When did Elizabeth Taylor peak looks wise?

Liz and Richard photographed in 1970

She was always striking though

R2 She was stunning in Giant.

I think she looked best when she filmed Suddenly, Last Summer.

Age 18. Stunning. Legendary.

It's impossible to describe how ridiculously gorgeous she was in Ivanhoe. Like a porcelain doll. So precious. You wanted to protect her all the time. So delicate, so perfect, so angelic . There's nothing quite like that.

Ivanhoe

It seems like her looks fluctuated throughout her life.

White Diamonds commercial.

She peaked around 1962. Then slowly downhill, and at rock bottom in mid 70's when she weighed 300 lbs. She made a very brief comeback in her looks in 1988 when she got out or rehab, but then went downhill again and aged rapidly.

I'd love to see one of her pics Photoshopped in modern styling and makeup.

Elizabeth was covering up a lot of pain ,

R10 Is that why she wasn’t really a leading woman during the 70s?

Who was the comedienne who, when Elizabeth got heavy, joked that she always wanted to look like her & now she did?

1953 at the age of 21.

Liz peaked early. It was downhill after that.

Butterfield 8

This one is easy. 1951. A Place in the Sun.

Liz was very beautiful in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and that was 1958.

It seems like the consensus is that she peaked somewhere in the 1950s.

When she made her comeback in "The Flintstones".

R19 Just like Marlon.

They both were past their prime by the time they starred in Reflections in a Golden Eye.

She’d hit the wall by the time she did Cleopatra, so peak was probably late ‘50s.

I appreciate that Liz peaked early but didn’t die young like Marilyn. Our culture is too obsessed with youth and beauty.

I’m thinking the mike Todd years.

R10 You’re being facetious about 300 pounds, right? She was tiny, maybe 200 pounds. Tops.

Yes, Liz had a very small build, but stocky, so she always looked like she weighed more than she actually did. The weight went directly to her chest/stomach area.

Even though she never regained the insane beauty she had (I think she was stunning up through Cleopatra era, around the late 60s is when she really hit the wall), you could see the former beauty like no matter what age. Maybe it was her eyes.

I don't think she was ever an unattractive woman, but her physical peak of beauty was way higher than almost anyone will ever have. She was stunning from a child up through her twenties, at least. I'm not so sure her looks failed so much as she said, fuck it at some point, and let it ride for the rest of her life. She still figured out how to make it work to her advantage, despite the drinking, the weight gain, various husbands, and all the jokes made about her. So kudos, Liz.

Viva La Taylor

Yes, there is a bloated look that set in in the mid 60s that may have been part booze and part weight and part normal aging. And after "The Taming of the Shrew" was a modest hit in 1967, she had a long stretch of box office duds until The Mirror Crack'd (1980).

She just beams and glows in every photo with Mike Todd. Certainly it was youth, but maybe also the way he doted on her? Would she and Mike have lasted had he not died? Who do we think was the greater love of her life, Mike or Richard?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf came out in 1966. She's obviously showing bloat in that one. Whether it was because the role called for that look or it was already there... That movie isn't one I want to watch with any regularity because it's quite bleak, but she and the movie in general are excellent in the story it tells.

Her peak.

I'd trade being a fat Liz Taylor in the back of a limo with Steve Rubell on what I assume is on the way to or from Studio 54 for what I'm doing right now.

R32 yikes

She lost weight and got sober in the mid 80s in her 50s. I thought she was quite beautiful from them until her early 60s when her health problems took over. In the 50s and early 60s she was almost otherworldly beautiful and freakishly so as a child. She went through her heaviest drinking and overweight stage in the late 70s to early 80s. I saw her up close 1975ish in a NYC restaurant and she struck me as very small and unbelievably beautiful at any angle- Her eyes, that nose and mouth and her coloring. She was not all made up- and simply stunning.

She was also very much of her era.

Mid-century Hollywood, the late 40s and 50s, with ultra-feminine silhouettes, styled coiffures, and a love for curves--Taylor thrived in that environment. The 60s and 70s were not her era. She looked faintly ridiculous in hippie-boho clothes. Long hair and "natural" makeup didn't really suit her.

Elizabeth purposely gained weight for her role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe to achieve a dowdier look. In my opinion her great beauty still shined through.

She spent too much time tanning, she had perfect skin before that.

The only reason that is allegedly true is because we're supposed to see ugly as beauty. Everything is supposed to be the opposite of what we've been told, if we don't, we're referred to as brainwashed idiots. Because there were never aesthetic preferences prior to the modern printing press. While I fully underlying sentiment, go ahead and call me brainwashed. You could put Elizabeth Taylor in her prime in any time forward or back, and she would be a standout. It wasn't just about being of her time.

I'm R41 and meant that for R36. I've had my fill of deconstruction of previous thought.

And in reality, R36, I find your way of thinking absolutely outdated, and boring.

Born: Feb. 27, 1932.

