoking 60–100 cigarettes per day. According to his younger brother, as stated in Graham Jenkins's 1988 book Richard Burton: My Brother, he smoked at least a hundred cigarettes a day.[pages needed] His father, also a heavy drinker, refused to acknowledge his son's talents, achievements and acclaim.[14] In turn, Burton declined to attend the funeral,[18] when his father died from a cerebral haemorrhage in January 1957 at age 81. Burton admired and was inspired by the actor and dramatist Emlyn Williams. He employed his son, Brook Williams, as his personal assistant and adviser and he was given small roles in some of the films in which Burton starred.[44] Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in November 1974 for writing two newspaper articles questioning the sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II – Burton reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese people on the planet.[45] The publication of these articles coincided with what would have been Churchill's centenary, and came after Burton had played him in a favourable light in A Walk with Destiny, with considerable help from the Churchill family.[citation needed] Politically Burton was a lifelong socialist, although he was never as heavily involved in politics as his close friend Stanley Baker. He admired Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy[citation needed] and once got into a sonnet-quoting contest with him.[46] In 1973 Burton agreed to play Josip Broz Tito in a film biography, since he admired the Yugoslav leader. While filming in Yugoslavia he publicly proclaimed that he was a communist, saying he felt no contradiction between earning vast sums of money for films and holding left-wing views since "unlike capitalists, I don't exploit other people."[47] Burton courted further controversy in 1976 when he wrote an unsolicited article for The Observer about his friend and fellow Welsh thespian Stanley Baker, who had recently died from pneumonia at the age of 48; the article upset Baker's widow with its depiction of her late husband as an uncultured womaniser.[48] Melvyn Bragg, in the notes of his Richard Burton: A Life, says that Burton told Laurence Olivier around 1970 of his own (unfulfilled) plans to make his own film of Macbeth with Elizabeth Taylor, knowing that this would hurt Olivier because he had failed to gain funding for his own cherished film version more than a decade earlier. On his religious views, Burton was an atheist, stating, "I wish I could believe in a God of some kind but I simply cannot."[49] Health issues Burton's gravestone at the Vieux Cemetery in Céligny. He is buried a few paces away from Alistair MacLean's grave. Burton was an alcoholic who reportedly nearly died in 1974 from an excess of drinking. According to biographer Robert Sellers, "At the height of his boozing in the mid-70s he was knocking back three to four bottles of hard liquor a day."[50] After drinking himself nearly to death during the shooting of The Klansman (1974), Burton was dried out at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Burton allegedly was so inebriated while making the picture that many of his scenes had to be filmed with him sitting or lying down due to his inability to stand. In some scenes, he appears to slur his words or speak incoherently.[51] According to his own diaries, subsequently he used Antabuse to try to stop his excessive drinking, which he blamed for wrecking his marriage to Elizabeth Taylor.[52] Burton himself said of the time leading up to his near loss of life, "I was fairly sloshed for five years. I was up there with John Barrymore and Robert Newton. The ghosts of them were looking over my shoulder."[5] Burton said that he turned to the bottle for solace "to burn up the flatness, the stale, empty, dull deadness that one feels when one goes offstage."[50] The 1988 biography of Burton by Melvyn Bragg[15] provides a detailed description of the many health issues that plagued Burton throughout his life. In his youth, Burton was a star athlete and well known for his athletic abilities and strength. By the age of 41 he had declined so far in health that his arms were by his own admission thin and weak. He suffered from bursitis, possibly aggravated by faulty treatment, arthritis, dermatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and kidney disease, as well as developing, by his mid-forties, a pronounced limp. How much of this was due to his intake of alcohol is impossible to ascertain, according to Bragg, because of Burton's reluctance to be treated for alcohol addiction; however, in 1974, Burton spent six weeks in a clinic to recuperate from a period during which he had been drinking three bottles of vodka a day. He was also a regular smoker, with an intake of between three and five packs a day for most of his adult life. Health issues continued to plague him until his death of a stroke at the age of 58. Death Burton died at age 58 from a brain haemorrhage on 5 August 1984 at his home in Céligny, Switzerland, and is buried there.[3] Although his death was sudden, his health had been declining for several years, and he suffered from constant and severe neck pain. He had been warned that his liver was enlarged as early as March 1970,[40] and had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and kidney disease in April 1981. Burton was buried in a red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots, and with a copy of Dylan Thomas' poems.[53] He and Taylor had discussed being buried together; his widow Sally purchased the plot next to Burton's and erected a large headstone across both, presumably to prevent Taylor from being buried there.[54] Awards and nominations Year Title of Project Award 1951 The Lady's Not for Burning Theatre World Award 1952 My Cousin Rachel Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1953 The Robe Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor 1958 Time Remembered (play) Nominated-Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1959 Look Back in Anger Nominated-BAFTA Award for Best British Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1961 Camelot Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical 1964 Becket Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Hamlet Nominated-Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play 1965 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold BAFTA Award for Best British Actor (also for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor 1966 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? BAFTA Award for Best British Actor (also for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold) Bambi Award for Best International Actor Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor (2nd place, tied with Max von Sydow for Hawaii (film)) New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor (2nd place) Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1967 The Taming of the Shrew David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actor (tied with Peter O'Toole for The Night of the Generals) Nominated-BAFTA Award for Best British Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1969 Anne of the Thousand Days Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1973 Massacre in Rome Taormina International Film Festival Award for Best Actor 1976 The LIttle Prince (vinyl record) Grammy Award for Best Album for Children (shared with Jonathan Winters and Billy Simpson) 1977 Equus Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor (shared with John Hurt) Ellis Island Nominated-Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie For his contribution to motion pictures, Richard Burton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6336 Hollywood Boulevard.[55] Due to his theater work, Burton is also a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.[56] Filmography The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949)Now Barabbas (1949)The Woman with No Name (1950)Waterfront (1950)Green Grow the Rushes (1951)My Cousin Rachel (1952)The Desert Rats (1953)The Robe (1953)Thursday's Children (1954) (short subject) (narrator)Prince of Players (1955)The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)Alexander the Great (1956)Bitter Victory (1957)Sea Wife (1957)Look Back in Anger (1958)A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959) (narrator)Ice Palace (1960)The Bramble Bush (1960)Dylan Thomas (1962) (short subject) ( narrator)The Longest Day (1962)Cleopatra (1963)The V.I.P.s (1963)Zulu (1964) (narrator)Becket (1964)The Night of the Iguana (1964)Hamlet (1964)What's New Pussycat? (1965) (Cameo)The Sandpiper (1965)Big Sur (1965) (documentary short) (narrator)The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)Florence: Days of Destruction (1966) (documentary short) (narrator)The Taming of the Shrew (1967) (also producer) Doctor Faustus (1967) (also producer and director)The Comedians (1967)The Comedians in Africa (1967) (documentary short) (as himself)Boom! (1968)Where Eagles Dare (1968)Candy (1968)Staircase (1969)Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)Raid on Rommel (1971)Villain (1971)Under Milk Wood (1972)The Assassination of Trotsky (1972)Bluebeard (1972)Hammersmith Is Out (1972)Massacre in Rome (Italian: Rappresaglia) (1973)Sutjeska (1973), also known as The Fifth Offensive and The Battle of SutjeskaThe Voyage (1974)The Klansman (1974)The Gathering Storm (1974)Brief Encounter (1974)Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)Equus (1977)Absolution (1978), also known as Murder by ConfessionThe Wild Geese (1978)The Medusa Touch (1978)Breakthrough (1979)Circle of Two (1980)Lovespell (1981)Alice in Wonderland (1983)Wagner (1983)Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)Ellis Island (1984) Stage productions Measure for Measure (1944)Druid's Rest (1944)Castle Anna (1948)The Lady's Not for Burning (1949)The Lady's Not for Burning (1950)A Phoenix Too Frequent (1950)The Boy With A Cart (1950)Legend of Lovers (1951)The Tempest (1951)Henry V (1951)Henry IV (1951)Montserrat (1952)The Tempest (1953)King John (1953)Hamlet (1953)Coriolanus (1953)Hamlet (1953)Twelfth Night (1953)Henry V (1955)Othello (1956)Sea Wife (1957)Time Remembered (1957)Camelot (1960)Hamlet (1964)A Poetry Reading (1964)Doctor Faustus (1966)Equus (1976)War of the Worlds (1978)Camelot (1980)Private Lives (1983) Television Here's Lucy – episode, "Lucy Meets the Burtons" (1970) (as himself)The Fall Guy – episode, "Reluctant Travel Companion" (1982) (as himself) Soundtrack Camelot (musical) (1960)Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (1978) (the journalist/protagonist)Poems by Dylan Thomas: Under Milk Wood, Fern Hill, And death shall have no dominion, Lament, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good NightOther poems by: John Donne – The Good-Morrow, Samuel Taylor Coleridge – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Frost at MidnightRichard Burton at the BBC Box office ranking At the peak of his career, Richard Burton was regularly voted by exhibitors as one of the top stars at the box office.[57] 1963 – 25 (US)[58]1964 – 10th (US)1965 – 9th (US), 8th (Britain)[59]1966 – 5th (US)1967 – 9th (US)1970 – 5th (Britain)[60]1971 – 1st (Britain)[61] Honors For his contributions to cinema, Burton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6336 Hollywood Boulevard.[62] For his contributions to theater, Burton was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.[63] For a full list of awards and nominations see Richard Burton. Bibliography Burton, Richard (2012). Chris Williams, ed. The Richard Burton Diaries. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300180107. Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American[2] actress. Beginning as a child star with MGM in the 1940s, she became a screen actress during Hollywood's Golden Age. She appeared in more than 50 films, playing mostly dramatic roles, and won two Academy Awards for Best Actress.[3] Taylor's screen debut was in the film National Velvet (1944) at the age of 12. Her career grew and she would later go on to star in such films as Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) for which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama . She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and famously married her co-star Richard Burton after leaving her husband of five years, Eddie Fisher. She and Burton appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress and her second Academy Award for Best Actress. From the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made occasional appearances in television and theatre. Her much-publicized personal life consisted of eight marriages, seven husbands (she married Burton twice) and several life-threatening illnesses throughout her extraordinary career. From the mid-1980s, Taylor championed HIV and AIDS programs; she co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991. She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the Legion of Honour, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute, who named her seventh on their list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Taylor died from congestive heart failure in March 2011 at the age of 79, having suffered many years of ill health. Contents 1 Early life2 Acting career 2.1 Career beginnings (1941–1943)2.2 Adolescent star (1944–1949)2.3 Transition to adult roles (1950–1951)2.4 1952–19552.5 Critical acclaim (1956–1960)2.6 Cleopatra and hiatus (1961–1964)2.7 Success with Richard Burton (1965–1967)2.8 Career decline (1968–1979)2.9 Stage and television roles; retirement (1980–2007)3 Personal life 3.1 Marriages, romances, and children3.2 Religion and identity3.3 Impressions of career and marriage3.4 Jewelry, fashion and perfumes4 Activism 4.1 HIV/AIDS4.2 Jewish causes5 Illnesses and death6 Legacy7 Awards and honors8 Filmography9 Notes10 References11 Sources12 Further reading13 External links Early life Adolescent Taylor with her parents at the Stork Club in New York in 1947 Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on February 27, 1932 at Heathwood, her family's home on 8 Wildwood Road in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London.