When did Elizabeth Taylor look her absolute best?

Who?

Suddenly Last Summer

Any time after March 23, 2011.

My God, she's been dead 10 years next month ?

Ivanhoe

A Place in the Sun

Another photo of Liz as Rebecca of York in Ivanhoe

I like her looks and styling in Butterfield 8 (1960). Also Cat on Hot Tin Roof (1958)

I like this hard glamor

Reflections in a Golden Eye

glam

Giant, once she was in Texas

When didn’t she? Quit judging women by what they look like. In fact, quit judging other people, period.

The 1950s were a low point in terms of style and clothing, she seemed to look much older than she actually was. Seeing her on 'What's My Line' you wouldn't believe her to be a 22 year old woman.

National Velvet

She looked smashing up until the Early 1960s. Lost her looks (IMO) sometime in the mid-60s, becoming blowsy & hard-looking. She had a rebound (looks-wise) sometime in the 1980s and still was gorgeous up until the time of her last marriage in he Early 90s. (see clip)

And for all of her drinking, smoking, drugging and carrying on, she was still attractive an attractive woman during her last few decades as a senior citizen.

Glam

When she had cameos on The Nanny and other CBS sitcoms, all on the same night circa 1995. Remember that?

Polyester

R14, stop it. While I agree that 1950s Fashions could age a woman horribly, Liz looked absolutely STUNNING throughout that decade! The drinking and partying didn't catch up with her until the mid 60s.

R14, what about the 50s style aged her?

[quote] In fact, quit judging other people, period.

Boy, did YOU ever wind up on the wrong webforum, Wendy Woke!

When she delivered her curse upon Luke and Laura!

1979

R21, I think it was the grandma perm, the harsh technicolor make up and the conservative dresses that looked more appropriate for an older woman than a 20-something year old. The fashions from that time period weren't all that great as some like to make it out to be.

Pre-Burton.

Standing next to a horse.

People in general dressed more conservatively then...both men and women.

Big hair

The Flintstones

Elizabeth was at her most breathtaking in the years from when she married Mike Todd and the cheating with Richard Burton in Italy during Cleopatra, and that whole period with Burton. Now, IMO she never looked bad...even when she looked bad. Even when she was a fat Virginia housewife to Jack Warner. Best picture of Fat Elizabeth I ever saw was in some biography someone wrote. Lee Israel or Kitty Kelly? Who knows. There was a photo of her stuffing food into her mouth, her gut distended, fat and big hair, and the caption read, "All our lives women wanted to look like Elizabeth Taylor, and now, God help us, we do!"

R25, her hair wasn't always short in the 50s

I just remember seeing "A Place in the Sun" at a revival house and the spectacular large screen vision of those two beautiful people up on screen gave me the vapors.

Now thems was Movie Stars.

R33, Tell Mama.

When she wore a yellow raincoat and twenty school children tried to board her!

Cat on a hot tin roof , that slip is iconic

R36 yes she was stunning in cat

My first thought was Father of the Bride. But also Place in the Sun.

Funny, as a youngster in the early 70's, all I remember knowing about her was that she was very fat, from all the grocery store newspapers my grandmother would have. They were merciless on her.

Another vote for CAT. But she was pretty stunning throughout the late 50s.

"A Place In The Sun" and "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" were her best moments. She was stunning in both of those films.

“The Last Time I Saw Paris”

MGM publicity photo from late 1950s

Suddenly, Last Summer while procuring all those men...

If she wasn't a film star, she could have been a model. Yes, I know she was 5ft 4in, but ... that face.

A Place in the Sun, wins this thread.

A gay man should already know the answer. Prophetess Paglia has already revealed it. Taylor never looked better than at the after-awards parties in 1961 when she won the Best Actress Oscar for 'Butterfield 8'. Six weeks on from her emergency life-saving tracheotomy, still bearing the scar, she reigned triumphant.

1959. On the set of Suddenly, Last Summer.

On the set of Jane Eyre.

R24, that pic might have been the inspiration for casting Lindsey Lohan to play her in that Lifetime movie. That's the only times I've ever spotted a resemblance.

Agree with Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. Both she and Paul Newman were at their prime.

Circa 1960. At that point she was all grown up and sexy as hell, and her face and figure were at their absolute best. Damn, she had a shape, back in the day, a perfect curvy feminine hourglass!

