  Taylor was born in London, on Feb. 27, 1932, to art dealer Francis Taylor and Sara, a former stage actress. Her unique beauty inspired her mother to put her into show business, and by age 3 Elizabeth was taking ballet lessons. Taylor wrote in her 1988 memoir “Elizabeth Takes Off”: “My life was overscheduled and overdisciplined.” She moved to the United States as a child and soon after her 10th birthday landed the lead in the 1942 film “Lassie Come Home.” She confirmed her star power in 1958 in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and cemented her reputation as among the greatest actresses of her generation playing a foul-mouthed alcoholic in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966). In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave her its humanitarian honor. Her last movie was the 1994 live action comedy “The Flintstones.” | 