[4] She received dual citizenship at birth, as her parents, art dealer Francis Lenn Taylor (1897–1968) and retired stage actress Sara Sothern (née Sara Viola Warmbrodt, 1895–1994), were United States citizens, both originally from Arkansas City, Kansas.[4][a] They moved to London in 1929 and opened a gallery on Bond Street; their first child, a son named Howard, was born the same year.[8] The Taylors' upper-class life in London was little affected by the Great Depression.[9] Taylor was enrolled in Byron House, a Montessori school in Highgate.[10] The family's friends included artists such as Augustus John and Laura Knight, and MP Colonel Victor Cazalet.[9] Cazalet was Taylor's unofficial godfather and an important influence in her early life.[9] He was also a lay preacher of Christian Science, a religious movement, which teachings Sara Taylor adhered to and according to which she raised her children.[11] Although the Taylors had wished to make England their permanent home, they decided to return to the United States in the spring of 1939, after Cazalet warned them about the coming war against Germany.[12] Sara Taylor and the children traveled first on board the S.S. Manhattan in April 1939; Francis stayed behind in London to take care of the shipping of the gallery's art works.[13] After arriving in the U.S., Sara and the children temporarily moved in with Taylor's maternal grandfather in Pasadena, California.[12] Francis arrived soon after and later owned an art gallery in The Beverly Hills Hotel.[14] The family later settled in Beverly Hills, where Taylor and her brother were enrolled in Hawthorne School.[15] Acting career Career beginnings (1941–1943) Taylor as a child In Los Angeles, Taylor's mother was frequently told that her "beautiful" daughter should audition for film roles.[16] One of Taylor's features which had drawn attention since her early childhood was her eyes; they were deep blue to the extent of appearing violet, and were rimmed by dark double eyelashes, caused by a genetic mutation.[17][18] Sara initially disliked the idea of Taylor appearing in films, but after the war made it clear that the family would not be returning to England, she changed her mind and began viewing the film industry as a way of assimilating to American society.[16] Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, a friend of the Cazalets, attended the Beverly Hills gallery opening in 1940, and subsequently wrote about it in her column, also mentioning Taylor.[19] Hopper's endorsement brought the gallery clients from the film industry; one of them, Andrea Berens, was the fiancée of Universal Pictures' head executive John Cheever Cowdin, and arranged an audition with the studio in early 1941.[20] Around the same time, Taylor also received an audition with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer through one of her school friends, whose father was a studio producer.[20] Both studios offered Taylor a contract.[20] While she preferred MGM, her mother decided to accept Universal's offer, and the studio signed Taylor for a seven-year contract in April 1941.[20] She appeared in a small role in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), but was not cast in other films and her contract was terminated in March 1942.[20] While the exact reason for the termination is unknown, the studio's casting director allegedly disliked her, stating that "the kid has nothing... her eyes are too old, she doesn't have the face of a child".[20] Biographer Alexander Walker agrees that Taylor appeared older than her age, and looked very different from popular child stars of the era, such as Shirley Temple and Judy Garland.[21] Taylor herself stated that she was often called an "old soul" when she was a child, and that "apparently I used to frighten grown ups, because I was totally direct."[22] Taylor received another opportunity in October 1942, when her father's acquaintance, MGM producer Samuel Marx, arranged an audition for a minor role in Lassie Come Home (1943).[20] The part required an actress with a British accent; while Taylor had quickly learned an American accent following the move to the U.S., she could still easily switch back when necessary.[23] The audition was successful and she was given a three-month "test option" contract, which was upgraded to a standard seven-year contract in January 1943.[24] After Lassie, she appeared in minor uncredited roles in two other films set in Britain, Jane Eyre (1943) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).[24] Adolescent star (1944–1949) Taylor with co-star Mickey Rooney in National Velvet (1944), her first major film role Taylor had her first starring role aged twelve, when she was cast in National Velvet (1944) as a girl who wants to compete in the Grand National despite its ban on female jockeys.[25] She later called it "the most exciting film" of her career.[26] MGM had been looking for a suitable actress with a British accent and the ability to ride horses since 1937.[25] Taylor was cast at the recommendation of director Clarence Brown, who had previously worked with her in White Cliffs and knew she had the required skills.[25] As she was deemed too short, filming was pushed back several months to allow her to grow.[25] During this time, Taylor practiced riding daily.[25] She fractured her spine in a fall, but the injury went unnoticed for several years.[25] In developing Taylor into a leading actress, MGM made some changes to her looks. She had to wear braces to correct her teeth, and had two of her baby teeth pulled out.[25] 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.[22] According to Walker, the experience marked the beginning of Taylor's years as MGM's "chattel".[27] National Velvet became a box office success upon its release on Christmas 1944.[25] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times stated that "her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace",[28] while James Agee of The Nation wrote that she "is rapturously beautiful ... I hardly know or care whether she can act or not."[29] In January 1946, Taylor signed a new seven-year contract with MGM, with a weekly salary of $750.[30] Following the success of National Velvet, the studio decided that her public image should be constructed around her adoration of animals, and next cast her in a minor role in the third film of the Lassie series, Courage of Lassie (1946).[31] The studio also published a book of Taylor's writings about her pet chipmunk, Nibbles and Me (1946), and had paper dolls and coloring books made after her.[32] Taylor in Modern Screen in 1948 During her teenage years, the studio controlled every aspect of Taylor's life; according to Walker, she had "no freedom outside the studio gates; or even inside them."[33] Taylor followed a strict daily schedule.[33] During the day, she attended school and filmed scenes on the MGM lot, and her evenings were spent in dancing and singing classes and in practising the following day's scenes.[33] Taylor later described MGM as a "big extended factory" that "promoted [her] for their pockets".[22] She also stated that she was happier before she began her film career, and that she "had no real childhood" after becoming a star.[34] MGM began to construct a more mature image for Taylor after she turned fifteen in 1947.[35] The studio organized public appearances, interviews and photo shoots which portrayed her at parties and on dates.[36] Life called her "Hollywood's most accomplished junior actress" for her two film appearances in 1947.[37] The first was the drama Cynthia, which starred her as a frail girl who defies her overprotective parents to go to prom.[38] The second was Michael Curtiz's critically and commercially successful period film Life with Father, in which she appeared opposite William Powell and Irene Dunne.[39][40] She was loaned to Warner Bros. for the film; the studio paid her $3,500 per week, several times her regular MGM salary.[41] As Taylor developed into a young woman, film magazines and gossip columnists began comparing her to older actresses such as Ava Gardner and Lana Turner.[42] MGM next cast her in A Date with Judy (1948) as a teenage "man-stealer" who seduces her peer's date to a high school dance.[43] Her other film role that year was as a bride in Julia Misbehaves (1948), which starred Greer Garson and became a commercial success upon its release in August, grossing over $4 million.[44] Taylor's last adolescent role was as Amy March in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Women (1949). While it did not match the popularity of the previous 1933 film adaptation of Louisa M. Alcott's novel, it was a box office success.[45] Transition to adult roles (1950–1951) Taylor's transition to adult roles was relatively easy. Already in 1949, Time had featured her on its cover, and in the accompanying article called her "a jewel of great price, a true sapphire", and the leader among Hollywood's next generation of stars.[46] Her first mature role was in the thriller Conspirator (1950), in which she played a young wife, who begins to suspect that her husband, played by Robert Taylor, is a Soviet spy.[47] It was filmed in England when Taylor was still only sixteen, but its release was delayed until March 1950, as MGM did not like it, and also feared it could cause diplomatic problems.[47][48] Taylor's second film release of 1950 was the comedy The Big Hangover (1950), co-starring Van Johnson.[49] It was released in May, and the same month, Taylor married hotel-chain heir Conrad Hilton, Jr. in a highly-publicized ceremony.[50] The event was organized by MGM, and used as part of the publicity campaign for Taylor's next film, Vincente Minelli's comedy Father of the Bride (1950), in which she appeared opposite Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett as a bride preparing for her wedding.[50] The film became a commercial success upon its release in June, grossing $6 million worldwide, and was followed by a successful sequel Father's Little Dividend (1951) ten months later.[51] With Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun (1951) Taylor's next film release, George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), marked a departure from her earlier work. It was the first time since National Velvet that she received widespread critical praise for her performance,[52] and according to her, was the first film in which she had even been asked to do any real acting.[34] Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy (1925), it featured Taylor as a spoiled socialite who comes between a poor factory worker (Montgomery Clift) and his girlfriend (Shelley Winters).[53] Stevens explained that he chose Taylor as the role required someone who was "not so much a real girl as the girl on the candy-box cover, the beautiful girl in the yellow Cadillac convertible that every American boy sometime or other thinks he can marry"[54] and that Taylor was "the only one I was aware of who could create this illusion".[55] A Place in the Sun was a box office success, grossing $3 million,[56] and was lauded especially for its main actors' performances.[57] Herb Golden of Variety stated that Taylor's "the histrionics are of a quality so far beyond anything she has done previously, that Stevens’ skilled hands on the reins must be credited with a minor miracle"[58] and A.H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that she gives "a shaded, tender performance and one in which her passionate and genuine romance avoids the bathos common to young love as it sometimes comes to the screen."[59] 1952–1955 Taylor next starred in the romantic comedy Love Is Better Than Ever (1952).[60] According to Walker, she was cast in the "B-picture" as a reprimand for causing a scandal when she divorced Hilton after only nine months of marriage.[60] She was then sent to Britain to take part in the historical epic Ivanhoe (1952), one of the studio's most expensive projects in years.[61] Taylor disliked the film; she thought it superficial and her role as Rebecca the Jewish girl too small.[61] Regardless, Ivanhoe became one of MGM's biggest commercial successes, earning $11 million in worldwide rentals.[62] Taylor's last film made under her old contract was The Girl Who Had Everything (1953), a remake of the pre-code drama A Free Soul (1931).[63] After several months of negotiations, Taylor signed a new seven-year contract with MGM in the summer of 1952.[64] Although she wanted more interesting roles, the decisive factor in continuing with the studio was her financial need; she had recently married British actor Michael Wilding and was pregnant with her first child.[64] In addition to granting her a weekly salary of $4,700, MGM agreed to give the couple a loan for a house and signed Wilding for a three-year contract.[65] Due to her financial dependency, the studio now had even more control over her than previously.[65] Taylor and Van Johnson in the romantic drama The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) Taylor's first two films made under her new contract were released ten days apart in spring 1954.[66] The first was the romantic film Rhapsody, starring her as a woman caught in a love triangle with two musicians. The second was the drama Elephant Walk, in which she played a British woman struggling to adapt to life on her husband's tea plantation in Ceylon. She had been loaned to Paramount Pictures for the film after its original star, Vivien Leigh, became ill.[67] In the fall, Taylor starred in two more film releases. Beau Brummell was a Regency era period film, another project in which she was cast against her will.