And the elegant fashions of the era kept her tasteless dress sense from going into full flower. That happened later in the 1960s...

Another vote for The Last Time I Saw Paris; I prefer Technicolor Liz.

"A Place in the Sun"

Giant

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Elephant Walk (1953).

She is sickeningly and unrealistically beautiful in Ivanhoe. Just look at this pic. RIDICULOUS

Elizabeth & Richard in Puerto Vallarta. She was stunning.

"The Last Time I Saw Paris" before she cuts her hair.

...

R14, SO? We're talking about Elizabeth Taylor, not your fashion queen evaluations.

R14 is jealous of liz

She looked amazing in Elephant Walk, R58.

Eating that fried chicken in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

When they fed her to the sharks, poor thing.

Cat wins

Here's Elizabeth giving out the Best Picture Award at the 1970 Oscars. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

R61. I agree. Anytime her hair is mid-length to longer, she is incredible.

R70 why don't you like short hair on her?

AFI 1993 Humanitarian Award

R72 here, if you noticed towards the very end of this clip as she is taking her bows, right after they show the late Dennis Hopper and his wife, there's a table with Elizabeth's children, the two Wilding boys, Mike Todd's daughter, and Maria, the German baby she adopted.

R69, Totally agree. Clad in Edith Head, hair styled by Sydney Guilaroff, fresh Mexican tan and that fabulous diamond necklace.

R71 Her short hair in The Last Time I Saw Paris was an awful 50s "pixie" cut; it didn't flatter her.

R75, it was long in the first half of the film

Rhapsody, with Vittorio Gassmann who was married to Shelley Winters her hair and wardrobe were delicious.

When she was 16. Absolutely transcendent.

Behind a half inch of Vaseline.

I saw her on stage in The Little Foxes (1980?) and she was stunning. More beautiful than she was in her youth.

Now that I am older, this is my favorite Elizabeth. She is adorable. I almost wish she was my mother.....

Actually, I love watching her in the Jane Powell film A Date with Judy. She's not the star but you can't take your eyes off her every time she wanders into the frame. I think she's only 15 or 16 but absolutely breathtaking. A ripe beauty that still has a virginal glow yet so ready to be plucked. Dazzling!

Watching that I can well imagine LB Mayer and all the MGM execs patting themselves on the back and congratulating themselves for signing her when she was still just a child. What an investment they made!

Another vote for Cat. That is the only time in my entire life I looked at a woman and wanted to sleep with her. She was so feminine,so lush,so sexy .

Ivanhoe

Sissy Goforth, r11

Cat on a hot tin roof here too

Brock must have been 150% stone cold gay.

IMO, during the time between when she made the films "Giant" and "Butterfield 8."

She did look good in the 80s. She's not tanned here in this photo w/Nancy Reagan. But she (Liz) did look really good with a tan.

When she was sucking Tony Geary’s cock! lololololololololololol

I agree, R33...and how she stuffed both of them into that straining white bathing suit of hers in that beach scene, is beyond me!

r76, that's why r61 says "before she cut her hair."

[quote] "They were merciless on her."

I don't remember that at all, R39.

I've never seen the entire film, but channel surfing once took me to a channel showing "Butterfield 8". I was stunned at how very beautiful Elizabeth Taylor was in the scene that was showing.

I had already seen her in many other films from both before and after this film, but I still remember just taking in how stunningly beautiful she was.

It was also interesting to see her acting in a scene with Eddie Fisher.

This all happened long after she had married and divorced Burton, so at the time she was much older than the woman on the screen.

But, seeing her in that scene in that movie, Wow! Stunning.

BTW, I've still never seen the film.

R71 she looks even more sexy, peak beauty with long hair. But In Cat she is wildly beautiful and hot too.

R94 which scene?

Suddenly Last Summer but also The Sandpiper. Beach is good for Liz.

I miss her, her vibrancy, her empathy.

R96 - It was nothing special - she was having a conversation with Eddie Fisher's character. I think she was wearing a black dress, high neck. Not evening wear.

I like the sexy Sandpiper/ Puerto Vallarta era.

SLS - Never better

R101 yes.

I'm glad she's not alive now.

She's be forced to wear the twin swags of hair way down over her boobies.

R103 i dont get it

Butterfield 8

At 18, in A Place in the Sun.

Cleopatra

When she is putting her make-up on.

Gorgeous.

