Want to know the best Elizabeth Taylor movies? How about the worst Elizabeth Taylor movies? Curious about Ingrid Bergman’s box office grosses or which Elizabeth Taylor movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Elizabeth Taylor movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) was a two time Best Actress Oscar® winner. She is one of the few child stars to succeed as an adult actor as well. From 1944’s National Velvet to her death, she was one of the most famous people in the world…a pretty good run for 67 years. Her IMDb page shows 72 acting credits from 1942-2001. This page will rank 47 Elizabeth Taylor movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.
Elizabeth Taylor Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Elizabeth Taylor Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Elizabeth Taylor movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Elizabeth Taylor movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Elizabeth Taylor movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort Elizabeth Taylor movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Elizabeth Taylor movie received.
- Sort Elizabeth Taylor movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search button to make this a very interactive page. For example type in *** to see all Oscar nominated Taylor performances….or type Burton in the search box to bring up all of the Richard Burton/Taylor movies.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Elizabeth Taylor
1. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London, England. Her famous double eyelashes and her violet eyes caused many people to suggest to her mother that Taylor should try out for the role of Bonnie Blue (Scarlet’s daughter) in Gone With The Wind. Her mother refused the idea.
2. In 1942, two studios (MGM and Universal Pictures) got in a bidding war for her services. Universal signed her to a 7 year contract but canceled the contract after her first movie 1942’s There’s One Born Every Second. MGM then signed her and she became a huge child star.
3. Elizabeth Taylor’s first hit was 1944’s National Velvet. She also appeared in the very first Lassie movie 1943’s Lassie Come Home. The first time she received top billing was in 1946’s The Courage of Lassie.
4. As an older teenager she became a young bride in the box office hits 1947’s Life With Father and 1950’s Father of the Bride. The success of these two movies paved the way for her success as an adult actress. From 1950 to 1966 she was the most successful actress working. During this time frame 7 of her movies were nominated for Oscars® for Best Picture….1950’s Father of the Bride, 1951’s A Place In The Sun, 1952’s Ivanhoe, 1956’s Giant, 1958’s Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1963’s Cleopatra and 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe.
5. Elizabeth Taylor earned 5 Oscar® nominations for Best Actress winning 2 times. Her two wins were for 1960’s Butterfield 8 and 1966’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. Her other three nominations were for 1957’s Raintree Country, 1958’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and 1959’s Suddenly, Last Summer.
6. Probably her most famous role was in 1963’s Cleopatra. Even though it is ranked on the all-time inflated box office chart in 40th place with over 546 million dollars, Cleopatra was considered a disappointment at the box office. This was due to the outrageous and out of control film’s budget.
7. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton worked together in 12 projects. 10 are movies listed in this page the other two are 1972’s Divorce Hers-Divorce His(tv movie) and Anne of the Thousand Days(Taylor is uncredited).
8. Elizabeth Taylor was married 8 times including two times to Richard Burton. Her husbands…Conrad Hilton (from famous Hilton hotel family) Michael Widling (two boys came out of this marriage), Michael Todd (one daughter out of this marriage), Eddie Fisher (adopted daughter out of this marriage), Burton, John Warner (US Senator) and Larry Fortensky (met at Betty Ford clinic).
9. Elizabeth Taylor said she had three loves in her life….Michael Todd, Richard Burton and jewelry. Pieces of her jewelry collection were recently auctioned off for 115 million dollars. On the humanitarian side of things she was the co-founder of American Foundation of AIDS research and hosted the first ever AIDS fundraiser in 1984.
10. Check out Elizabeth Taylor‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Adjusted Worldwide Box Office Grosses on 25 Elizabeth Taylor Movies
Steve’s Elizabeth Taylor You Tube Video
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
1 Liz Taylor was never regarded as a star who had the acting skills of Davis, Bergman or Katie Hepburn but she was one of a select group of women who when they in their heydays truly dominated at the box office and in the popularity polls, three others who readily always spring to my mind being Betty Grable, Doris Day and Shirley Temple. Accordingly I would surmise that you might have had fund doing Liz’s video as I certainly would have.
2 VIDEO COMMENTS
(i) I liked her opening quote in which she said that after her troubles with Cleo and the associated scandals she found out who her friends were. Was Bruce around in those days?
(2) After Virginia Woolf her career nosedived and you have rightly given low placings to or excluded altogether the movies she made in that period like Under Milk Wood or Only Game in Town. Originally Sinatra was to have been her co-star in that one and their teaming would have been a collector’s item.
(3) It seems that usually 3 out of 5 is all that you and Bruce can agree on in your Top 5s and here was no exception Even at No 4 A Place in the Sun was in my view too low in your chart and Bruce has it at No 8 for critic/audience. I was surprised at the high placings you both gave Taming of the Shrew – and just look at the worldwide gross Bruce quotes for Rhaposdy compared with its domestic gross. .