[68] Taylor disliked historical films, as their elaborate costumes and make-up required her to wake up earlier than usual to prepare.[68] She also thought her performance was one of the worst of her career.[68] The second film was Richard Brooks' The Last Time I Saw Paris, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story. Although she had wanted to be cast in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) instead, Taylor liked the film, and later stated that it "convinced me I wanted to be an actress instead of yawning my way through parts".[69] While it was not as profitable as many other MGM films, it garnered positive reviews.[69] Taylor became pregnant again during the production, and had to agree to add another year to her contract.[70] Critical acclaim (1956–1960) Taylor and Rock Hudson in Giant (1956) By the mid-1950s, film studios were beginning to lose revenue due to television.[71] In order to bring audiences back to the cinemas, they began concentrating on making fewer films of better quality; the change benefited Taylor, who finally began to get roles she found interesting.[71] After having her second child, she was loaned to Warner Bros. for George Stevens' Giant (1956), an epic about a Texas ranching dynasty, which co-starred Rock Hudson and James Dean.[71] The project was one of the most demanding Taylor had participated in.[71] Stevens wanted to break her will to make her easier to direct, and his provocations led to clashes between them.[71] She was also often ill, which caused delays in the production.[72] Then, days after completing his part of the filming, Dean died in a car crash.[73] Giant earned praise from the critics and became a box office success.[71] Variety stated that Taylor gave "a surprisingly clever performance"[74] and The Guardian called her one of the film's strongest assets, lauding her performance as "an astonishing revelation of unsuspected gifts".[75] MGM next reunited Taylor with Montgomery Clift in Raintree County (1957), a Civil War drama it hoped would replicate the success of Gone with the Wind (1939).[76] Taylor found her role as a mentally disturbed Southern belle fascinating, but overall disliked the film.[76][b] Although the film failed to become the type of success MGM had planned,[77] Taylor was nominated for the first time for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Promotional poster for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Taylor considered her next performance as Maggie the Cat in the Tennessee Williams adaptation Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) a career "high point", although it coincided with one of the most difficult periods in her personal life.[34] She had divorced Wilding after completing Raintree County and married producer Mike Todd. In March 1957, she had completed two weeks of filming on Cat when Todd was killed in an airplane crash.[78] Despite her loss, MGM pressurized Taylor to return to work only three weeks later.[79] She later stated that she "in a way ... became Maggie" and that acting "was the only time I could function" during that time.[34] Taylor's personal life drew further public attention when it became known that she was having an affair with singer Eddie Fisher.[80] Fisher decided to divorce his wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, and marry Taylor.[80] MGM used the scandal to promote the film by featuring Taylor in a negligée on a bed in the film's posters.[80] Although the Fisher affair made her subject to public hatred, it did not affect the film negatively: it grossed $10 million in American cinemas alone and made Taylor the year's second most profitable star.[80] She received positive reviews for her performance, with Crowther of The New York Times calling her "terrific"[81] and Variety praising her for "a well-accented, perceptive interpretation".[82] Taylor also received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. Taylor's next film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz' Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), was also an adaptation from a Tennessee Williams play. The independent production earned her $500,000 for playing the role of a severely traumatized patient in a mental institution.[80] Although the film was a serious-minded drama, it was again promoted with Taylor's sex appeal; both its trailer and poster featured her in a white swimsuit. The strategy worked, as Suddenly became a financial success.[83] It also gained Taylor a Golden Globe for Best Actress and a third Academy Award nomination.[80] By 1959, Taylor owed one more film for MGM, which it decided should be BUtterfield 8 (1960), a controversial story about a high-class prostitute.[84] The studio correctly calculated that Taylor's public image as a "homewrecker" would make it easy for audiences to associate her with the role.[84] She hated the film for the same reason, but had no choice in the matter, although the studio agreed to her demands of filming in New York and casting Eddie Fisher in a sympathetic role.[84] As predicted, BUtterfield 8 was a major commercial success, grossing $18 million in world rentals.[85] Crowther wrote that Taylor "looks like a million dollars, in mink or in negligée",[86] while Variety stated that she gives "a torrid, stinging portrayal with one or two brilliantly executed passages within".[87] She won the Academy Award for Best Actress.[85] Cleopatra and hiatus (1961–1964) Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) Taylor's first film after finishing her MGM contract was 20th Century-Fox's historical epic Cleopatra (1963), in which she played the titular role. In retrospect, she considered it a "low point" in her career;[34] it received mixed to negative reviews and although it became the biggest commercial success of 1963, its production costs were greater than its profits.[88] Nevertheless, its production made film history and dominated the headlines for nearly three years. Taylor became the first female star to be paid $1 million for a film role; Fox also granted her 10% of the film's profits and shot the film in Todd-AO, a widescreen format owned by Taylor, who had inherited its rights from Mike Todd.[89] Cleopatra also became famous for taking nearly two years to film, and for being the most expensive film made up to that point, nearly driving Fox to bankruptcy.[90] Its filming began in England in 1960, but had to be halted several times due to bad weather and Taylor's ill health.[91] In March 1961, she developed pneumonia, which proved nearly fatal and necessitated a tracheotomy to be performed.[91] Once she had recovered, Fox decided to discard the already filmed material and move the production to Rome, also changing its director to Joseph Mankiewicz and the actor playing Mark Antony to Richard Burton.[92] Taylor and Burton began an extramarital affair, which caused a scandal. Although neither had yet divorced their spouses, Taylor and Burton then starred in Anthony Asquith's The V.I.P.s (1963), which story mirrored the headlines about them.[93] Taylor played a famous model attempting to leave her husband for a lover, and Burton her estranged millionaire husband. Released soon after Cleopatra to profit from the scandal, it became a box office success. Taylor was also paid $500,000 to appear in a CBS television special, Elizabeth Taylor in London.[94] After completing The V.I.P.s, Taylor took a two-year hiatus from films, during which she and Burton were married.[95] Success with Richard Burton (1965–1967) Taylor and Burton continued starring together in films in the mid-1960s. Walker has compared these films to "illustrated gossip columns", as their film roles often mirrored their public personas.[96] They received a combined $88 million for their films over the next decade and according to Burton, "they say we generate more business activity than one of the smaller African nations".[97] Their first joint project following Taylor's hiatus was Vincente Minelli's romantic drama The Sandpiper (1965), about an illicit love affair in the bohemian Big Sur. Its reviews were largely negative, but it grossed a successful $14 million.[98] "I am just constantly surprised at how good Elizabeth and Richard are... Their flexibility and talent and cooperativeness and lovingness is overwhelming... I've had more trouble with little people you've never heard of –temper tantrums, upstaging, girls' sobbing– than with the so-called legendary Burtons. The Burtons are on time, they know their lines, and if I make suggestions, Elizabeth can keep in her mind fourteen dialogue changes, twelve floor marks, and ten pauses..." [99] —Mike Nichols on directing Taylor and Burton Their next project, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), features the most acclaimed performance of Taylor's career.[100] She and Burton starred as Martha and George, a middle-aged couple going through a marital crisis. In order to convincingly play 50-year-old Martha, Taylor gained weight, wore a wig, and used make-up to make herself look old and tired — a stark contrast to her glamorous public image.[101] It was her idea to hire Mike Nichols to direct, even though he had never before made a film.[102] The production differed from everything Taylor had done previously, as Nichols, whose previous experience was from the stage, wanted to first thoroughly rehearse before filming.[103] The film was considered groundbreaking for its adult themes and uncensored language.[104] It opened to "glorious" reviews, and became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year.[105] Taylor received her second Academy Award, a BAFTA, a National Board of Review award and a New York City Film Critics Circle Award for her performance. In 1966, Taylor and Burton also performed Doctor Faustus for a week in Oxford to benefit the Oxford University Dramatic Society; he starred and she appeared in her first stage role as Helen of Troy, a part which required no speaking.[106] Although it received generally negative reviews, Burton then produced it into a film, Doctor Faustus (1967), with the same cast.[106] It was also panned by critics and grossed only $600,000 in the box office.[107] Their next project, Franco Zeffirelli's The Taming of the Shrew (1967), which they also co-produced, was more successful.[108] It posed another challenge for Taylor, as she was the only actor in the project with no previous experience of performing Shakespeare; Zeffirelli later stated that this made her performance interesting, as she "invented the part from scratch".[109] Critics found the play to be fitting material for the couple, and it was a box office success by grossing $12 million.[110] Taylor's third film released in 1967, John Huston's Reflections in a Golden Eye, was her first without Burton since Cleopatra. It was a drama about a repressed homosexual and his unfaithful wife, and was originally slated to co-star Taylor's old friend Montgomery Clift, whose career had been in decline for several years due to his addictions.[111] Before the filming began, Clift died from a heart attack and was replaced by Marlon Brando.[112] It was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release.[113] Taylor and Burton's last film of the year was the Graham Greene adaptation The Comedians; it received mixed reviews and was a box office failure.[114] Career decline (1968–1979) By the late 1960s, Taylor's career was in decline. She had gained weight and was nearing middle age, and did not fit in with the new generation of more androgynous actresses, such as Jane Fonda and Julie Christie.[115] After several years of nearly constant media attention, the public was also tiring of her and Burton, and criticized their jet set lifestyle.[116] In 1968, Taylor starred in two films directed by Joseph Losey, Boom! and Secret Ceremony. The former was based on a Tennessee Williams play, and featured her as an aging, serial-marrying millionaire and Burton as a younger man who turns up on the Mediterranean island on which she has retired.[117] It was panned by the critics, and failed in the box office.[118] Secret Ceremony, a psychological drama in which Taylor starred opposite Mia Farrow and Robert Mitchum, had a similar fate.[119] 20th Century-Fox's The Only Game in Town (1970), in which Taylor played a Las Vegas showgirl who has an affair with a compulsive gambler, played by Warren Beatty, was another failure.[120] Taylor appeared in three films in 1972. Zee and Co. (1972), which portrayed her and Michael Caine as a troubled married couple, won her the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress. She then appeared with Burton in Under Milk Wood (1972); although her role was small, its producers decided to give her top-billing to profit from her fame.[121] Her third film role that year was playing a blonde diner waitress in Peter Ustinov's Faust parody Hammersmith Is Out (1972), her tenth collaboration with Burton. Although it was overall not successful,[122] Taylor received some good reviews, with Vincent Canby of The New York Times writing that she has "a certain vulgar, ratty charm",[123] and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stating that "the spectacle of Elizabeth Taylor growing older and more beautiful continues to amaze the population".[124] Her performance won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. Richard Burton, Lucille Ball and Taylor in Here's Lucy in 1974 Taylor and Burton's last film together was the Harlech Television film Divorce His, Divorce Hers (1973), fittingly named as they divorced the following year.[125] Her other films released in 1973 were the British thriller Night Watch (1973), and the American drama Ash Wednesday (1973).[126] For the latter, in which she starred as a woman who undergoes multiple plastic surgeries in an attempt to save her marriage, she received a Golden Globe nomination.[127] Her only film released in 1974, the Italian Muriel Spark adaptation The Driver's Seat (1974) was another failure.