From the bestselling author of Once Upon a Time: Behind the Fairy Tale of Princess Grace and Prince Rainer comes this fascinating biography of film legend Elizabeth Taylor. She has been written about many times, but never like this . . . For more than six decades she has been part of our lives. An American icon, Elizabeth Taylor has been surrounded by fame and notoriety since childhood. Now acclaimed biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli looks past the tabloid version of Elizabeth's life to the person she really is-and how she evolved from a child star to a woman in her own right.At the heart of this impeccably researched work is the first fully realized portrait of Elizabeth Taylor's family: her canny, controlling mother, who, from the moment she laid eyes on her baby, began plotting her success; and her father, often portrayed as distant, but whose connection with his daughter was far more complex than people knew. As Taraborrelli brings to life the people around Elizabeth and her rise in 1940s Hollywood, he reveals the qualities that made her a star, the associations that put her at the right place at the right time, and the ways in which she was singularly unprepared for life out on her own. While Elizabeth's eight marriages to seven men have been widely publicized, this author examines the psychological and emotional roots of each relationship, including her abusive marriage to Nicky Hilton, her attraction to swashbuckling Mike Todd, and the complex, incendiary Taylor-Burton love affair that continued for decades and never truly died. Finally, Taraborrelli chronicles Elizabeth's most bravura performance of all. Despite the highly public battles with substance abuse and chronic illness, she achieved new success and sustenance in family, friendships, and philanthropy. With never-before-published family photos by Taylor historian Tom Gates, as well as rare family photos, Elizabeth is the story of a woman you thought you knew-and can now finally begin to understand
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"Unbelievable that this woman died at age 79, only this year!! Some of you may think, well my grandmother is 99 or 105 but after reading this book (if you accept my recommendation) you will understand why I think she should have been dead long before. Her good friend, Michael Jackson, died at a younger age and before her, unfortunately. Between her drug and alcohol abuse, attempted suicides, numerous illnesses and surgeries, I am shocked that in my generation I was able to know about Elizabeth Taylor, but I truly didn't until I read this book. J. Randy Taraborrelli kept me intrigued, which is not hard when its a celebrity, however, he did tend to jump from time in history back and forth making it a little hard to know which came first but I figured it out. If you want more than just what you read in the tabloids or saw on tv while your parents eagerly watched what she would do next. Then you have to read this book. All EIGHT husbands worth of it!"
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Jeniffer (4 out of 5 stars)