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Elizabeth

Page 54

by J. Randy Taraborrelli


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  PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Special thanks to Stephen Gregory, not only for so many years of friendship but also for his extraordinary contributions to this work. It’s truly difficult for me to even imagine what this book would be like if not for his input, which has been invaluable to all of my recent works. Without it, I am sure my research and writing would simply descend into chaos. I’m very grateful to him. He’s an incredibly special and talented person. Having him in my life matters . . . and on a daily basis. As I have often stated, without a loyal team of representatives, an author usually finds himself sitting at home writing 514

  Sources and Other Notes

  books no one reads. Therefore, I thank all of those from “USATeam JRT” who somehow mastermind the chaos in my office: attorneys Joel Loquvam, James M. Leonard, and James Jimenez; CPA Michael Horowitz, of Horowitz, McMahon and Zarem in Southern California, Inc; Michele Muico, also of Horowitz et. al.; and advisers Mike Johnston of Capital Lending and Doris Duke of Common Cents, Inc. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Buddy Thomas at ICM.

  My sincere thanks to Jonathan Hahn, fellow author, personal publicist, and also close friend. Everyone should have someone like Jonathan in his corner. He’s been so encouraging over the years and his support and abiding wisdom has meant everything to me. I would also like to acknowledge his lovely and immensely learned wife, Alysia Garrison, who has also been a loyal friend to me.

  I thank, as always, Al Kramer, my trusted friend and writing colleague who has, for years, been there for me. Thanks, Al, for your continued friendship.

  I want to thank Jeff Hare at Warner Bros. for being such a good and trusted friend and for always understanding and appreciating the work that I do.

  Thanks also to Brian Evan Newman for his joyful outlook. It means the world to me to be blessed with so many good friends, some of whom I would like to acknowledge here, including: Richard Tyler Jordan, Steve Ivory, George Solomon, Iake and Alex Eisinmann, Hazel and Rob Kragulac, Frank Bruno, Jeff Cooke, Lisa Reiner, Steve Ridgeway, Andy Skurow, Billy Barnes, Scherrie Payne, Marvin Marshall, Freda Payne, Cindy Birdsong, Lynda Laurence, Rev. Marlene Morris, Kac Young, Jim Bzora, Dr. Jason Peters, Barbara Ormsby, Rick Starr, John Passantino, Linda DeStefano, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Tumolo, Daniel Tumolo, Charles Casillo, John Carlino, Tony and Marilyn Caruselle, David Spiro, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Steinlen, David and Frances Snyder, Abby and Maddy Snyder, Maribeth and Don Rothell, Mary Alvarez, Sources and Other Notes

  515

  Mark Bringelson, Hope Levy, Tom Lavagnino, John Townsend, Matthew Barasch, Anthony Shane, Bethany Marshall, Dylan, and, of course, Yvette Jarecki.

  During the third of four quarters of production on Elizabeth—a period from January to June of 2005—I was reporting on the Michael Jackson molestation trial in Santa Maria, California, for CBS News and Court TV. I met so many amazing people during that time, media colleagues, many of whom I now count as good friends of mine and who were supportive as I also worked on this book during a difficult time for us all. I would like to acknowledge just a few of them here: my very good friends Bruce Rheins and Dawn Westlake, Manuel Gallegos, Vince Gonzalez, Jennifer Sieben, Soshea Lebowitz, Jennie Josephson, Sherri Sylvester, Anne Bremner, Jim Moret, Michelle Caruso, Leslie Miller, Miguel Marquez, Quintin Cushner, Diane Dimond, Pat Ketchum, Savannah Guthrie, Dawn Hobbs, Stacy Brown, Andrew Cohen, Trent Copeland, Hal Eisner, Aphrodite Jones, Jane Velez-Mitchell, Roger Friedman, Jim Thomas, Dan Whitcomb, Steve Corbett, Frank Swertlow, Linda Deutsch, Tim Molloy, and Mike Taibbi. I apologize to anyone whose name is not on this list. What a strange, unique time we had in Santa Maria, and all while I was working on this book! Thanks also to Michael Jackson’s team: Thomas Mesereau, Brian Oxmon, and Raymone K. Bain. Special thanks to Mike Lawler for his advice and support. My thanks to Andy Steinlen for being such a great influence on me, for teaching me so much about life, for being my “sounding board” . . . and my ever loyal, ever true friend. I have always been so blessed to have a family as supportive as mine. My thanks and love go out to: Roslyn and Bill Barnett and Jessica and Zachary, Rocco and Rosemaria Taraborrelli and Rocco and Vincent, and Arnold Taraborrelli. Special thanks to my father, Rocco, who has always been my inspiration. He has encouraged me in ways too numerous to mention. My mom, Rose Marie, would have loved this book; she was 516

  Sources and Other Notes

  such a fan of Elizabeth Taylor’s. She was also my biggest fan, and I was hers.