[128] Taylor took fewer roles after the mid-1970s and focused on supporting the career of her sixth husband, Republican politician John Warner. In 1976, she participated in the Soviet-American fantasy film The Blue Bird (1976) and had a small role in the television film Victory at Entebbe (1976), and in 1977 sang in the critically panned film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music (1977).[129] Stage and television roles; retirement (1980–2007) Taylor at an event honoring her career in 1981 Taylor had her first substantial role in several years in the mystery film The Mirror Crack'd (1980), based on an Agatha Christie novel and featuring an ensemble cast of famous actors from the studio era, such as Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis.[130] Wanting to challenge herself, Taylor then acted in her first substantial stage role, appearing as Regina Giddens in a Broadway production of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, which premiered in May 1981.[131] Instead of portraying Giddens in negative light as had often been the case in previous productions, Taylor's idea was to show her as a victim of circumstance, stating "She's a killer, but she's saying 'Sorry fellas, you put me in this position'".[132] The production had a sold-out six-month run, but received mixed reviews.[131] Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote that Taylor's performance as "Regina Giddens, that malignant Southern bitch-goddess ... begins gingerly, soon gathers steam and then explodes into a black and thunderous storm that may just knock you out of your seat",[133] while Dan Sullivan of the Los Angeles Times stated that "Taylor presents a possible Regina Giddens, as seen through the persona of Elizabeth Taylor. There's some acting in it, as well as some personal display."[134] In November 1981, Taylor also appeared as evil socialite Helena Cassadine in the daytime soap opera General Hospital, one of her favorite television shows.[135] The following spring, she continued performing The Little Foxes in London's West End, received largely negative reviews from the British press.[135] Encouraged by the success of The Little Foxes, Taylor and producer Zev Bufman founded the Elizabeth Taylor Repertory Company.[135] Its first and only project was a revival of Noël Coward's comedy Private Lives, starring Taylor and Richard Burton.[136][137] It premiered in Boston in spring 1983, and although commercially successful, received generally negative reviews, with critics noting that both were in noticeably poor health — Taylor entered a drug rehabilitation centre after the play's run ended and Burton died the following year.[136] After the failure of Private Lives, Taylor dissolved her theater company.[138] Her only other project that year was the HBO television film Between Friends.[139] Following her stage projects, Taylor took on several television roles. In 1984, she was a guest star in Hotel and in the following year played gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the television film Malice in Wonderland and a brothel keeper in the historical miniseries North and South.[140] She was awarded the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1985,[127] and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Chaplin Award in 1986.[141] Taylor played the titular role in the Western Poker Alice (1987), appeared in Franco Zeffirelli's biopic Young Toscanini (1988) and in a television version of Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), her fourth Tennessee Williams adaptation.[140] Taylor had few acting roles in the 1990s, instead focusing her time on HIV/AIDS activism. She made cameos in the television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1992), The Nanny (1993) and The Simpsons (1992, 1993).[142] Her last theatrically released film was The Flintstones (1994), in which she played Pearl Slaghoople, earning a Golden Raspberry nomination for her performance.[143] She was awarded American Film Institute's AFI Life Achievement Award in 1993,[144] and a Screen Actors Guild honorary award in 1997.[145][146] Her final roles were in the television film These Old Broads and in the animated sitcom God, the Devil and Bob, both in 2001.[143] Taylor announced in 2003 that she was retiring from acting to focus on philanthropy.[147] She gave one last public performance in 2007, when she and James Earl Jones performed the play Love Letters at an AIDS benefit at the Paramount Studios.[143] Personal life Marriages, romances, and children Taylor was married eight times to seven husbands. When asked why she married so often, she replied, "I don't know, honey. It sure beats the hell out of me,"[26] but also said that, "I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to have a love affair, you get married. I guess I'm very old-fashioned."[148] Taylor's husbands were: Conrad "Nicky" Hilton (May 6, 1950 – January 29, 1951): Taylor believed that she was in love with the young hotel heir, but also wanted to escape from her mother. Hilton's "gambling, drinking, and abusive behavior",[148][149] however, horrified her and her parents, caused a miscarriage, and ended the marriage in divorce after nine months.[26][150]Michael Wilding (February 21, 1952 – January 26, 1957): The "gentle" Wilding, 20 years older than Taylor, comforted her after she left Hilton.[148][26] After their divorce, Taylor admitted that "I gave him rather a rough time, sort of henpecked him, and probably wasn't mature enough for him."[150] Wilding and Taylor had two sons, Michael and Christopher.Mike Todd (February 2, 1957 – March 22, 1958): Taylor's next husband was even older than the previous one: born in 1909, Todd was 23 years older than Taylor and had a son who was older than her. Although this marriage lasted only a little over one year, it was the only one of Taylor's marriages to end without divorce; Todd died in a plane crash while married to Taylor. Todd and Taylor had a daughter, Elizabeth ("Liza"), born only six months after their wedding. Although their relationship was tumultuous, Taylor later called him one of the three loves of her life, along with Burton and jewelry.[151][26] Todd was Jewish, and about a year after his death, Taylor (who by then was married to another Jewish husband) converted to Judaism herself. With husband Richard Burton in The Sandpiper (1965) Eddie Fisher (May 12, 1959 – March 6, 1964): Fisher, who was also Jewish, and who had been Todd's best friend, consoled Taylor after Todd's death. They began an affair while Fisher was still married to Debbie Reynolds, causing a scandal;[26][152]:226 Reynolds eventually forgave Taylor; she even voted for her when Taylor was nominated for an Oscar for BUtterfield 8, and starred with her in These Old Broads.[153]Richard Burton (March 15, 1964 – June 26, 1974; again from October 10, 1975 – July 29, 1976): The Vatican condemned Burton and Taylor's affair, which began when both were married to others, as "erotic vagrancy".[148] The press closely followed their relationship before, during, and after their ten years of marriage, and there was great public interest in "the most famous film star in the world and the man many believed to be the finest classical actor of his generation." Taylor wanted to focus on her marriage rather than her career. She even gained weight on purpose, in an unsuccessful attempt to not receive film roles.[26] Burton once said, "You can't keep clapping a couple of sticks [of dynamite] together without expecting them to blow up"[148]. Sixteen months after being divorced, they remarried in a private ceremony in Kasane, Botswana. They separated again and had their second and final divorce in 1976.John Warner (December 4, 1976 – November 7, 1982): As with Burton, Taylor sought to be known as the wife of her husband, a Republican[154][155] United States Senator from Virginia. Unhappy with her life in Washington,[156] however, Taylor became depressed and entered the Betty Ford Center.[26]Larry Fortensky (October 6, 1991 – October 31, 1996): Taylor and Fortensky met during another stay at the Betty Ford Center and were married at the Neverland Ranch of her longtime friend, Michael Jackson[26] Taylor had many romances outside her marriages. Before marrying Hilton, she was engaged to Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis—who did not know until the relationship ended that Taylor's mother had encouraged it to build publicity for her daughter[150]—and also to the son of William D. Pawley, the United States Ambassador to Brazil.[46] Industrialist and producer Howard Hughes promised Taylor's parents that if they would encourage her to marry him, he would finance a movie studio for her; Sara Taylor agreed, but Taylor refused.[150][157] Taylor had two sons, Michael Howard (born January 6, 1953) and Christopher Edward (born February 27, 1955; her own 23rd birthday), with Michael Wilding. She had a daughter, Elizabeth Frances "Liza" (born August 6, 1957), with Michael Todd. During her marriage to Eddie Fisher, Taylor started proceedings to adopt a two-year-old girl from Germany, Maria (born August 1, 1961); the adoption process was finalized in 1964, by which time Taylor and Fisher were already divorced.[158] Richard Burton later adopted Taylor's daughters Liza and Maria.[159] Taylor became a grandmother at the age of 39. At the time of her death, she was survived by her four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.[160] Religion and identity In 1959, at age 27, after nine months of study, Taylor converted from Christian Science to Judaism,[161] taking the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel. Biographer Alexander Walker suggests that Elizabeth's conversion to Judaism at the age of 27 and her lifelong support for Israel, may have been influenced by views she heard at home. Walker notes that Cazalet campaigned for a Jewish homeland, and her mother also worked in various charities, which included sponsoring fundraisers for Zionism.[162]:14 Taylor said that her conversion was something she had long considered and was not related to her marriages. After Mike Todd's death, she said she "felt a desperate need for a formalized religion", and explained that neither Roman Catholicism nor Christian Science were able to address many of the "questions she had about life and death".[163]:175 Biographer Randy Taraborrelli notes that after she studied the philosophy of Judaism, she felt an "immediate connection to the faith."[163]:176 At the conversion ceremony, her parents were present as witnesses and supported her decision.[163]:176 Although Taylor rarely attended synagogue, she said she could feel "close to God anywhere, not just in a place designed for worship ..."[163]:176 For a period, Taylor was a follower of Kabbalah and a member of the Kabbalah Centre.[1] During an interview when she was 55, Taylor described how her inner sense of identity, when a child actress, kept her from giving in to many of the studio's demands, especially with regard to altering her appearance to fit in. She went against fads and had a good sense of her identity. "I've always been very aware of the inner me that has nothing to do with the physical me," she said. "It has to do with a connection with nature, God, your inner being—whatever you want to call it ...."[164] Impressions of career and marriage In 1964, at the age of 32, Taylor described herself as an actress: "The Elizabeth Taylor who's famous, the one on film, really has no depth or meaning to me. She's a totally superficial working thing, a commodity." She was also able to explain her acting skills as "minuscule—it's not technique. It's instinct and a certain ability to concentrate." Although most of her film roles during the previous decade portrayed her beauty and sexuality, Taylor claimed they merely exaggerated or contradicted who she was in real life, stating, "I am not a 'sex queen' or a 'sex symbol.' I don't think I want to be one ... If my husband thinks I'm sexy, that's good enough for me."[165] By then, Taylor was married for the fifth time, to Richard Burton. She expected their marriage to last due to Burton's strong relationship with their children, noting that he was the "absolute boss of the household and they respect him for that."[165] Except for her third husband, Mike Todd, who died in a plane accident, she partly blamed her young romances and divorces on her "puritanical upbringing and beliefs." She said, "At first, I guess I didn't know what was love and what was not. I always chose to think I was in love and that love was synonymous with marriage. I couldn't just have a romance; it had to be a marriage ... When I was first divorced, I was 18 and I had only been married nine months. I was very naïve and really totally crushed. It was the first divorce in my family.[165] Jewelry, fashion and perfumes Taylor had a passion for jewelry. At her death, Taylor's jewelry collection was reportedly worth $150 million[166] and has been documented in her book My Love Affair with Jewelry (2002).[167] Among her well-known pieces were the 33.19-carat (6.638 g) Krupp Diamond, which she wore daily,[148] and the 69.42-carat (13.884 g) pear-shaped Taylor-Burton Diamond; both were among many gifts from husband Richard Burton.[168] Taylor was a fashion icon during her years as an active film star. In addition to her own purchases, MGM costumers Edith Head and Helen Rose helped Taylor choose clothes that emphasized her face, chest, and waist. Taylor helped popularize Valentino and Halston's designs,[169] and in the 1980s Schering-Plough developed violet contact lenses, citing Taylor's eyes as inspiration.[170] Taylor launched the House of Taylor fragrance line at a time when celebrity perfumes by and large did not exist.[171] The first was Passion in 1988, followed by White Diamonds, which is still one of the top selling celebrity fragrances of all time.