Two-time Academy Award winner Elizabeth Taylor was as well known for her beauty and acting skills as she was for her remarkable personal life. Her many outstanding cinematic performances, including the role of Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, above, made her a certifiable American icon.

两次荣获奥斯卡奖的伊丽莎白·泰勒以其美貌、演技和戏剧般的个人生活而被人熟知。她的许多作品，包括《热锡皮屋顶上的猫》，都让她成为当之无愧的美国的偶像。

Taylor's mother, an American actress living in London, retired from the stage when she married. Elizabeth was born in the British capital in 1932, three years after her brother Howard, standing with her in this family snapshot, above.

泰勒的母亲是一位居住在伦敦的美国女演员，结婚后便引退了。伊丽莎白1932年出生于英国首都，他的哥哥霍华德比她年长三岁。

The Taylor family moved to Los Angeles shortly after the beginning of World War II, and Elizabeth's father opened an art gallery that attracted a large number of Hollywood clientele. It wasn't long before the young beauty was noticed and invited to take a screen test. By the age of 9, Taylor had landed a role in Universal's There's One Born Every Minute.

泰勒一家在二战开始后不久就搬到了洛杉矶居住。他的父亲在那里开了一家画廊，并吸引了很多来自好莱坞的客人。没过多久，这个小美人就被邀请到好莱坞试镜。在9岁那年，她参演了环球电影公司的《每分钟都有一个人出生》。

Despite her precocious start, Universal production chief Edward Muhl was unimpressed by the young Elizabeth, and her contract was canceled after just six months. The setback was only temporary, however. In 1942 MGM picked her up and cast her opposite Roddy McDowell in Lassie Come Home.

虽然她的开始非常宝贵，但是环球电影公司总裁Edward Muhl并没有被年轻的伊丽莎白所打动。六个月后她的合约就取消了。但是这个低潮是短暂的。1942年MGM与她签约，并让她与Roddy McDowell出演《灵犬莱西》。

Taylor's strong performance in Lassie helped her land the first breakout role of her career, as Velvet Brown in the 1944 National Velvet. The role earned her the rapt attention of the media, including a visit from a LIFE photographer, above.

.泰勒在《玉女神驹》和《灵犬莱西》中的出色表演打响了她演艺事业的头一炮。玉女神驹中的角色让她受到了媒体关注。

As the passionate Maggie in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Taylor surprised critics with her maturity and earned a second Oscar nomination.

在《热锡皮屋顶上的猫》中，她的惊人演技让她获得第二次奥斯卡提名。

On her fourth trip to the Academy Awards, in 1960, Taylor took home a statuette, having won for her performance as Gloria in Butterfield Here, she is accompanied by her husband Eddie Fisher (to her left, partially obscured) as she answers questions from the press after winning the award.

1960年，她第四次参加奥斯卡颁奖典礼。这时她的丈夫Eddi Fisher陪着她回答记者问。

For her performance in the lavish 20th Century Fox production of Cleopatra, Taylor received $1 million, making her the highest-paid movie star in history at the time.

在Fox公司的《埃及艳后》一片中，她的片酬达一百万美元，让她成为那个时候历史上片酬最高的女演员。

On the set of Cleopatra, Taylor met and fell in love with the charismatic Welsh actor Richard Burton. They were each married to other people — Taylor to Fisher and Burton to Sybil Williams — but they were able to end their unions and promptly wed each other.

在《埃及艳后》中，她与威尔士演员Richard Burton一见钟情。当时双方都有家庭，但是他们都结束了各自的婚姻，走到了一起。

Taylor and Burton's stormy relationship attracted the fascination of gossip magazines and the moviegoing public. They brought their passionate love affair to the big screen nine times in nine years, starring opposite each other in films like The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedians, above.

泰勒和伯顿的暴风雨般的恋情吸引了无数的狗仔队。他们在九年里把他们的恋情九次搬上银幕。

For their roles in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Burton and Taylor for the first time in their careers dared to appear as unglamorous, disheveled and overweight characters. The gambit paid off, and Taylor was awarded her second Oscar for her performance as Martha.

在《谁害怕沃基尼娅·伍尔夫》一片中，泰勒和伯顿首次饰演外形不好看又发福的角色。他们的冒险得到了回报，泰勒第二次获得奥斯卡奖。

After the death of her close friend Rock Hudson, Taylor became deeply involved in the fight against AIDS. She helped form the American Foundation for AIDS Research and created her own organization, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. In 1986 she testified before Congress, above, on the need to find a cure for the disease.

在她的好友Rock Hudson去世后，泰勒开始参与到反艾滋病事业中去。她帮助成立了美国艾滋病基金会，并且建立了她自己的组织，伊丽莎白·泰勒艾滋病基金会。1986年她在国会前发表演说，强调找到这种疾病治疗的重要性。

In her final years, Taylor launched three perfumes and formed a jewelry company. The three scents associated with her, Passion, White Diamonds and Black Pearls, have collectively earned an estimated $200 million in sales.

在她最后的几年中，她发布了三款香水，并成立了一个珠宝公司。激情、白钻石和黑珍珠这三款香水为她赚了两亿美元。

Of the great actress, New York Times film critic Vincent Canby wrote, "More than anyone else I can think of, Elizabeth Taylor represents the complete movie phenomenon — what movies are as an art and an industry, and what they have meant to those of us who have grown up watching them in the dark."

"纽约时报的影评人Vincent Canby写道，我想不到任何其他人能像伊丽莎白·泰勒这样代表整个电影，不管是作为艺术还是作为一个行业。它对我们的意义就是我们坐在黑影原里看着他们长大。