Liz Taylor had a pretty grating voice, didn't she?

I watched this for the first time recently and I found the first half much more compelling than the second. Sorry, Burton.

She did the soft-spoken thing for a while in an attempt to correct the problem, but there wasn't much to be done. She just has natural harpy voice. A lot of people commented on the irony of someone so beautiful could with such a terrible voice.

Wow, if that's not sexual harassment in the workplace, I don't know what is!

Liz made men go mad with desire.

A diamond hungry Elizabeth Taylor attempts to kill Iman for her necklace.

Elizabeth "AID$" Taylor = now burning in hell for the misery she helped cause during her years on the payroll of HIV/AID$ Inc.

YES, OP!

Her voice has *always* bothered me—even though I think she’s one of the greatest beauties of all time and could be amazing in the right role with the right director.

Her voice though....grating, childlike, too high pitched, and difficult to project properly (like it was too small for her body)—it ruins a lot of her work for me...

Let's be real....gorgeous and fabulous movie star.

Not a great actress.

Which is partly due to that awful voice.

She had an awful voice. People didn't notice it that much because of her beauty but as she got older, it started to grate on the nerves.

Cate Blanchett - now that's an actress with a great voice.

Her voice was perfect for Martha though.

No. Not really. She was far too young and not really right for that role.

Her voice was made for a young woman or little girl. She was just perfect in Place in the Sun.

WEHT Larry "12 thick inches" Fortensky?

Recent news, photos?

Her voice as annoying as fuck at any age. Where the fuck was she from again? Somewhere on the east coast, I'm sure.

Larry's dead Liz. He died a broken fan.

Well, I hope to tell you.

Oh yeas OP. She was fantastic in place in the sun, cat on tin roof, absolutely stunning after the nose job, tried ever so hard to look and mould her life after Vivien Leigh. But mostly she was atrocious, although entertaining and beautiful. She gives grade A great performances in her later career, as " fat" Liz, in Losey's films. Burton is now absolutely unwatchable. Just dreadful. Time tells what stays.

For the brief period of time when she was off booze AND pills, she became a grown woman at last. She looked great and mature, not clinging to the past. It didn't last.

Elizabeth Taylor never had a nose job, that is a complete myth. She had face work in her fifties, nothing before that. And she never in any way wanted to be Vivien Leigh, who was a totally different kind of beauty, a real lady and a serious actress. Taylor wanted to be tall, lean and cat - like, she admired Ava Gardner. Her looks were sensual, all in her coloring and ripeness. She was overly seductive, her breathy voice was an affectation much made fun of by her peers because she was one crass broad. She did have a nice nose, her own.

Vivien Leigh had a much more delicate and feminine beauty and she was a far more beautifully made woman in every way. She was nothing like ET.

Shrill and prone to shrieking, but it sometimes worked, like in "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf". Still, I enjoy her films, especially Suddenly Last Summer and The Sandpiper.

Ironic that Richard Burton had one of the richest and most beautiful voices. They both must have had voice coaching, but why didn't hers work?

R17 I agree that Leigh was by far the better actress and a different level altogether in beauty and achievement. Still, Taylor DID have a nose job after Ivanohe. Obvious. Side Bridge reduction of her nose is visible even in The mid fifties. Sorry. left size to be precise.

She was stunning in 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?'. She dazzled.

Unfortunately she veered down that well worn Hollywood furrow and became just another spoilt, materialistic strop diva collecting diamonds and being vacuous.

Before plastic surgery. Shame on Hollywood that this girl was not pretty enough in the eyes of Mayer

Everyone commented on her harsh grating voice in Cleopatra. She's playing opposite Rex Harrison and Richard Burton and she sounded strident and horrible. Actually her voice was passable in movies set in more contemporary times, but no for anything resembling classics. She had a girlish voice as a younger star, but her drinking really made her sound harsh. Yes, perfect for Martha in Virginia Woolf. WHen I think of her in Giant, Raintree County, A Place in the Sun, Butterfield 8, etc her voice wasn't an issue. But the one thing that never gets mentioned is that the sound engineers could have helped with that and they didn't. She's not the first actor who had to have their voice altered a but during post production.

She was selling tickets. She had a pass as long as she was young and stunning. The minut she got wrinkles her career sunk faster than the titanic. Sad. She was very good in her " fat Liz" phase

She was fun. But that voice and laugh were not leading lady caliber.

People like my mother, post war teenagers, were mesmerized by the Hollywood bullshit. She and Ava Gardner were the most beautiful women in the entire world ( thanks, make up artist) with the exception of Marilyn, who was a misunderstood angel and a GREAT actress given shitty parts. No way Dean or Clift were anything else than straight. Don t even go there. Gable was everything. To this day my mother blames Yoko for the SPLIT. Even though McCartney himself szid otherwise. And RJ Wagner for Natalie Wood's death...wait

Back in the 80s, she starred in a play on Broadway when she was in her fat dumpy phase. One of my co-workers attended the play with her husband and commented that even Liz, at that age and in her dumpy state still radiated sexiness and her husband was blown away by her. She said all the men in the theatre, especially the older ones, were mesmerized by her.

Grating. All those years training at MGM, you'd think they'd work on her voice.

A lot of film actors have this problem because they are not trained vocally. Emotion affects your breathing which is the foundation of vocal production and unless you have been trained how to properly utilize your breathing to support your voice when you are emotional you wind up sounding either shrill or breathy. While I would not say that Taylor is a great actress, other actresses who I would consider great can be undone by their lack of vocal training, Sally Field, for instance, whose brilliant emotional honesty in scenes can be frequently undermined by her vocal limitations (see the funeral scene in Steel Magnolias) . Blanchett was a stage actress first, and it shows in the strength of her voice and her ability to use it as a means to underline her performance and not deter from it, this is often the case with British actors who are frequently stage trained and at times, perhaps can get away with murder performance-wise just by means of their vocal skill.

Put down the gin and go to bed Lipton, you are bothering us

She sounded like a stuck-up Minnie mouse

I can't take her voice at all. In CLEOPATRA, her speech after the burning of the library in Alexandria, with her voice and her delivery, is risible.

Her voice was just fine.

R31 = Marlee Matlin