[171] She was heavily involved in the creation of her fragrances, from the scent to packaging.[171] Activism HIV/AIDS Taylor devoted consistent and generous humanitarian time, advocacy efforts, and funding to HIV and AIDS-related projects and charities, helping to raise more than $270 million for the cause. She was one of the first celebrities and public personalities to do so at a time when few acknowledged the disease, organizing and hosting the first AIDS fundraiser in 1984, to benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles.[148] Taylor was cofounder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) with Dr. Michael Gottlieb and Dr. Mathilde Krim in 1985.[149] Her longtime friend and former co-star Rock Hudson had disclosed having AIDS and died of it that year. She also founded The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) in 1991, created to provide critically needed support services for people with HIV/AIDS.[149] For example, in 2006 Taylor commissioned a 37-foot (11 m) "Care Van" equipped with examination tables and xray equipment, the New Orleans donation made by her Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and Macy's.[172][173] That year, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Taylor donated $500,000 to the NO/AIDS Task Force, a non-profit organization serving the community of those affected by HIV/AIDS in and around New Orleans. The donation was shared by Taylor in celebration of her 74th birthday and to help NO/AIDS Task Force continue their work fighting AIDS.[173][174] Taylor was honored with a special Academy Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1992 for her HIV/AIDS humanitarian work. Speaking of that work, former President Bill Clinton said at her death, "Elizabeth's legacy will live on in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of those she inspired."[175] Jewish causes After her conversion to Judaism, Taylor worked for Jewish causes throughout her life.[176] In 1959, her large-scale purchase of Israeli Bonds caused Arab boycotts of her films.[177] In 1962, she was barred from entering Egypt to complete Cleopatra; its government announcing that she would not be allowed to come to Egypt because she had adopted the Jewish faith and "supports Israeli causes". However the ban was lifted in 1964 after it was considered that the film had brought favourable publicity to Egypt.[178] In 1974 Taylor and Richard Burton considered marrying in Israel, but were unable to do so because Burton was not Jewish.[178] Taylor helped to raise money for organizations such as the Jewish National Fund; advocated for the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel and canceled a visit to the USSR because of its condemnation of Israel due to the Six-Day War, along with signing a letter protesting the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 1975.[179] She offered herself as a replacement hostage after more than 100 Israeli civilians were taken hostage in the Entebbe skyjacking in 1976.[177] After the success of the operation in which the hostages were freed, she acted with Kirk Douglas in a TV special, Victory at Entebbe, broadcast in January 1977. Of her role, she stated, "I couldn't pass up this opportunity. I have strong ties to Israel and I firmly believe in the courage and dedication of the Entebbe mission."[180] Illnesses and death Taylor's grave in the Great Mausoleum at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Taylor struggled with health problems much of her life.[181] She broke her back at the age of twelve in a fall during the filming of National Velvet, which would continue to affect her in later years. Beginning in 1951, Taylor experienced serious medical issues whenever she faced problems in her personal life.[150] She broke her back five times, had both her hips replaced, a hysterectomy, suffered from dysentery and phlebitis, punctured her esophagus, and survived a benign brain tumor operation in 1997.[148][153] At 5'4", Taylor constantly gained and lost significant amounts of weight (known as yo-yo dieting), reaching both 119 pounds and 180 pounds in the 1980s.[156] She was a heavy smoker until forced to quit following a severe bout of pneumonia in 1990.[182] Due to numerous back injuries, she was addicted to sleeping pills and painkillers for 35 years.[153] She was treated for alcoholism and prescription drug addiction at the Betty Ford Center in 1983[183] and again in 1988.[184] She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004 and in February 2011, new symptoms related to heart failure led to her being admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for treatment.[185] She remained there until her death at age 79 on March 23, 2011, surrounded by her four children.[160][186] Taylor's funeral took place the day after she died at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. It was a private Jewish ceremony presided over by Rabbi Jerome Cutler, and at Taylor's request began 15 minutes behind schedule, as according to her representative, "she even wanted to be late for her own funeral."[187] She is entombed in the Great Mausoleum.[188][189] Legacy Taylor has been called the "greatest movie star of all."[152]:2 A child-star at the age of 12, she was soon after launched into public awareness by MGM and a string of successful films, many of which are today considered "classics". Her resulting celebrity made her into a Hollywood icon, as she set the "gold standard" for Hollywood fame, and "created the model for stardom," adds Mann.[152]:3 Other observers, such as social critic Camille Paglia, describes Taylor as "the greatest actress in film history," partly as a result of the "liquid realm of emotion" she expressed on screen.[152]:4 Taylor had a major role in sparking the sexual revolution of the 1960s, as she pushed the envelope on sexuality: she was one of the first major stars to pose (mostly) nude in Playboy, and among the first to remove her clothes onscreen.[152]:5 In A Place in the Sun, filmed when she was 17, her surprising maturity shocked Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, who wrote of her precocious sexuality. Film historian Andrew Sarris describes her love scenes in the film with Montgomery Clift as "unnerving—sybaritic—like gorging on chocolate sundaes."[152]:6 In real life, she was considered "a star without airs," notes Mann. Writer Gloria Steinem likewise described her as a "movie queen with no ego ... expert at what she does, uncatty in her work relationships with other actresses".[152]:7 Mike Nichols, who directed her in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), said that of all the actors he had worked with, Taylor had the "most democratic soul." Mann adds that she treated electricians and studio crew the "same way she would a Rothschild at a charity gala."[152]:6 Director George Cukor told Taylor that she possessed "that rarest of virtues—simple kindness."[152]:7 Taylor's ex‑husband, actor Richard Burton, who co‑starred with her in eleven films, expressed great admiration for her talent as an actress. Burton said, "I think she's one of the most underrated screen actresses that ever lived, and I think she's one of the best ones who ever lived. At her finest she's incomparable."[190] Awards and honors Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Elizabeth Taylor Throughout her sixty-two year career, Elizabeth Taylor received more than 40 awards, honors, and nominations. With six Academy Award nominations, Taylor won twice for Best Actress in BUtterfield 8 in 1960, and for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. She won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in Suddenly, Last Summer in 1960. In 1997 Taylor was honored by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) with the Life Achievement Award.[191] Taylor received the French Legion of Honour in 1987,[153] and in 2000 was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).[192] She received the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1985, and in 1992 she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Academy Award for her work fighting AIDS. In 2001, she received a Presidential Citizens Medal for her humanitarian work, most notably for helping to raise more than $200 million for AIDS research and bringing international attention and resources to addressing the epidemic.[191] Taylor was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2007.[193] Additional awards include five Golden Laurel Awards, a New York City Film Critics Circle Award, a Silver Bear for Best Actress in the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, Women in Film Crystal Award, The Vanguard Award for GLAAD Media Awards, a Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, two David di Donatello Awards, Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year Award and a Marian Anderson Award. In 1994 a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.[194] Vincente Minnelli (February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, Gigi, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas.[1] He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; they were the parents of Liza Minnelli. Contents 1 Early life2 Career3 Personal life4 Death5 Selected theatre credits6 Filmography7 See also8 References9 Further reading10 External links Early life Born and baptized as Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago,[2] he was the youngest of four known sons, only two of whom survived to adulthood, born to Marie Émilie Odile Lebeau (stage name: Mina Gennell) and Vincent Charles Minnelli. His father was musical conductor of Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. His Chicago-born mother was of French Canadian descent with a strong probability of Native American (Anishinaabe) lineage included via her Mackinac Island, Michigan born mother.[3] The family toured small towns primarily in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois before settling permanently in Delaware, Ohio. Paternal grandfather Vincenzo Minnelli and great-uncle Domenico Minnelli, both Sicilian revolutionaries, were forced to leave Sicily after the collapse of the provisional Sicilian government that arose from the 1848 revolution against Ferdinand II and Bourbon rule. Domenico Minnelli had been Vice-Chancellor of the Gran Corte Civile in Palermo at the time he helped organize the January 12, 1848 uprising there.[4] After the Bourbon return to power Vincenzo reportedly hid in the catacombs of Palermo for 18 months before being successfully smuggled onto a New York-bound fruit steamer.[5] While traveling as a piano demonstrator for Knabe Pianos, Vincenzo met his future wife Nina Picket during a stop in Delaware, Ohio. Although there's no confirmation of Vincenzo working at Ohio Wesleyan University, he was indeed a music teacher and composer. Both the US Library of Congress and the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL have Vincenzo (aka Vincent) Minnelli compositions in their collections. Paternal grandmother Nina Picket, with whom Minnelli lived during his school days while his parents were touring their shows, descended from a line of teachers and civil servants, most notably early American educator Albert Picket. Albert Picket, reportedly once a student of Noah Webster's, conducted a girls' school in 1810s Manhattan and was an early member of the New York Historical Society. In 1811 he was an incorporator of The Society of Teachers of the City of New York. With his son John W. Picket he published an educational journal, The Academician, and a number of school books, including The Juvenile Expositor in 1816. After relocating to Cincinnati he was a founder of the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers, was a contemporary of William McGuffey (educator & author, McGuffey Readers) and Calvin and Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) and played a role in establishing the public school system in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. In his later years he retired to Delaware, Ohio and died there in 1850. Career Following his high school graduation, Minnelli moved to Chicago, where he lived briefly with his maternal grandmother and an aunt. His first job was at Marshall Field's department store as a window dresser. He later worked as a photographer for Paul Stone, who specialized in photographing actors from Chicago's theater district. His interest in the theater grew and he was greatly interested in art and immersed himself in books on the subject. Minnelli's first job in the theater was at the Chicago Theatre where he worked as a costume and set designer. Owned by Balaban and Katz, the theater chain soon merged with a bigger national chain of Paramount-Publix and Minnelli sometimes found himself assigned to work on shows in New York City. He soon left Chicago and rented a tiny Greenwich Village apartment. He was eventually employed at Radio City Music Hall shortly after its 1932 opening as a set designer and worked his way up to stage director – he was also tasked to serve as a color consultant for the original interior design of the Rainbow Room.[6] After leaving Radio City Music Hall the first play Minnelli directed was a musical revue for the Shuberts titled At Home Abroad which opened in October 1935 and starred Beatrice Lillie, Ethel Waters, and Eleanor Powell. The revue was well received and enjoyed a two-year run. Minnelli later worked on The Ziegfeld Follies of 1936, Hooray for What!, Very Warm for May, and The Show is On. Minnelli's reputation grew and he was offered a job at MGM in 1940 by producer Arthur Freed.[7] With his background in theatre, Minnelli was known as an auteur who always brought his stage experience to his films. The first movie that he directed, Cabin in the Sky (1943), was visibly influenced by the theater. Shortly after that, he directed I Dood It with Red Skelton[8] and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), during which he fell in love with the film's star, Judy Garland. They had first met on the set of Strike Up the Band (1940), a Busby Berkeley film for which Minnelli was asked to design a musical sequence performed by Garland and Mickey Rooney.