Married to Dick Burton (alcoholic and smoker): 1964 through 1976, which a break betw. 1974 and 1975.

In 1964, she was only 32, but this is probably when she started going downhill, looks-wise. (She was so beautiful, though, even going "downhill," she was still gorgeous.)

I actually liked the ultra-tanned look she had in the '80s when she was hanging out with George Hamilton.

Here are some Liz / Mike Todd wedding photos.

Starting in 1954...

Through the early 60s...

Mike Todd on Liz: "Any minute this little gal spends out of bed is wasted! Totally wasted!" Liz was supposed to have been a real HELL cat between the sheets.

I think she looked best when she wasn't trying...

R41, I think I speak for everyone when I say "what?"

Love this from 1964...

She was so innocent during her first marriage to Alfalfa ...

I'm R41, and was referring to R36. The type of comment that wants to date everything, as if things have changed regarding beauty trends. It hasn't. In the photo, that poster supplied, we're supposed to believe she wouldn't be the grab the attention of most people in a room right now is absurd. She was gorgeous then, she's gorgeous now.

^ She's dead now... Not her best look

R54 I mean, for most of her life she was a stunning woman. But few are as attractive at 50 as they were at 25. And, the styles of the 50s for sure were better for her than the styles of the 80s.

I don't think anyone was saying anything that outrageous.

In my opinion she looked her best from the time she turned 15 until she turned 30.

Liz was a Fighter

I've always wished she would have filmed a movie in early 1957. I think she looked her most stunning then. The year she looked her best and the only year in her prime she didn't film a movie. What a waste and how sadly ironic. Anyone know why she didn't film a movie then?

Serving

This one is probably an acquired taste, but I love the jauntiness, the insouciance that goes well with the 60s a-go-go ethos

Those two marriages to Richard Burton would have aged her.

I love the picture of her at R60.

Love ET, but she looks cheap at R60. She looks like she’s at a county fair heading over to the corn dog stand.

The first time I met Elizabeth was the night she was on the Tonight Show during Carsons' last days.

Say what you will, but she was stunning. The only time I have ever been star struck. Like being punched in the gut.

And no, she was not sober at that time. Funny, sailors' mouth and was very kind to a nobody like me.

Love her.

R64 The notion of being "sober" is so relative in LA. She was likely off pills but still drinking. Or still drinking or off pills. In LA, when you're not taking as much as you used to to get fucked up, you're "sober."

I'd forgotten about that. fantastic interview.

thank you

"Those two marriages to Richard Burton would have aged her. "

The booze, pills and cigarettes didn't help

Extraordinarily beautiful woman who basically didn't give a fuck about being extraordinarily beautiful. Drank like a fish, smoked like a chimney, drugged like a flower child, suned herself like a reptile, ate like a pig. Did what she wanted at all times.

@r64, "Say what you will, but she was stunning. The only time I have ever been star struck"

I've met both Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda, I finally understood what it means when they say a star has "it". Until you meet someone with "it" it's hard to understand, but even as an adult Gay man those two women really knocked me out. I certainly can understand how straight men must have been blown away

I recently saw “the only game in town.” She was so fat and was dressed so unflatteringly…in striped tops an tight pink and purple knit tops…she looks like a stuffed sausage throughout. Meanwhile, Warren Beatty was at peak sexiness

ET's looks and weight started fluctuating with "Cat on A Hot Tin Roof," when her stardom and personal life started getting crazy--Mike Todd died in a plane crash two weeks into shooting, and MGM gave her three weeks off to mourn! ET had plenty of beauty moments after 1970: Ash Wednesday, The Bluebird, the '76 Oscars in her red Halston, The Little Foxes, her perfume years after Betty Ford, etc. I loved the way Elizabeth looked in "The Sandpiper." Plump, yes. But naturally gorgeous.

R48 Mike Todd was 48 and she was 24 when they married (he was literally twice her age). I am sure he was excited to get that hot young pussy! And Liz started early so older men were more her speed. She was far more mature then other women her age. I believe Todd was the love of her life.

Burton was a joke. I think that people who constantly break up and get back together again is not love, but desperation. That relationship was volatile and dysfunctional.

Who knows if she would have stayed at that peak if Todd had lived but she certainly had a series of romantic missteps after he died.

R59, what is she "serving?" Ice Cream? Pancakes?

R8, You mean she grew up and older? Wow.

R72 Liz believed she and Richard would’ve gotten back together had he lived towards the very end of her life.

KK: Do you think if Richard Burton were alive today, you'd be married to him?

ET: It was inevitable that we would be married again,but it's not up for discussion.

R75, yes. I believe that. And like I said, it was desperation. People are often drawn to things that they know are bad for them but they don't care.

I’m loling @ her final interview being with Kim Kardashian. I can’t believe they’re still relevant 11 years later ugh.

R73: Darling you *can’t* afford it if you have to ask!

