She enjoyed a career that spanned sixty years and saw her win two Academy Awards and she remains one of the great Hollywood stars of all time.
Taylor was born in England but the family relocated to Los Angeles in 1939 and it wasn't long before the young Elizabeth was working.
There were role in There's One Born Every Minute, Lassie Come Home and Jane Eyre but it was to be National Velvet that was to make her a star at the age of twelve.
After the success of the movie MGM signed Taylor to a long term contract at the studio and she went on to star in movies such as Courage of Lassie and A Date With Judy.
The transition from child to adult actor can be a tricky one but it was something that Taylor took in her stride.
Her first success with an adult role came in 1950 when she teamed up with Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett in Father of the Bride.
And Taylor showed her potential in An American Tragedy and had the critics raving with her performance, she was only seventeen years old.
By the late fifties she was rubbing shoulder with some of the biggest names in Hollywood as she starred alongside the likes of Paul Newman and James Dean in Suddenly, Last Summer and Giant.
She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar four year sin a row for Raintree County, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly, Last Summer and Butterfield 8, finally winning for her performance in the latter.
In 1960 Taylor ended her contract with MGM and that same year she went on to become the highest paid actress.
She signed on to play Cleopatra, which was released in 1963, and it was a lavish production and one of the most expensive movies ever made.
The movie teamed her up with Richard Burton and the pair enjoyed a romance during the filming - despite both being married.
The movie may have been a critical failure but it remains one of the roles that Taylor is best remembered for.
1966 brought Taylor her second Oscar for her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as she transformed herself for the role to look twenty years older.
The movie was a huge critical success and went on to be nominated for thirteen Oscars, winning five.
After starring in Cleopatra and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Burton they would go on to appear in six other movies together including The Sandpiper and The Taming of the Shrew.
The sixties and seventies really were the height of Taylor's fame and power as an actress and as the eighties drifted into the nineties she worked less and didn't enjoy as much success.
While Taylor was a star on screen her personal life made as many headlines as she was married eight time to seven men; marrying Richard Burton twice.
Her personal life may have been as colourful as her onscreen life but Elizabeth Taylor remains one of cinemas greatest and most successful icons.
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Tagged in Elizabeth Taylor James Dean Richard Burton Paul Newman