[9] They began a courtship that eventually led to their marriage in June 1945. Their one child together, Liza Minnelli, grew up to become an Academy Award-winning singer and actress. The Minnelli family is thus unique in that father, mother and child all won Oscars.[10] Though widely known for directing musicals, including An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954), Kismet (1955), and Gigi (1958), he also directed comedies and melodramas, including Madame Bovary (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Designing Woman (1957) and The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963). His last film was A Matter of Time (1976). During the course of his career he directed seven different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Spencer Tracy, Gloria Grahame, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Arthur Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine and Martha Hyer. Grahame and Quinn won Oscars for their performances in one of Minnelli's movies. He received an Oscar nomination as Best Director for An American in Paris (1951) and later won the Best Director Oscar for Gigi (1958). According to Peter Bart in his book The Gross, Minnelli is among the most successful film directors of all time and unquestionably the most successful director in the 1940s and 50s, his films having 11 first-place finishes on Variety’s opening release box office rankings.[11] He was awarded France's highest civilian honor, the Commander Nationale of the Legion of Honor, only weeks before his death in 1986. Minnelli's critical reputation has known a certain amount of fluctuation, being admired (or dismissed) in America as a "pure stylist" who, in Andrew Sarris' words, "believes more in beauty than in art."[12] Alan Jay Lerner (of Lerner and Lowe fame) described Minnelli as, "the greatest director of motion picture musicals the screen has ever seen."[13] His work reached a height of critical attention during the late 1950s and early 1960s in France with extensive studies in the Cahiers du Cinéma magazine, especially in the articles by Jean Douchet and Jean Domarchi, who saw in him a cinematic visionary obsessed with beauty and harmony, and an artist who could give substance to the world of dreams. Minnelli served as a juror at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. The MGM compilation film That's Entertainment! showed clips from many of his films. Personal life Minnelli's marriages ran as follows: Judy Garland (June 15, 1945 – March 29, 1951), the marriage ended in divorce – one child, Liza May Minnelli (born 1946)Georgette Magnani (February 1, 1954 – January 1, 1958), the marriage ended in divorce – one child, Christiane Nina Minnelli (born 1955)Danica "Denise" Radosavljevic (January 15, 1962 – August 1, 1971), the marriage ended in divorceMargaretta Lee Anderson (April 1, 1980 – July 25, 1986),[citation needed] his fourth and final marriage; they remained married for six years until Minnelli's death in 1986. Anderson died in 2009 at the age of 100. For years, there was speculation in the entertainment community that Minnelli was gay or bisexual.[14][15][16] A biography by Emanuel Levy, Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer, claims evidence that Minnelli did, in fact, live as an openly gay man in New York prior to his arrival in Hollywood, where the town that made him a film legend also pressured him back into the closet.[17] According to Levy: "He was openly gay in New York – we were able to document names of companions and stories from Dorothy Parker. But when he came to Hollywood, I think he made the decision to repress that part of himself or to become bisexual."[18][19] Lester Gaba, a retail display designer who knew Minnelli in New York, was reported to have frequently claimed having an affair with Minnelli, although the same person who related Gaba's claim also admitted that Gaba "was known to embroider quite a bit."[20] Death Minnelli died July 25, 1986, aged 83, of emphysema and pneumonia, which had caused him to be repeatedly hospitalized in his final year.[21] He reportedly also suffered from Alzheimer's disease.[22][23] He was survived by his two daughters, two grandchildren, and his fourth wife, Lee (1909–2009). He was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Selected theatre credits At Home Abroad (1935) (director, set designer)The Show Is On (1936) (director, set designer)Hooray for What! (1937) (director, set designer) Filmography Panama Hattie (1942) (uncredited)Cabin in the Sky (1943)I Dood It (1943)Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)The Clock (1945)Yolanda and the Thief (1945)Ziegfeld Follies (1945)Undercurrent (1946)Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) (Judy Garland segments)The Pirate (1948)Madame Bovary (1949)Father of the Bride (1950)Father's Little Dividend (1951)An American in Paris (1951)Lovely to Look At (1952) (fashion show sequences)The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)The Story of Three Loves (1953) (segment "Madamoiselle")The Band Wagon (1953)The Long, Long Trailer (1954)Brigadoon (1954)The Cobweb (1955)Kismet (1955)Lust for Life (1956)Tea and Sympathy (1956)Designing Woman (1957)The Seventh Sin (1957) (uncredited)Gigi (1958)The Reluctant Debutante (1958)Some Came Running (1958)Home from the Hill (1960)Bells Are Ringing (1960)Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)Goodbye Charlie (1964)The Sandpiper (1965)On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)A Matter of Time (1976) Eva Marie Saint /ˌiːvə məˌriː ˈseɪnt/ (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress and producer. She is known for starring in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959). She received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for A Hatful of Rain (1957) and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990). Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County (1957), Exodus (1960), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1965), Grand Prix (1966), Nothing in Common (1986), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), Superman Returns (2006) and Winter's Tale (2014). Contents 1 Early life and education2 Career 2.1 Early television career2.2 On the Waterfront2.3 North by Northwest2.4 Mid-career2.5 Later career3 Personal life4 Filmography 4.1 Film4.2 Television5 Awards and nominations6 See also7 References8 External links Early life and education Saint was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Eva Marie (née Rice) and John Merle Saint.[1] She attended Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar, New York, near Albany, graduating in 1942. (She was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 2006.) She studied acting at Bowling Green State University and joined Delta Gamma Sorority. A theater on Bowling Green's campus is named after her. She was an active member in the theater honorary fraternity, Theta Alpha Phi, and served as Secretary of the Bowling Green Student Government in 1944.[2] Career Early television career Saint's introduction to television began as an NBC page.[3] She appeared in the very early live NBC TV show Campus Hoopla in 1946–47. Her performances on this program are recorded on rare kinescope, and audio recordings of these telecasts are preserved in the Library of Congress. She also appeared in the Bonnie Maid's Versa-Tile Varieties on NBC in 1949 as one of the original singing "Bonnie Maids" used in the live commercials. She appeared in a 1947 Life Magazine special about television, and also in a 1949 feature Life article about her as a struggling actress earning minimum amounts from early TV while trying to make ends meet in New York City. In the late 1940s, Saint continued to make her living by extensive work in radio and television. In 1953 she won the Drama Critics Award for her Broadway stage role in the Horton Foote play, The Trip to Bountiful (1953), in which she co-starred with such formidable actors as Lillian Gish and Jo Van Fleet. In 1955, Saint was nominated for her first Emmy for "Best Actress In A Single Performance" on The Philco Television Playhouse, for playing the young mistress of middle-aged E. G. Marshall in Middle of the Night by Paddy Chayefsky. She won another Emmy nomination for the 1955 television musical version of Our Town, adapted from the Thornton Wilder play of the same name. Co-stars were Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra. Her success and acclaim in TV productions were of such a high level that the young Saint earned the nickname "the Helen Hayes of television." On the Waterfront Saint and Brando in On the Waterfront Saint made her feature film debut in On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando and directed by Elia Kazan - a performance for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance as Edie Doyle (whose brother's death sets the film's drama in motion), which she won over such leading contenders as Claire Trevor, Nina Foch, Katy Jurado, and Jan Sterling, also earned her a British Academy of Film and Television Award nomination for "Most Promising Newcomer." In his New York Times review, film critic A. H. Weiler wrote: "In casting Eva Marie Saint - a newcomer to movies from TV and Broadway - Mr. Kazan has come up with a pretty and blond artisan who does not have to depend on these attributes. Her parochial school training is no bar to love with the proper stranger. Amid scenes of carnage, she gives tenderness and sensitivity to genuine romance."[4] with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain (1957) In a 2000 interview in Premiere magazine, Saint recalled making the film, which has been highly influential: “ [Elia] Kazan put me in a room with Marlon Brando. He said 'Brando is the boyfriend of your sister. You're not used to being with a young man. Don't let him in the door under any circumstances'. I don't know what he told Marlon; you'll have to ask him - good luck! [Brando] came in and started teasing me. He put me off balance. And I remained off balance for the whole shoot. ” The film was a major success and launched Saint's movie career. She starred with Don Murray in A Hatful of Rain (1957), the pioneering drug-addiction drama, for which she received a nomination for the "Best Foreign Actress" award from the British Academy of Film and Television. She also starred in the lavish Civil War epic Raintree County (also 1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. North by Northwest in North by Northwest, 1959 Director Alfred Hitchcock surprised many by choosing Saint over dozens of other candidates for the femme fatale role in what was to become a suspense classic North by Northwest (1959) with Cary Grant and James Mason. Written by Ernest Lehman, the film updated and expanded upon the director's early "wrong man" spy adventures of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, including The 39 Steps, Young and Innocent, and Saboteur. North by Northwest became a box-office hit and an influence on spy films for decades. The film ranks number forty on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time. At the time of the film's production, much publicity was gained by Hitchcock's decision to cut Saint's waist-length blonde hair for the first time in her career. Hitchcock explained at the time, "Short hair gives Eva a more exotic look, in keeping with her role of the glamorous woman of my story. I wanted her dressed like a kept woman - smart, simple, subtle and quiet. In other words, anything but the bangles and beads type."[citation needed] The director also worked with Saint to make her voice lower and huskier, and personally chose costumes for her during a shopping trip to Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. The change in Saint's screen persona, coupled with her adroit performance as a seductive woman of mystery who keeps Cary Grant (and the audience) off balance, was widely heralded. In his New York Times review of August 7, 1959, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "In casting Eva Marie Saint as [Cary Grant's] romantic vis-a-vis, Mr. Hitchcock has plumbed some talents not shown by the actress heretofore. Although she is seemingly a hard, designing type, she also emerges both the sweet heroine and a glamorous charmer."[5] In 2000, recalling her experience making the picture with Cary Grant and Hitchcock, Saint said: "[Grant] would say, 'See, Eva Marie, you don't have to cry in a movie to have a good time. Just kick up your heels and have fun.' Hitchcock said, 'I don't want you to do a sink-to-sink movie again, ever. You've done these black-and-white movies like On the Waterfront. It's drab in that tenement house. Women go to the movies, and they've just left the sink at home. They don't want to see you at the sink.' I said, 'I can't promise you that, Hitch, because I love those dramas.'"