People say that Mike Todd was the love of ET's life. They were married from 1957-1958. Easy to say they would have been married forever. IMO, they may well have divorced. If anything, it looks like Burton was the love of her life: married twice, together for about ten years. (Putting Burton in context of ET's 7 husbands.)

I still say that if Alfalfa hadn't been murdered him and Liz would have gone the distance

When we co-starred in National Velvet.

Taylor and Wilding made a good-looking son

R72 Literally?

R79 And that Todd-AO system of lenses is still used in tons of movies today and made Elizabeth far richer than films (until the fragrances came along).

Can you imagine if Liz had left Mike for Burton? Yikes.

I'm probably alone in this but I think she peaked in the early '50s: circa Father of the Bride and A Place in the Sun. Something about her youth and young adulthood combined for just a few years to make her absolutely breathtaking. After about 1953 she was still lovely but somehow, never again as stunning as when she was 19 or 20. Brooke Shields had a similar trajectory: beautiful childhood, exquisite young adulthood, then a fairly sharp fall starting in her mid to late twenties.

[quote] I’m loling @ her final interview being with Kim Kardashian.

R77, my reaction was more like wtf but yeah, of all the people in the world her last interview was with a Kardashian.

[quote][bold]KK:[/bold] What are your personal favorite looks, on- or offscreen?

[quote][bold]ET:[/bold] I loved the Edith Head lavender dress that I wore to the Oscars in 1970. It was designed around the Taylor-Burton diamond. Some of the Cleopatra costumes were fun—they even had real gold threads—and I wore them as evening dresses afterward! I also loved some of the great caftans that I wore in the '60s and '70s with big sunglasses and major jewelry. I love to be casual and comfortable, but I also love the easy glamour of wearing jewelry all the time.

^ such a lovely shade of lilac

She's really tanned at R87. Looks good.

R87 Oh God, that was indeed one of the most gorgeous gowns ever, EVER, on the perfect woman.

I think the love of Taylor's life was a tie between Eddie Fisher and Larry Fortensky.

With cheesecake a close third.

^ " Elizabeth Taylor's blood type is Ragu"

I remember Letterman doing a joke. "There's a new perfume on the market. Elizabeth Taylor's Passion. I'm told it smells a lot like fried chicken."

I like to take to her McDonalds to watch the numbers change.

She's the only person I know stands in front of a microwave and yells "HURRY!"

[quote]Some of the Cleopatra costumes were fun—they even had real gold threads—and I wore them as evening dresses afterward!

Does anyone know which costumes/dresses she’s referring to?

R96 I think of Joan's joke every time I, too, can't wait for something to finish microwaving.

R42, r36 isn't remotely deconstructive and I don't understand how anyone could take offense to what they said, unless someone was deliberately looking to be offended.

She looked absolutely stunning at the Oscars in 1976 in this Halston dress.

I like her in The Sandpiper too r71, I know someone said she looked a little ridiculous in the boho 60s fashions but I think she looked comfortable and more at ease than when she was in those cinched-up 50s gowns with belts to make her waist look smaller than it was.

I think she was breathtaking in A Place in the Sun but also stunning in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Giant. In Butterfield 8 you could see the zaftig potential starting. Once Cleopatra rolled around, she was on the road to looking thick and coarse. Can we blame Eddie Fisher for ruining her looks?

Looking back with an eye toward context, we must remember that the 60s were the years a fuller figure was more appreciated - tits 'n ass, and at least she had the tits....

I'm a Frau who has admired Elizabeth Taylor forever, for her beauty (those eyes!), her career, and her approach to life and love.

I tell people that I live according to the credo "WWED?" E.g., "Would Elizabeth Taylor go camping? Well, neither do I!"

I believe Mike Todd was TLOHL, and that Richard Burton in his rugged masculinity was her chasing Todd's memory.

Unfortunately most of the world met Liz Taylor when she was a pretty teenage girl and like to compare that image to a woman who died when she was almost 80 years old.

Most women don't get this type of comparison because they don't literally grow up in the public eye and proceed to have virtually every memorable moment captured on film.

I can't imagine how painful that must be to go through the process of aging with those constant comparisons being made and thrown in your face.

Liz Taylor was a beautiful woman her entire life. May she rest in peace.

When Taylor appeared as Helen of Troy in "Doctor Faustus" (1967), and Burton, in the title role, asked "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?", one critic reported that someone in the theater catcalled, "Not bloody likely!"

That is not a 60s outfit, R60. Those are hot pants she is wearing, a craze that swept the fashion world in the early 70s. My mom was a devoted reader of Photoplay magazine back then and I remember a cover story about Liz crash-dieting in order to be hot-pants ready. I am so old that I recall seeing that exact photo when it was originally published.

R107 Who could forget hot pants?

For anyone who might care to see, Taming Shrew is streaming free on Alex and Crackle now. Place Sub is on Pluto.

^ Plex

Male gaze/female gaze is bread and butter for the academics.