RIP Factbox: Key films in the career of Elizabeth Taylor

(February 12, 2011)

(Reuters) - Key films in the career of Elizabeth Taylor:

* "There's One Born Every Minute," 1942: 10-year-old Elizabeth's screen debut.

* "Lassie, Come Home," 1943: Paired Taylor with Roddy McDowall, who would become a lifelong friend.

* "National Velvet," 1944: Co-starring Mickey Rooney, the movie that made Taylor a star.

* "Father of the Bride," 1950: The film opened two days after Taylor's real-life marriage to Conrad Hilton Jr., which gave the film a considerable publicity boost. Spencer Tracy played her father.

* "The Last Time I Saw Paris," "Beau Brummell," "Elephant Walk" and "Rhapsody," 1954: The busiest year of Taylor's career.

* "Giant," 1956: Epic story of oilmen and ranchers in Texas co-starring Rock Hudson and James Dean, who was killed in a car crash late in production.

* "Raintree County," 1957: Taylor earned her first Oscar nomination for playing an emotionally unstable Southern belle.

* "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," 1958: Playwright Tennessee Williams did not like the movie adaptation of his play but it earned Taylor and Paul Newman Oscar nominations.

* "Suddenly Last Summer," 1959: Another movie based on a Williams play and another Oscar nomination for Taylor. Future husband Eddie Fisher had an uncredited role as a street urchin.

* "Butterfield 8," 1960: Taylor won an Academy Award for playing a prostitute. It co-starred then-husband Eddie Fisher but he and Taylor reportedly hated the movie.

* "Cleopatra," 1963: The movie, bedeviled by delays, departing actors, botched filming and illnesses, reportedly cost a record $44 million. Taylor had a record-setting $1 million contract. The film marked the beginning of her relationship with Richard Burton.

* "The Sandpiper," 1965: Another Taylor-Burton pairing directed by Vincent Minnelli.

* "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," 1966: Based on an Edward Albee play with Mike Nichols making his directing debut. Taylor won her second Oscar and Burton earned a nomination for their roles as an embittered married couple.

* "The Taming of the Shrew," 1967: Taylor and Burton, directed by Franco Zeffirelli in an adaptation of the Shakespeare play.

* "Reflections in a Golden Eye," 1967: Taylor and Marlon Brando star in a John Huston-directed film about repressed homosexuality. Taylor's long-time friend Montgomery Clift was to have had the Brando role but died before filming began.

(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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