[citation needed] Mid-career Although North by Northwest might have propelled her to the top ranks of stardom, Saint chose to limit her film work in order to spend time with her husband since 1951, director Jeffrey Hayden, and their two children. In the 1960s, Saint continued to distinguish herself in both high-profile and offbeat pictures. She co-starred again with Paul Newman in Exodus (1960), a historical drama about the founding of the state of Israel adapted from the novel of the same name by Leon Uris. It was directed by Otto Preminger. She also co-starred with Warren Beatty, Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury as a tragic beauty in the drama All Fall Down (1962). Based upon a novel by James Leo Herlihy and a screenplay by William Inge, the film was directed by John Frankenheimer. She appeared with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the melodrama The Sandpiper for Vincente Minnelli, and with James Garner in the World War II thriller 36 Hours (1965), directed by George Seaton. Saint joined an all-star cast in the comedic satire, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, directed by Norman Jewison, and the international racing drama, Grand Prix (1966) directed by Frankenheimer and presented in Cinerama. Saint received some of her best reviews for her performance in Loving (1970), co-starring as the wife of George Segal. The movie was about a commercial artist's relationship with his wife and other women; it was critically acclaimed but did not have wide viewership. Because of the mostly second-rate film roles that came her way in the 1970s, Saint returned to television and the stage in the 1980s. She appeared in a number of made-for-television films; she played the mother of Cybill Shepherd on the television series, Moonlighting, which lasted three years. She received an Emmy nomination for the 1977 miniseries, How The West Was Won, and a 1978 Emmy nomination for Taxi!!! She was reunited with On the Waterfront co-star Karl Malden in the television film Fatal Vision, this time as the wife of his character, as he investigated the murder of his daughter and granddaughters. Later career Saint returned to the big screen for the first time in over a decade in Nothing in Common (1986), in which she played the mother of Tom Hanks' character; it was directed by Garry Marshall. Critics applauded her return to features. Saint was soon back on the small screen in numerous projects. After receiving five nominations, Saint won her first Emmy Award for the 1990 miniseries People Like Us. She appeared in a number of television productions in the 1990s and was cast as the mother of radio producer, Roz Doyle, in a 1999 episode of the comedy series Frasier. In 2000, she returned to feature films in I Dreamed of Africa, with Kim Basinger. In 2005 she co-starred with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard in Don't Come Knocking. Also in 2005, she appeared in the family film, Because of Winn-Dixie, co-starring AnnaSophia Robb, Jeff Daniels and Cicely Tyson. In 2006, Saint appeared in Superman Returns, as Martha Kent, the adoptive mother of Superman, alongside Brandon Routh and a computer-generated performance from her On the Waterfront co-star Marlon Brando. She was presented one of the Golden Boot Awards in 2007 for her contributions to western cinema. Saint has appeared in a number of television specials and documentaries, particularly since 2000. These included The Making of North by Northwest, which she narrated and hosted. In 2009, she made a rare public appearance at the 81st Academy Awards ceremony as a Best Supporting Actress presenter. In 2011, Saint participated in two screenings of North by Northwest with Robert Osborne. The films were shown in Seattle and Cleveland. Saint and Osborne participated in meet-and-greet sessions as well as a pre-movie question and answer session.[citation needed] Saint has lent her voice to the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series The Legend of Korra, a sequel to the hit TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing the now-elderly Katara, a main character from the original series. In September 2012, she was cast as the adult version of Willa in the film adaptation of the novel Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin.[6] The film was released on Valentine's Day 2014. She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures at 6624 Hollywood Boulevard, and one for television at 6730 Hollywood Boulevard. Personal life This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. (April 2011) Saint has been married to producer/director Jeffrey Hayden since October 28, 1951. They have two children, Darrell (born April 1, 1955) and Laurette (born July 19, 1958).[7] She is a registered Democrat.[8] Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1954 On the Waterfront Edie Doyle 1956 That Certain Feeling Dunreath Henry 1957 A Hatful of Rain Celia Pope 1957 Raintree County Nell Gaither 1959 North by Northwest Eve Kendall 1960 Exodus Kitty Fremont 1962 All Fall Down Echo O'Brien 1965 36 Hours Anna Hedler 1965 The Sandpiper Claire Hewitt 1966 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming Elspeth Whittaker 1966 Grand Prix Louise Frederickson 1968 The Stalking Moon Sarah Carver 1970 Loving Selma Wilson 1972 Cancel My Reservation Sheila Bartlett 1986 Nothing in Common Lorraine Basner 1997 Time to Say Goodbye? Ruth Klooster 2000 I Dreamed of Africa Franca 2005 Don't Come Knocking Howard's mother 2005 Because of Winn-Dixie Miss Franny 2006 Superman Returns Martha Kent 2014 Winter's Tale Adult Willa Television Year Title Role Notes 1946 Campus Hoopla Commercial spokeswoman TV series 1947 A Christmas Carol N/A TV film 1949 Suspense Francie Episode: "The Comic Strip Murder" 1949 Studio One Edna Baker Episode: "June Moon" 1950-1952 One Man's Family Claudia Barbour Roberts TV series 1950 Prudential Family Playhouse Edith Cortwright Episodes: "Dodsworth", "Three Men on a Horse" 1953 The Trip to Bountiful Thelma TV film 1953 The Plymouth Playhouse Cousin Liz Episode: "Jamie" 1953 Martin Kane, Private Eye Sheila Dixon Episode: "Trip to Bermuda" 1953 Goodyear Television Playhouse Frances Barclay Episode: "Wish on the Moon" 1954 Ponds Theater Tina Episode: "The Old Maid" 1954 The Philco Television Playhouse Dorie Wilson / Betty Episodes: "The Joker", "Middle of the Night" 1954 G.E. True Theater Maudle Applegate Episode: "The Rider on the Pale Horse" 1955 Producers' Showcase Miss Blake / Emily Webb Episodes: "Yellow Jack", "Our Town" 1964 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Diane Wescott Episode: "Her School for Bachelors" 1964 A Carol for Another Christmas WAVE Lt. Gibson TV film 1976 The Macahans Kate Macahan TV film 1977 How the West Was Won Katherine "Kate" Macahan TV miniseries 1978 A Christmas to Remember Emma Larson TV film 1979 When Hell Was in Session Jane Denton TV film 1980 The Curse of King Tut's Tomb Sarah Morrissey TV film 1981 The Best Little Girl in the World Joanne Powell TV film 1981 Splendor in the Grass Mrs. Loomis TV film 1983 Malibu Mary Wharton TV film 1983 Jane Doe Dr. Addie Coleman TV film 1983 The Love Boat Aunt Helena Georgelos 2 episodes 1984 Fatal Vision Mildred Kassab TV film 1986 The Last Days of Patton Beatrice Ayer Patton TV film 1986 A Year in the Life Ruth Gardner TV miniseries 1987 Breaking Home Ties Emma TV film 1986-1988 Moonlighting Virginia Hayes Recurring role (6 episodes) 1988 I'll Be Home for Christmas Martha Bundy TV film 1990 Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair Marilyn Klinghoffer TV film 1990 People Like Us Lil Van Degan Altemus TV film 1991 Danielle Steel's 'Palomino' Caroline Lord TV film 1993 Kiss of a Killer Mrs. Wilson TV film 1995 My Antonia Emmaline Burden TV film 1996 After Jimmy Liz TV film 1996 Titanic Hazel Foley TV film 1999 Frasier Joanna Doyle Episode: "Our Parents, Ourselves" 2000 Papa's Angels Dori "Grammy" Jenkins TV film 2003 Open House Veronica Reynolds TV film 2012-2014 The Legend of Korra Katara (voice) Recurring role (6 episodes) Awards and nominations Year Group Award Film or series Result 1955 Academy Award Best Actress in a Supporting Role On the Waterfront Won 1955 BAFTA Award Most Promising Newcomer to Film On the Waterfront Nominated 1955 Emmy Award Best Actress in a Single Performance The Philco Television Playhouse (Episode: "Middle of the Night") Nominated 1956 Emmy Award Best Actress - Single Performance Producers' Showcase (Episode: "Our Town") Nominated 1958 BAFTA Award Best Foreign Actress Hatful of Rain Nominated 1958 Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama A Hatful of Rain Nominated 1958 Laurel Awards Top Female Dramatic Performance A Hatful of Rain 3rd Place 1977 Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series How the West Was Won Nominated 1978 Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special Taxi!!! Nominated 1990 Emmy Award Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special People Like Us Won 1999 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award - Won 2000 Savannah Film and Video Festival Lifetime Achievement Award - Won 2004 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival King Vidor Memorial Award - Won 2007 Golden Boot Awards - - Won 2012 2nd Annual BTVA Voice Acting Awards [9] Best Female Vocal Performance in a Television Series in a Guest Role The Legend of Korra (Episodes: "Welcome to Republic City"; "Endgame") Won Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American film and television actor. He starred in films such as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the Death Wish series. He was often cast in the role of a police officer, gunfighter, or vigilante in revenge-oriented plot lines. He had long collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson. In 1965, he was featured as Major Wolenski in Battle of the Bulge. Contents 1 Early life and World War II service2 Acting career 2.1 Early roles, 1951–19592.2 Success, 1960–19682.3 European roles and rise with United Artists, 1968–19732.4 Death Wish series and departure from UA, 1974–19802.5 Cannon Films era and final roles, 1981–19943 Personal life 3.1 Death4 Filmography 4.1 Actor5 See also6 References7 External links Early life and World War II service Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky in Ehrenfeld in Cambria County in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was the 11th of 15 children born to a Lithuanian[4][5] immigrant father and a Lithuanian-American mother.[6][7][8][9] His father, Walter Bunchinski (who later adjusted his surname to Buchinsky to sound more "American"[4][10][11]), was an ethnic Lipka Tatar, and hailed from the town of Druskininkai. Bronson's mother, Mary (née Valinsky), whose parents were from Lithuania, was born in the coal mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. He learned to speak English when he was a teenager; before that he spoke Lithuanian and Russian.[12][13] Bronson was the first member of his family to graduate from high school.[4] When Bronson was 10 years old, his father died. Young Charles went to work in the coal mines, first in the mining office and then in the mine.[4] He earned one dollar for each ton of coal that he mined.[citation needed][dubious – discuss] He worked in the mine until he entered military service during World War II.[4] His family was so poor that, at one time, he reportedly had to wear his sister's dress to school because of his lack of clothing.[14][15] In 1943, Bronson enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces and served in the 760th Flexible Gunnery Training Squadron, and in 1945 as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress aerial gunner with the Guam-based 61st Bombardment Squadron[16] within the 39th Bombardment Group, which conducted combat missions against the Japanese home islands.[17] Bronson flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for wounds received in battle.[18] Acting career Early roles, 1951–1959 After the end of World War II, Bronson worked at many odd jobs until joining a theatrical group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He later shared an apartment in New York City with Jack Klugman while both were aspiring to play on the stage. In 1950, he married and moved to Hollywood, where he enrolled in acting classes and began to find small roles. Bronson's first film role — an uncredited one — was as a sailor in You're in the Navy Now in 1951. Other early screen appearances were in Pat and Mike, Miss Sadie Thompson and House of Wax (as Vincent Price's mute henchman Igor). In 1952, Bronson boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers' show Knockout. He appeared on an episode of The Red Skelton Show as a boxer in a skit with Skelton playing "Cauliflower McPugg". He also had a part credited as Charles Buchinsky in a western named "Riding Shotgun", starring Randolph Scott. In 1954, Bronson made a strong impact in Drum Beat as a murderous Modoc warrior, Captain Jack, who relishes wearing the tunics of soldiers he has killed. In 1954, during the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) proceedings, he changed his surname from Buchinsky to Bronson at the suggestion of his agent, who feared that an Eastern European surname might damage his career.[19] He reportedly took his inspiration from the Bronson Gate at the studios of Paramount Pictures, situated on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Bronson Street. He made several appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s, including a 1952 segment, with fellow guest star Lee Marvin, of Biff Baker, U.S.A., an espionage series on CBS starring Alan Hale, Jr. and played a killer named Crego in Gunsmoke (1956). Bronson had the lead role of the episode "The Apache Kid" of the syndicated crime drama Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield; Bronson was subsequently cast twice in 1959 after the series was renamed U.S. Marshal. He guest-starred in the short-lived CBS situation comedy, Hey, Jeannie! and in three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: And So Died Riabouchinska (1956), There Was an Old Woman (1956), and The Woman Who Wanted to Live (1962). In 1957, Bronson was cast in the Western series Colt .45 as an outlaw named Danny Arnold in the episode "Young Gun".[20] He also scored the lead in his own ABC's detective series Man with a Camera (from 1958 to 1960), in which he portrayed Mike Kovac, a former combat photographer freelancing in New York City.