(4) A very sassy photo of Liz on presumably the set of Giant and especially wonderful posters for Giant,Maggie the Cat, Reflections in a Golden Eye and Beau Brummel. REFLECTIONS Brando’s contract guaranteed him approval of all stills and other graphics for the movie so I wonder if he vetted yours or are you in breach of his contract ! BEAU BRUMMEL I always thought you Englishmen stuck together but this is your 3rd ranking of a Granger film that I’ve seen you award and he has yet to break into your Top 10. I loved the tagline on the posters for BEAU when it was first released ADVENTURER, LOVER, SCOUNDREL – HERE WAS A MAN ! Surprisingly to me it did well at the box office or with critics but I loved it God Save the Queen !
3 Overall a very satisfying video Steve. Best wishes BOB
CORRECTION The penultimate line of my previous post about Liz’s video should read “did NOT DO well at the box office or with critics.” Apologies. BOB
Got it.
Thank you Bob, I expected A Place in the Sun to do better too but it didn’t score more than 8 out of 10, Bruce’s critics were even less impressed. Unpredictable Maltin gave Taming of the Shrew 9 out of 10 while that entertaining disaster flick starring Chuck and Ava didn’t even merit 1 out of 10.
Talking of Ava Gardner, my film forum recently had a poll on who was prettier – Ava or Liz? The results were about even. They are both very pretty but I had to vote for Ava [Bob gasps] I thought she was the more perfect beauty, especially at her peak – in the early 50s? Gene Tierney was also mentioned. So was Jean Simmons.
Which actress would you pick as the most beautiful from Hollywoods glory days?
HI STEVE
1 First thanks for your response to my Bogie question. No I never got the impression that Bogie was quiet and in fact he and his 2nd wife actress Mayo Methot are supposed to have had such an alcohol-fuelled stormy relationship even in public that they became known as “The Battling Bogarts”
2 Liz was unquestionably a bigger star than Ava and was the ‘raunchier’.of the two because her rise to very top stardom coincided with relaxation of censorship but I agree with you that Ava was the ‘lovelier’ though there wasn’t much in it. Gene Tierney was lovely too as were Jean Simmons and in my view Hedy Lamarr.
3 In her first movie I thought Doris was very sexy but she seemed to ‘down-sex’ her appearance when she decided her screen persona should reflect American apple pie. And talking about the apple pie/girl next door image for some reason the actress who has most physically appealed to me down through the years has been Deanna Durbin followed by Shirley temple when she grew up.
4 Bruce will not thank us if our posts start to read like a transcript from a Donald Trump tape but I can’t resist quoting Arthur Kennedy from Bend of the River. who when asked about the type of woman he most preferred laughs and pointing at a couple of the females in the wagon train says “Depends on the mood I’m in. Sometimes I would go for that tall, skinny one over here but on other days I would fancy that petite little blonde over there.!”
Irrelevant incidental material. Arthur said the in all his career the movies he most enjoyed making were those two early 50s westerns with Jimmy Stewart, Bend of the River and Man from Laramie. They did of course have a final pairing as Wyatt Earp(Jimmy) and Doc Holliday in a cameo tongue in cheek double act in John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn (1964) starring Widmark.
🙂
Good stuff between the two of you. Glad Bob enjoyed the Taylor video.
FLORA
1 We’ve discussed so many stars in a short time that I wondered if I had fully responded to all your points. Anyway here’s a few extra thoughts on the interesting topics you’ve raised.
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
2 Though tame by today’s standards the explicit love scenes in her movies and her private scandals fed on each other in a fashion never before seen and the press and fan magazines fully exploited the situation
3 It all reached saturation point in 1967 when as one journalist expressed it ” the world was sick of the Burtons” and her box office status quickly vanished.
4 Also the public became turned off by their perceived vulgarity of the Taylor/Burton’ circus’ as exemplified by her obsession with diamonds.
5 Peter Ustinov told how he arrived unaccompanied on the set of The Comedians in 1967 but the Burtons showed up with an entourage of about 30 people such as secretaries and hairdressers.
LAS TANGO IN PARIS
6. Your comments struck a chord with me and I felt that i should tell you that probably because some ancestral Cogerson was on the local Council here in 1973 the film was banned in Belfast and I walked 5 miles to a small country cinema to see it.
Best Wishes BOBBY
I’ve watched just a few Elizabeth Taylor films (including the little-known “X, Y, and Zee” with Michael Caine), but I’ve always admired her not only for her beauty but also for her talent and professionalism. Thanks for the great page.
Hey vibesites….thanks for the comment and the visit. X Y and Zee is one of the few Michael Caine movies I have not seen….but it is one that I always look for. She was truly a star in every way possible.
Hey Bruce, you have received lots of comments on your Elizabeth Taylor PAGE. It is so interesting to read the comments………have a good day.
Hey BERN1960….yep Ms. Taylor has been a pretty popular hub already….as she has passed over 500 views in only a couple of weeks. Glad you liked reading the comments.
She has always been one of my favorites. I have seen all her movies, except The Flintstones. I can’t imagine. I have to look that one up. She was a true beauty, and a great actress.
Hey Mary615….thanks for stopping by…..I think you can be forgiven for not seeing The Flintstones….not her best moment on the silver screen. I think people have forgotten how she was the biggest celebrity and most popular actress for almost 30 years. Thanks for the votes and the comment.