In her personal life, too, she ripened early, dating Howard Hughes at 17 and taking her first marriage vows, to hotelier Nick Hilton, before she reached 18. The marriage lasted but a few months, long enough to be exploited by MGM for publicity of her then-current Taylor-made picture "Father of the Bride".

In 1952 she married actor Michael Wilding. After their 1957 divorce, she married flamboyant showman Mike Todd, converting to Judaism for the occasion. This marriage is said to have had a profound influence on her maturation both as a woman and an actress, but it came to a tragic end the following year when Todd was killed in the crash of his private airplane, which he had named "The Lucky Liz" after her. The best man at their wedding, singer Eddie Fisher, was the first to rush to her side to comfort her in her grief.

When they were married in 1959, she as ostracized by outraged fans for breaking up Fisher's marriage to another favorite, Debbie Reynolds. She won back the public's affection in the early 60's when she almost died of pneumonia while filming in London. The wave of sympathy helped her win her first Academy Award, for "Butterfield 8", in which she did not give one of her best performances. She had been nominated for an Oscar for "Raintree County (1957), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), and "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959).

Miss Taylor was again in the headlines when her on-screen romance with Richard Burton on the set of "Cleopatra", one of Hollywood's most extravagant flops, developed into a sizzling off-screen affair. They married in 1964, shortly after her divorce from Fisher, and later appeared together in several productions.

Miss Taylor, one of the world's highest-paid performers, won a second Academy Award, for her performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" (1966). In 1972, as beautiful as ever if somewhat plumpier, she celebrated her fortieth birthday and the birth of her first grandchild. Her marriage to Richard Burton faltered in the early 70's. After several well-publicized separations and reconciliations, a divorce, and a remarriage, they finally redivorced in 1976. Miss Taylor then went through a seventh marriage ceremony, to John Warner, a former Secretary of the Navy who was elected a U.S. Senator (from Virginia) in 1978. That marriage ended in 1982. Glamorous and popular as ever despite her bouts with liquor, food and weight gain, Miss Taylor remained one of the world's most publicized celebrities in the 80's and 90's. As her film roles dwindled, she used her celebrity to launch a successful line of perfumes and to raise millions of dollars for AIDS research. She became active in television, starring in several telefilms and in the mini-series "North and South", during which she aggravated a lifelong back injury. She lent her voice to the animated "The Simpsons" television show as Baby Maggie. In October of 1991, just four months short of her 60th birthday, she married for the eighth time in a opulent ceremony on the grounds of a ranch owned by entertainer Michael Jackson, a close confidante. She had met the groom, construction worker Larry Fortensky, 20 years her junior, at a treatment center for drug and alcohol abuse.