[21] In 1959, he played Steve Ogrodowski, a naval intelligence officer, in two episodes of the CBS military sitcom/drama, Hennesey, starring Jackie Cooper. Bronson starred alongside Elizabeth Montgomery in The Twilight Zone episode "Two" (1961). He appeared in five episodes of Richard Boone's Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963). In 1958, he was cast in his first lead film role in Roger Corman's Machine-Gun Kelly, followed by the lead role in the WWII film When Hell Broke Loose later the same year. Success, 1960–1968 Publicity Photo, 1961 Bronson was cast in the 1960 episode "Zigzag" of Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin.[22] That same year, he was cast as "Dutch Malkin" in the 1960 episode "The Generous Politician" of The Islanders. In 1960, he garnered attention in John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven, in which he was cast as one of seven gunfighters taking up the cause of the defenseless. During filming, Bronson was a loner who kept to himself, according to Eli Wallach.[23] He received $50,000 for this role.[24] This role made him a favorite actor of many in the since disbanded Soviet Union, such as Vladimir Vysotsky.[25][26] Two years later, Sturges cast him for another Hollywood production, The Great Escape, as claustrophobic Polish prisoner of war Flight Lieutenant Danny Velinski, nicknamed "The Tunnel King" (coincidentally, Bronson was really claustrophobic because of his childhood work in a mine). In 1961, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for his supporting role in an episode entitled "Memory in White" of CBS's General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald Reagan. In 1962, he played alongside Elvis Presley as his loyal trainer, Lew Nyack, in Kid Galahad. In 1963, Bronson co-starred in the NBC Western series Empire. In the 1963–1964 television season he portrayed Linc, the stubborn wagonmaster in the ABC western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters. In the 1965–1966 season, he guest-starred in an episode of The Legend of Jesse James. In 1965, Bronson was cast as a demolitions expert in an episode of ABC's Combat!. Thereafter, in The Dirty Dozen (1967), he played an Army death row convict conscripted into a suicide mission. In 1967, he guest starred as Ralph Schuyler, an undercover government agent in the episode "The One That Got Away" on ABC's The Fugitive.[citation needed] European roles and rise with United Artists, 1968–1973 Bronson made a serious name for himself in European films. In 1968, he starred as Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. The director, Sergio Leone, once called him "the greatest actor I ever worked with",[27] and had wanted to cast Bronson for the lead in 1964's A Fistful of Dollars. Bronson turned him down and the role launched Clint Eastwood to film stardom. In 1970, Bronson starred in the French film Rider on the Rain, which won a Hollywood Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The following year, this overseas fame earned him a special Golden Globe Henrietta Award for "World Film Favorite - Male" together with Sean Connery. In 1972 he began a string of successful action films for United Artists, beginning with Chato's Land, although he had done several films for UA before this in the 1960s (The Magnificent Seven, etc.). One film UA brought into the domestic mainstream was Città violenta, an Italian-made film originally released overseas in 1970.[citation needed] Death Wish series and departure from UA, 1974–1980 Bronson as Dan Shomron in Raid on Entebbe (1977) Bronson's most famous role came when he was age 52, in Death Wish (Paramount, 1974), the most popular film of his long association with director Michael Winner. He played Paul Kersey, a successful New York architect who turns into a crime-fighting vigilante after his wife is murdered and his daughter sexually assaulted. This successful movie spawned various sequels over the next two decades, all starring Bronson. In 1974, he had the title role in the Elmore Leonard film adaptation Mr. Majestyk, as an army veteran and farmer who battles local gangsters. For Walter Hill's Hard Times (1975), he starred as a Depression-era street fighter making his living in illegal bare-knuckled matches in Louisiana. He earned good reviews. Bronson reached his pinnacle in box-office drawing power in 1975, when he was ranked 4th, behind only Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Al Pacino.[28] His stint at UA came to an end in 1977 with The White Buffalo. Cannon Films era and final roles, 1981–1994 He was considered for the role of Snake Plissken in Escape from New York (1981), but director John Carpenter thought he was too tough looking and too old for the part, and decided to cast Kurt Russell instead. In the years between 1976 and 1994, Bronson commanded high salaries to star in numerous films made by smaller production companies, most notably Cannon Films, for whom some of his last films were made. Many of them were directed by J. Lee Thompson, a collaborative relationship that Bronson enjoyed and actively pursued, reportedly because Thompson worked quickly and efficiently. Thompson's ultra-violent films such as The Evil That Men Do (TriStar Pictures, 1984) and 10 to Midnight (1983) were blasted by critics, but provided Bronson with well-paid work throughout the 1980s. Bronson's last starring role in a theatrically released film was 1994's Death Wish V: The Face of Death.[citation needed] Personal life Bronson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame At the 1987 Cannes Film Festival His first marriage was to Harriet Tendler, whom he met when both were fledgling actors in Philadelphia. They had two children before divorcing in 1965. She wrote in her memoir that she "was an 18-year-old virgin when she met the 26-year-old Charlie Buchinsky at a Philadelphia acting school in 1947. Two years later, with the grudging consent of her father, a successful, Jewish dairy farmer, she wed the Catholic Lithuanian and former coal miner; supporting them both while Charlie pursued their acting dream. On their first date, he had four cents in his pocket — and went on, now as Charles Bronson, to become one of the highest paid actors in the country."[citation needed] Bronson was then married again to British actress Jill Ireland from October 5, 1968,[29] until her death in 1990. He had met her in 1962, when she was married to Scottish actor David McCallum. At the time, Bronson (who shared the screen with McCallum in The Great Escape) reportedly told him, "I'm going to marry your wife". The Bronsons lived in a grand Bel Air mansion in Los Angeles with seven children: two by his previous marriage, three by hers (one of whom was adopted) and two of their own (another one of whom was adopted). After they married, she often played his leading lady, and they starred in fourteen films together. In order to maintain a close family, they would load up everyone and take them to wherever filming was taking place, so that they could all be together. They spent time in a colonial farmhouse on 260 acres (1.1 km2) in West Windsor, Vermont.[30] Jill Ireland raised horses and provided training for their daughter Zuleika so that she could perform at the higher levels of horse showing. The Vermont farm, "Zuleika Farm", was named for the only natural child between them. During the late 1980s through the mid-1990s Bronson regularly spent winter holidays vacationing with his family in Snowmass, Colorado.[citation needed] On May 18, 1990, aged 54, after a long battle with the disease, Jill Ireland died of breast cancer at their home in Malibu, California.[31] In December 1998, Bronson was married a third time to Kim Weeks, a former employee of Dove Audio who had helped record Ireland in the production of her audiobooks. The couple were married for five years until Bronson's death in 2003. Death Bronson's health deteriorated in later years, and he retired from acting after undergoing hip-replacement surgery in 1998. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years. Bronson died of pneumonia at age 81 on August 30, 2003 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[citation needed] He was interred at Brownsville Cemetery in West Windsor, Vermont. Filmography Actor Year Title Role Director Genre 1951 The Mob Jack - Longshoreman (uncredited) Robert Parrish Crime thriller The People Against O'Hara Angelo Korvac (uncredited) John Sturges Crime drama You're in the Navy Now Wascylewski (uncredited) Henry Hathaway War comedy 1952 Bloodhound of Broadway Phil Green, a.k.a. "Pittsburgh Philo" (uncredited) Harmon Jones Musical Battle Zone Private (uncredited) Lesley Selander War Pat and Mike Henry 'Hank' Tasling (as Charles Buchinski) George Cukor Comedy Diplomatic Courier Russian Agent (uncredited) Henry Hathaway Mystery thriller My Six Convicts Jocko (as Charles Buchinsky) Hugo Fregonese Comedy drama The Marrying Kind Eddie - Co-Worker at Plant (uncredited) George Cukor Comedy drama Red Skies of Montana Neff (uncredited) Joseph M. Newman Adventure 1953 Miss Sadie Thompson Pvt. Edwards (as Charles Buchinsky) Curtis Bernhardt Musical House of Wax Igor (as Charles Buchinsky) André de Toth Horror Off Limits Russell (uncredited) George Marshall Comedy The Clown Eddie, Dice Player (uncredited) Robert Z. Leonard Drama Torpedo Alley Submariner (uncredited) Lew Landers Drama 1954 Vera Cruz Pittsburgh Robert Aldrich Western Drum Beat Kintpuash, aka Captain Jack Delmer Daves Western Apache Hondo (as Charles Buchinsky) Robert Aldrich Western Riding Shotgun Pinto (as Charles Buchinsky) André de Toth Western Tennessee Champ Sixty Jubel aka The Biloxi Blockbuster (as Charles Buchinsky) Fred M. Wilcox B-movie drama Crime Wave Ben Hastings (as Charles Buchinsky) André de Toth Crime drama 1955 Target Zero Sgt. Vince Gaspari Harmon Jones War drama Big House, U.S.A. Benny Kelly Howard W. Koch Crime thriller 1956 Jubal Reb Haislipp Delmer Daves Western Man with a Camera Mike Kovac William A. Seiter Crime Drama 1957 Run of the Arrow Blue Buffalo Samuel Fuller Western 1958 Gang War Alan Avery Gene Fowler Jr. Drama When Hell Broke Loose Steve Boland Kenneth G. Crane War Machine-Gun Kelly Machine Gun Kelly Roger Corman Crime biography Showdown at Boot Hill Luke Welsh Gene Fowler, Jr. Western 1959 Never So Few Sgt. John Danforth John Sturges War 1960 The Magnificent Seven Bernardo O'Reilly John Sturges Western 1961 Master of the World John Strock William Witney Sci-fi A Thunder of Drums Trooper Hanna Joseph M. Newman Western 1962 X-15 Lt. Col. Lee Brandon Richard Donner Aviation drama Kid Galahad Lew Nyack Phil Karlson Musical 1963 The Great Escape Flt. Lt. Danny Velinski, "Tunnel King" John Sturges War 4 for Texas Matson Robert Aldrich Western comedy 1965 Guns of Diablo Linc Murdock Boris Sagal Western The Sandpiper Cos Erickson Vincente Minnelli Drama Battle of the Bulge Maj. Wolenski Ken Annakin War The Bull of the West Ben Justin Jerry Hopper/Paul Stanley Western 1966 This Property Is Condemned J.J. Nichols Sydney Pollack Drama The Meanest Men In The West Charles S. Dubin Harge Talbot Jr. Western 1967 The Dirty Dozen Joseph Wladislaw Robert Aldrich War 1968 Farewell, Friend Franz Propp Jean Herman Crime adventure Villa Rides Rodolfo Fierro Buzz Kulik War Once Upon a Time in the West Harmonica Sergio Leone Western 1968 Guns for San Sebastian Teclo Henri Verneuil Western 1969 Twinky (aka Lola) Scott Wardman Richard Donner Comedy romance You Can't Win 'Em All Josh Corey Peter Collinson War 1970 Rider on the Rain Col. Harry Dobbs René Clément Mystery thriller Violent City Jeff Heston Sergio Sollima Thriller 1971 Cold Sweat Joe Martin Terence Young Thriller Someone Behind the Door The Stranger Nicolas Gessner Crime drama Red Sun Link Stuart Terence Young Western 1972 The Valachi Papers Joe Valachi Terence Young Crime Chato's Land Pardon Chato Michael Winner Western The Mechanic Arthur Bishop Michael Winner Thriller 1973 The Stone Killer Lou Torrey Michael Winner Crime drama Chino Chino Valdez John Sturges, Duilio Coletti Western 1974 Mr. Majestyk Vince Majestyk Richard Fleischer Crime drama Death Wish Paul Kersey Michael Winner Crime thriller 1975 Breakheart Pass Deakin Tom Gries Western adventure Breakout Nick Colton Tom Gries Adventure drama Hard Times Chaney Walter Hill Drama 1976 From Noon Till Three Graham Frank D. Gilroy Western comedy St. Ives Raymond St Ives J. Lee Thompson Crime drama 1977 Raid on Entebbe Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron Irvin Kershner Drama The White Buffalo Wild Bill Hickok (James Otis) J. Lee Thompson Western 1978 Telefon Major Grigori Bortsov Don Siegel Spy 1979 Love and Bullets Charlie Congers Stuart Rosenberg Crime drama 1980 Borderline Jeb Maynard Jerrold Freedman Drama Caboblanco Gifford Hoyt J. Lee Thompson Drama 1981 Death Hunt Albert Johnson Peter R. Hunt Western adventure 1982 Death Wish II Paul Kersey Michael Winner Crime drama 1983 10 to Midnight Leo Kessler J. Lee Thompson Crime thriller The Evil That Men Do Holland / Bart Smith J. Lee Thompson Thriller 1985 Death Wish 3 Paul Kersey Michael Winner Crime drama 1986 Murphy's Law Jack Murphy J. Lee Thompson Thriller Act of Vengeance "Jock" Yablonski John Mackenzie Crime drama 1987 Assassination Jay Killion Peter R. Hunt Thriller Death Wish 4: The Crackdown Paul Kersey J. Lee Thompson Crime drama 1988 Messenger of Death Garret Smith J. Lee Thompson Crime thriller 1989 Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects Lieutenant Crowe J. Lee Thompson Drama 1991 The Indian Runner Mr. Roberts Sean Penn Drama Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus Francis Church Charles Jarrott Drama 1993 The Sea Wolf Capt. Wolf Larsen Michael Anderson Adventure Donato and Daughter Sgt. Mike Donato Rod Holcomb Drama 1994 Death Wish V: The Face of Death Paul Kersey Allan A. Goldstein Thriller 1995 Family of Cops Paul Fein Ted Kotcheff Thriller 1997 Family of Cops 2 Paul Fein David Greene Crime drama 1999 Family of Cops 3 Paul Fein Sheldon Larry Drama       ebay3262

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