i'm mother courage

Elizabeth Taylor relaxes with her pet poodle, 1952.

Elizabeth Taylor outside the CBS Radio studios in 1946

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Raintree County, 1957

Clarence Brown, director of National Velvet, was beginning to answer questions about his little star-to-be. “There’s something behind her eyes that you can’t quite fathom,” he told his questioners. “Something Garbo had.” This was no mere persiflage: Brown was Garbo’s favorite director and guided her through seven films. Of Elizabeth’s talent generally? “I really hate to call her an actress. She’s much too natural for that.”

“She is a great charmer, cajoling, flattering and crafty- there is no guile or hideous scheme known to women that she is unable to employ. For instance, I adore soup of every kind and wen she wakes me up in the morning with a bowl of soup for breakfast I know she wants something. Sometimes it takes two or even three bowls of soup for her to get what she wants.” -Richard Burton

“For a while she was quiet, then Elizabeth Taylor’s violet eyes were flickering and she said: ‘They spat on me in Rome.’ Who did?  ‘Ordinary people, on the streets. They crossed over and spat. It was during le scandale, when the Vatican newspaper thoughtfully said I was morally unfit to be a mother and that my request to adopt Maria should be denied. They also announced that my natural children should be taken away from me.’ But it didn’t happen. You survived. ‘Damn right I survived,’ she said with resignation. ‘I’ve been through it all. I’m Mother Courage. I’ll be dragging my sable coat behind me into old age.'” -Life Magazine, 1969.

“Marrying Nick had been so easy, so like a fairytale. Everything was lovely; my parents, everyone approved- too perfect, too picturesque, too ideal. When I left him, it was to be the first divorce in our family, and I was totally crushed. I was afraid of sympathy or understanding from anybody. I was afraid of myself. I was afraid to go back to Nick. I was afraid of my total failure. I was afraid of the disappointment to my parents and his parents. I was afraid to be alone.” Elizabeth Taylor reflecting on filing her first divorce at age eighteen from Nicky Hilton, after being severely emotionally and physically abused by him.

“Elizabeth is extremely intelligent though she lacks in formal education- how can you possible be educated at MGM? I tried her out with I.Q. tests and she is well above the average. The thing I can credit myself with is increasing her awareness of the world. She has an extraordinary interest in poetry and I thought she just read to make me happy. Now I know that she enjoys it for herself. She grew up with art, has a great knowledge of painting and is herself a considerable painter. We have contributed to each other: I dismissed paintings as bad photography before I met Elizabeth.” -Richard Burton

“Your complexion really calls for pink. It brings out the freshness and charm of your youth.”

Elizabeth Taylor aged 16 on the set of Conspirator, 1949

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Suddenly, Last Summer 1959