Though she was a terrific actress who aspired to be more than just a pretty face, the screen legend was, in fact, one of the screen's great beauties.
The dog was the star, but Taylor and her costar Roddy McDowell enjoyed a lifelong friendship after meeting on the film Lassie Come Home.
Released in 1944, National Velvet helped make Taylor and Mickey Rooney two of America's most popular stars.
Married at 18 to hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton, the teen star ended the marriage 9 months after, allegedly due to Hilton's physical abusiveness and drinking.
Taylor starred with Spencer Tracy in 1950's Father of the Bride, which was released days after her marriage to Hilton.
As the gorgeous rich girl who falls for Montgomery Clift (after he finds out his factory worker girlfriend is pregnant) in A Place in the Sun, the actress was never better in this downbeat story of love, money and murderous impulses.
Though cut short by his death in 1958, Taylor's marriage to Mike Todd was said to be a happy one that produced daughter Liza.
Based on the Sir Walter Scott tale, the film Ivanhoewas a huge hit in 1952 and Taylor looks lovely in it.
Taylor was just a slip of a thing when she starred with Paul Newman in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
The Tinseltown princess and the Hollywood rebel teamed with Rock Hudson to make this big screen melodrama about Texas oil tycoons. It would be Dean's last film.
Taylor celebrated her first Oscar win for 1960's Butterfield 8 with her fourth husband, Eddie Fisher.
She almost died making box-office bomb Cleopatra, but Taylor survived, earned a million dollars and met husband No. 5, Richard Burton.
It's not hard to see why she was considered well cast for the role of Cleopatra.
The actress joined husband Richard Burton in a rollicking film version of Shakepeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
The storied and stormy pair celebrate Taylor's second Oscar for her role in the film version of Edward Albee's drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The bauble-loving star amassed an impressive collection of bling, including a 33.19-carat diamond ring and a 69.42 pear-shaped diamond pendant—known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond (at left)—both gifted to her by husband Richard Burton. In 2002, she penned Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry.
After her hugely successful film career cooled, the star transitioned into the role of political wife when she married Republican senator John Warner of Virginia in 1976.
At the height of General Hospital's early 1980s popularity, the soap scored a major coup when it got Taylor to appear as Helena Cassidine.
Years after they'd divorced for the last time, the two reteamed onstage in 1983 for a version of Noel Coward's Private Lives.
The actress' weight went up in her later years, which made her a figure of fun to Saturday Night Live and late night comics.
Seeing how both grew up in the public eye, it's not surprising Taylor and Michael Jackson became best buds in the 1980s—a friendship that lasted until the King of Pop's own passing in 2009.
Taylor met her eighth and final husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, at the Betty Ford Clinic and married him in 1991 at Michael Jackson's ranch.
Will any star have the kind of career, the kind of life, the kind of worldwide fame that she had?