I agree that her Sandpiper Puerto Vallarta days were breathtaking. She was a natural beauty.

Raintree County

1964, in this photo by Roddy McDowell. Straight out of the shower, no makeup.

I’d love to see a true “no makeup” shot of Liz, but her eyes are always made up.

And doesn't she have some lip gloss on?

I as well saw her in The Little Foxes and yes she was still beautiful. Waited at the stage door to see her leave and much smaller than I pictured. Isn't that always the case?

She looked glamorous throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, but I think she perfected "her look" in Butterfield 8.

This pic is titled "Elizabeth Taylor swimming in Puerto Vallarta"

Pics showing her engaged in activities like swimming with her child(ren) are the closest you'll find of her with no makeup

Last one

It's so hard to pic one photo of Dame Liz, but I'm impressionable and like the one she chose for the advert of her Violet Eyes perfume right before she died. I believe it was taken at one of Eddie Fisher's Vegas shows at the Tropicana, but I could be wrong.

She honestly never looked bad, even with her weight fluctuations. The big haired, blowsy Liz still looked heads and tails than most women walking down the street in the 60s and 70s.

Any color photos of her in which her famous violet eyes actually look violet? In the Roddy photo above her eyes look to be a greenish-blue.

Alwayz

r119, her eyes were not really violet. They were just an extremely intense blue. When she wore violet clothes they picked up the color and looked more violet than blue, and the legend was born. You will see lots of stills of her re-touched to make her eyes look a true violet, though.

She looked good in love is better than ever

"......and her eyes! They really were purple!"

- Andy Warhol

Perfect in sls

B8 .

Never

Cleo

Tuesday, September 16, 1954.

Ivanhoe or Elephant Walk

Mid 50s

On the set of "The Girl Who Had Everything.". Stunning!

R131 agreed

50s

Always

Never

Earlier I said the Puerto Vallarta/Sandpiper years, and those were good, but now I'm thinking her lush peak was the Mike Todd marriage. She absolutely glowed. I wonder if they would have stayed married? In a different scenario, without Eddie Fisher as a transitional husband, would she have left Mike for Burton? And I wonder which one was really the best match, Todd or Burton? Would there have been less drinking with Mike? Poor Mike must have been fuming in the great beyond, observing the Taylor-Burton love story.

1957

R57 OMG that photo is stunning.

R57's pic is NOT Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor never, ever had such a defined widow's peak in her hairline. That will be all. Haha

My first thought about that nude pic was the boobies don’t seem big enough.

That nude pic is shows a young woman. Also, the mole is not there and it would show at that angle.

Well, whoever that is at R57, it's a gorgeous pic.

I'm going with the Maggie The Cat look. If were ole gay Brick, I would have stuck it in her.

Early 50s

I’ve decided Eddie got the best Liz. I’m reading his memoir now; he’s actually very funny, in a self-deprecating way. If that’s truly his voice, then we know where Carrie got it.

I repeat: Eddie got the most luscious Liz. (Fun caption to this photo, too.)

Some of our friends at LSA made a thread of pics taken on the set of GIANT.

I’ve always thought this picture was outstanding.

Giving a speech

During the 1950s....then later in the 80s, when she hung with Malcolm Forbes.

Another pic with minimal makeup

Those eyes, though. We never see the eyes without makeup.

..... When she was 10. !!! International Velvet

Here is Liz in I guess the 1980s or early 90s? Look at the size of her hair, extraordinary. Funny how she uses the word “bitch” in a very contemporary way.

Last Summer, Suddenly.

I thought she was a little homely in 30 Rock. But her violet eyes really sparkled.

When she was engaged to THIS hotness

R157 - which one is that? And... was it kosher for him to go swimming in his diaper?

Smokin’ hot here with minimal makeup. What’s this business about Italian blood, anyone know?

In the 50s...then, later in the 80s.

Young people wanted to look like an adult...grown up, back in the 50s and early 60s. The late 60s was all about youth.

She always tanned beautifully...and her skin didn't look like leather later.

Honestly, who the fuck cares in the first place?

Iconic

[quote] I sat alongside Elizabeth Taylor to testify before Congress on the fight for funding to fight the AIDS epidemic. The LGBTQ community continues to be disproportionately impacted by AIDS. We cannot forget their fight is everybody’s fight." -Nancy Pelosi

[quote]Elizabeth and Nancy Pelosi 1987.

^ link