Today In History

Elizabeth Taylor experienced her first Oscar nomination for Raintree County 1957, which was the first of 4 consecutive nominations. Taylor won Oscars for Butterfield 8 1960 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1966. Other noteworthy films included National Velvet, Father of the Bride, A Place in the Sun, Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer and Cleopatra. Elizabeth Taylor was a pioneer in the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Her love scenes with Montgomery Clift were said to be ‘unnerving – sybaritic – like gorging on chocolate sundaes’ as stated by film historian Andrew Sarris. She was one of the first major stars to pose almost nude for Playboy and among the first to go nude onscreen. Elizabeth was the first actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role in Cleopatra 1963. One of her 65 costumes included a dress made from 24-carat gold cloth. In 1963, while the highest paid American business executive earned $650,000 and JFK’s salary was $150,000, she received at least $2.4 million. She converted to Judaism in 1959. Her Jewish name is Elisheba Rachel and she was Godmother of two of Michael Jackson’s children, Paris and Prince Michael. Her philanthropic work included the Israeli War Victims Fund and the Variety Clubs International, but her greatest triumph was her work for the American Foundation for AIDS Research and her own Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation. Taylor testified before Congress to ensure Senate support for the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990, which continues to be a primary source of federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs nationwide.