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Taylor attracted close attention from reporters, fans

The Associated Press Published Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:39AM EDT

Elizabeth Taylor and husband, former secretary of the U.S. Navy John Warner, at the 42nd New York Film Critics Circle Awards dinner in New York, Jan. 30, 1977. (AP Photo)

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From childhood on, Liz Taylor attracted close attention from columnists, reporters, fans Here are some media comments on Elizabeth Taylor during her career.

Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, 1942:

"Elizabeth Taylor, one of the most beautiful children I've ever seen, is playing opposite Roddy McDowall in 'Lassie, Come Home.'

New York Times review of "National Velvet," 1944:

"(Director Clarence) Brown has also drawn some excellent performances from his cast, especially from little Elizabeth Taylor, who plays the role of the horse-loving girl. Her face is alive with youthful spirit, her voice has the softness of sweet song and her whole manner in this picture is one of refreshing grace."

Time magazine, 1952:

"The day after her divorce from young Conrad ('Nicky') Hilton became a legal fact, Cinemactress Elizabeth Taylor, 19, announced that she would marry British Cinemactor Michael Wilding, 39, who is waiting for his own divorce to be final. Said she: 'We are definitely engaged. We have no definite plans as to exactly when we'll be married."'

New York Times, review of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," 1958:

"She is terrific as a panting, impatient wife, wanting the love of her husband as sincerely as she wants an inheritance."

Judith Crist, "The Private Eye, the Cowboy and the Very Naked Girl: Movies From Cleo to Clyde," 1968:

"(Taylor's Cleopatra) is an entirely physical creature, no depth of emotion apparent in her kohl-laden eyes, no modulation in her voice, which too often rises to fishwife levels. Out of royal regalia, en negligee and au naturel, she gives the impression that she is really carrying on in one of Miami Beach's more exotic resorts rather than inhabiting a palace in ancient Alexandria or even a villa in Rome."

New York Times, capsule TV listing review:

"'Cleopatra' (1963) Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison. The original energy crisis. Big, not nearly as bad as everyone had hoped and Rex supplies the real current."

Pauline Kael, "For Keeps: Thirty Years at the Movies":

"(On 'X, Y & Zee,' 1972) Elizabeth Taylor has changed before our eyes from the fragile child with a woman's face to the fabled beauty to this great bawd. ... I don't suppose anyone in his right mind would call 'X, Y & Zee' a good movie. ... (But) this one has a script that enabled Elizabeth Taylor to come out. The aging beauty has discovered in herself a gutsy, unrestrained spirit that knocks two very fine performers right off the screen."

Rex Reed, "Valentines and Vitriol," 1977:

"At 43, she opens the door of her suite at the luxurious Dorchester Hotel in London looking more like a creation dreamed up by the gods on Olympus. It is impossible to imagine any living creature more beautiful. ... She manages to be what the Technicolor screen can only suggest teasingly."

Life magazine cover headlines:

Elizabeth Taylor (July 1947)
Lovely Liz Taylor in Movie "Giant" (October 1956)
Elizabeth Taylor and Daughter, Liza Todd (November 1957)
Elizabeth Taylor: An Oscar at Last (April 1961)
Exclusive: Liz Taylor Back at Work As Cleopatra (October 1961)
Blazing New Page in the Legend of Liz: Richard Burton With Elizabeth Taylor on Cleopatra Set (April 1962)
"Cleopatra": Most Talked About Movie Ever Made (April 1963)
Elizabeth Taylor Talks About Herself (December 1964)
Liz in a Shocker: Her Movie Shatters the Rules of Censorship: Elizabeth Taylor in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (June 1966)
"My nagging, scheming, seductive, honest wife": Burton Analyzes Liz (February 1967) Liz Taylor is 40! (February 1972)

Some fan magazine headlines on Elizabeth Taylor:

LIZ: The Most Exciting Girl in Hollywood
Photoplay, January 1950

Honeymoon Unlimited: Romantic Color Pictures and Stories ... Liz Taylor and Nick Hilton in New York, Paris, London, the Riviera
Photoplay, October 1950