Today we send birthday and get well greetings to one of Hollywood’s all-time most enduring and alluring stars, Elizabeth Taylor. Here are some of my favorite Taylor movies for family viewing:
1. Lassie Come Home Taylor co-stars with Roddy McDowall and cinema’s most beloved dog in this classic story.
2. National Velvet The all-time best girl and a horse movie ever stars has Taylor as Velvet Brown, who raced her horse in the Grand National with the help of Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury, and the magnificent Ann Revere as her mother.
3. Father of the Bride One of the most beautiful sights ever put on screen is Elizabeth Taylor walking down the aisle in this gentle comedy about a wedding that creates great upheaval in the family, especially for the bride’s father (Spencer Tracy).
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Mature teens and their parents will appreciate this Tennessee Williams dysfunctional family story about power, money, frustration, and ambition, also starring Paul Newman and Burl Ives.
5. The Taming of the Shrew Taylor and then-husband Richard Burton star in Shakespeare’s rowdy comedy about an angry and outspoken woman “tamed” by a high-spirited man who thinks all he wants in a wife is money but finds himself falling in love (some mature material, brief nudity).
6. Little Women Taylor plays the artistic and sometimes socially ambitious daughter Amy, the youngest of the March girls, in this version of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel.
7. Jane Eyre Taylor has a small but unforgettable part as the young Jane’s only friend in the cruel boarding school.
8. Ivanhoe Taylor’s performance as Rebecca is so winning that it makes it hard to root for Ivanhoe’s romance with Rowena.
And here’s her charming appearance on “What’s My Line?”
A Place in the Sun will always be my favorite Elizabeth Taylor
movie, she should have won the oscar for that movie over Butterfield
8. Sad you didn’t even mention the movie in your list.
Happy Birthday Miss Taylor , you were my mom’s favorite actress
and you are a true classy lady, humanitarian and a legend !
Love,
your greatest fan in Kansas …. Patrick !
ps
was talking about Elizabeth today with a friend who is
a movie buff and we both agree Elizabeth was the most
beautiful actress in film history ! ( maybe Garbo would
tie with you Miss Taylor but that’s a compliment still I hope ! )
That’s one of my favorites, too, Patrick. I loved seeing “The VIPs” on TCM this week — not a great movie but she is marvelous in it. I love her in “Father of the Bride,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Giant,” and so many more. She is the ultimate star, and, as you said, a classy lady and a humanitarian as well. Thanks so much for a great comment!
Elizabeth Taylor was indeed beautiful, though I think in terms of sheer beauty Vivien Leigh and Ingrid Bergman would give her a run for her money. My favorite Elizabeth Taylor story is the one of her saving Montgomery Clift’s life by performing an emergency tracheotomy after a car accident. She is one tough lady. She was so beautiful in “National Velvet” and “Father of the Bride,” but my favorite performance was as Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
She was amazing in “Virginia Woolf,” Alicia. I also loved her in “Taming of the Shrew,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and one of my guilty pleasures, “The VIPs.”
A Place in the Sun will always be my favorite Elizabeth Taylor
movie, she should have won the oscar for that movie over Butterfield
8. Sad you didn’t even mention the movie in your list.
Happy Birthday Miss Taylor , you were my mom’s favorite actress
and you are a true classy lady, humanitarian and a legend !
Love,
your greatest fan in Kansas …. Patrick !
ps
was talking about Elizabeth today with a friend who is
a movie buff and we both agree Elizabeth was the most
beautiful actress in film history ! ( maybe Garbo would
tie with you Miss Taylor but that’s a compliment still I hope ! )
That’s one of my favorites, too, Patrick. I loved seeing “The VIPs” on TCM this week — not a great movie but she is marvelous in it. I love her in “Father of the Bride,” “Taming of the Shrew,” “Giant,” and so many more. She is the ultimate star, and, as you said, a classy lady and a humanitarian as well. Thanks so much for a great comment!
Elizabeth Taylor was indeed beautiful, though I think in terms of sheer beauty Vivien Leigh and Ingrid Bergman would give her a run for her money. My favorite Elizabeth Taylor story is the one of her saving Montgomery Clift’s life by performing an emergency tracheotomy after a car accident. She is one tough lady. She was so beautiful in “National Velvet” and “Father of the Bride,” but my favorite performance was as Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
She was amazing in “Virginia Woolf,” Alicia. I also loved her in “Taming of the Shrew,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and one of my guilty pleasures, “The VIPs.”