The famous American film actress Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1932 in London to American parents who soon returned home. When he was nine years old, in 1941, he signed his first contract with Universal Movies. Her acting career had begun. Over the next 16 years, he played impressive roles in dozens of movies and received huge sums of money as salary.

In 1944, she played a role in Jane Eyre, as well as a small role in The White Cliffs of Dover. In 1945, his passionate performance on National Velvet earned him a new contract and a salary of $ 1,200 a month. In this way, he had become the main source of income for his family. Acknowledging her success, Life magazine featured her in a cover story on her thirteenth birthday, in 1945.

In 1946, Taylor starred in The Courage of Lassie, and in 1947 it was the Broadway hit Life with Father – as well as Cynthia, where she had her first on-screen kiss. In Cynthia, she played a very moving role and the film was a huge success. As a result, the studio now treated her “like a beautiful princess, kept behind protected walls.”

The successes continued. In 1948 he starred in the films A Date with Judy and Julia Misbehaves, while in 1949 there were the Little Women and the Conspirator. In 1950 there were two more films: The Big Hangover and The Father of the Bride, which immediately became a box office success. The same year, Taylor announced her engagement to hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, “America’s most eligible bachelor,” and they were married on May 6 of that year. She was 18 and he was 23.

Although Taylor was soon disillusioned with her marriage – after just seven months, she filed for divorce – that fact didn’t bother her at all and she continued to play leading roles. In 1951, he appeared in A Place in the Sun with Montgomery Clift, and the film was highly acclaimed by critics. After her divorce, she starred in Love Is Better Than Ever (1952), where she had a love affair with Stanley Donen, the film’s director. Soon after, Taylor starred – in London this time – in the flamboyant film Ivanhoe (1952), where she fell in love with Michael Wilding, the British movie star. Wilding was married, but after their divorce, in early 1952, he and Taylor got married. A year later, she had her first child.

In 1954, Taylor appeared in other major productions, such as Beau Brummel and Elephant Walk. But in 1955, when her second child was born, her marriage to Wilding began to deteriorate. He was out of work, and his indifference about it upset Taylor. It was in this situation that she met the famous producer and showman Mike Todd, 49, who soon proposed to her. Dazed, she separated from Wilding and then married Todd in early 1957. Shortly after marrying, she began leading a much more luxurious lifestyle. Todd drank and dined with champagne and caviar, showered her with diamonds and furs, and made available his Rolls Royce and his private plane.

But as of 1958 a bad season began for Elizabeth. On a stormy night in March 1958, Mike Todd’s plane was engulfed in fog over New Mexico and crashed to the ground, killing everyone on board. The man who had captivated Taylor was gone forever, after just one year of marriage. After hearing the terrible news, Elizabeth became hysterical: in her nightgown, she ran down the stairs to the front door, where she collapsed.

From now on, Taylor’s private life would be in shambles. Immediately after Todd’s funeral, his best friend, singer Eddie Fisher, was sent by his wife – actress Debbie Reynolds – to comfort Taylor. Soon, however, “her counseling sessions turned into something more,” says her biographer Larissa Branin. The following year, Fisher publicly admitted that he and Taylor had become lovers, and after the Fisher-Reynolds divorce, “they went about their affair openly and defiantly.”

Those circumstances inevitably led to public animosity and even death threats. Wherever Taylor and Fisher went, they were interrupted by crowds and various organizations defending decency. Even the Pope considered Taylor a “lewd and immoral adulteress”, a fact that would almost ruin her career. And although the couple married in 1959, the event had destroyed Taylor’s chances of winning an Oscar for her role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Suddenly Last Summer.

Also, Taylor was not happy in this period of his life. When she was still a newlywed, she confided that: “her marriage to Fisher was clearly a mistake, and although she had tried to keep the memory of Mike alive through Fisher,” she only had his ghost. Meanwhile, she had another reason to be dissatisfied: Fisher’s career began to deteriorate, she became increasingly restless, she spent her time drinking heavily and losing a lot of money while playing cards.

That was the situation when Taylor – while filming Cleopatra in Rome in 1962 – met the famous Welsh actor Richard Burton, playing the role of Marc Antony in the film, and a love story sparked between them. Both, however, were married. “La Scandale” soon became known around the world. And once again, Taylor “was condemned as a rampant woman, a shameless home wrecker.”

And although after divorcing their respective spouses, she and Burton married – in 1964 – their marriage marked only the beginning of a tumultuous period in Taylor’s life. A year before her marriage to Burton, she had signed a million dollar contract to star in Cleopatra, also receiving 10 percent of the film’s gross sales. As a result, he had made about $ 7 million in 1965. So when she and Burton got together, she was “living like a queen.” That lifestyle intensified after their marriage. Both actors had huge salaries and had “a fleet of Rolls Royces, a yacht adorned with original works by famous artists and, later, their own jet.”

But the couple’s lifestyle isolated them from the outside world and caused them boredom and binge drinking. At the same time, Taylor had serious health problems – “chronic back pain, sciatica, a partial hysterectomy” – that led to severe dependence on painkillers and heavy alcohol use. She soon became addicted, a situation that lasted until 1984. All of this put great pressure on her marriage, and Burton tried many times to turn things around, but to no avail.

Also in his career, Taylor was not as happy as before. Although she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1966 for her role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, critics said that role “marked the peak of her career, as none of her future roles would match her.” And when the movie X, Y and Zee was released in 1972, critics said it was his worst performance.

Later, in 1972, there was also a tragedy that destroyed Taylor and Burton’s relationship: Burton’s brother died and he started drinking heavily. Serious disputes with Taylor ensued, and eventually Burton was driven into adultery. As a result, they separated in 1973. The following year (1974) they reunited, but Burton “was still succumbing to the charms of other women.” So Taylor left, although she loved Burton very much, and their divorce followed soon after.

In 1975, Taylor remarried Burton. But since nothing had changed in Burton’s behavior in the meantime, Taylor decided to free herself forever from the problems Burton caused her: the couple received the final divorce decree in 1976.

conclusion

Taylor’s alternations of the seasons of his life reveal that happiness and money do not necessarily coincide. Although she and Burton both had huge salaries – Taylor made about $ 7 million in 1965 – they weren’t happy. The couple’s lifestyle isolated them from the outside world and caused them boredom and binge drinking. At the same time, Taylor had serious health problems that caused him a strong dependence on painkillers and excessive alcohol consumption. Then, severe disputes followed and eventually the couple broke up. Money does not necessarily mean happiness, therefore.