  I must also acknowledge those readers of mine who have followed my career over the years. As I have said in the past, the reason that I write about people such Elizabeth Taylor is to bring about an exchange of ideas concerning how others have lived in the hope that we may learn by their choices. Never did I dream that I would have a global audience for such communication. I am indebted to every reader who has stuck by me over the course of my career. I receive so many letters from people who have enjoyed my books—as well as from those who have taken issue with aspects of my work. Whatever the response, I am eternally grateful to anyone who takes the time to pick up one of my books and read it. Finally, I’d like to close this book with a comment from Roddy McDowall found in the previously mentioned program for the Life Achievement Award presented to Elizabeth in 1993 by the American Film Institute. I think it best sums up his good friend, the woman he always called “Bessie.” Of her, he wrote: “Vulnerable, responsible, dedicated, awash with self-humor, kind, full of decades of woe and rapture, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor emerges as a sort of elegant, rollicking Boadicea. A rainbow that arcs the travesties and triumphs of her time. She is an artist in both her craft . . . and her life.”

  J. RANDY TARABORRELLI

  Spring 2006

  Elizabeth Taylor Filmography

  There’s One Born Every Minute (1942) Hugh Herbert, Tom Brown, Peggy Moran, Guy Kibbee, Catherine Doucet, Edgar Kennedy, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer, Elizabeth Taylor (Gloria Twine)

  Universal

  ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: Ken Goldsmith

  DIRECTOR: Harold Young

  SCREENWRITERS: Robert B. Hunt, Brenda Weisberg

  Lassie Come Home (1943)

  Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, Edmund Gwenn, Dame May Whitty, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Elizabeth Taylor (Priscilla) MGM

  PRODUCER: Samuel Marx

  DIRECTOR: Fred M. Wilcox

  SCREENWRITER: Hugh Butler

  Jane Eyre (1943)

  Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles, Henry Danielle, Peggy Ann Garner, Margaret O’Brien, Agnes Moorehead, John Sutton, Sara Allgood, Ethel Griffies, Elizabeth Taylor (Helen) 20th Century-Fox

  PRODUCER: William Goetz

  DIRECTOR: Robert Stevenson

  SCREENWRITERS: Aldous Huxley, Robert Stevenson, John Houseman

  518

  Filmography

  The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) Irene Dunne, Alan Marshal, Frank Morgan, Roddy McDowall, C. Aubrey Smith, Gladys Cooper, Dame May Whitty, Peter Lawford, Van Johnson, June Lockhart, Elizabeth Taylor (Betsy) MGM

  PRODUCER: Sidney Franklin

  DIRECTOR: Clarence Brown

  SCREENWRITERS: Claudine West, Jan Lustig, George Froeschel National Velvet (1944)

  Mickey Rooney, Donald Crisp, Elizabeth Taylor (Velvet Brown), Anne Revere, Angela Lansbury, Reginald Owens, Jackie “Butch”

  Jenkins

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Pandro S. Berman

  DIRECTOR: Clarence Brown

  SCREENWRITERS: Theodore Reeves, Helen Deutsch

  Courage of Lassie (1946)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Kathie Merrick), Frank Morgan, Tom Drake, Selena Royle, George Cleveland, Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer MGM

  PRODUCER: Robert Sisk

  DIRECTOR: Fred M. Wilcox

  SCREENWRITER: Lionel Hauser

  Cynthia (1947)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Cynthia Bishop), George Murphy, S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall, Mary Astor, Gene Lockhart, James Lydon, Spring Byington

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Edwin H. Knopf
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  DIRECTOR: Robert Z. Leonard

  SCREENWRITERS: Harold Buchman, Charles Kaufman

  Filmography

  519

  Life with Father (1947)

  William Powell, Irene Dunne, Edmund Gwenn, Zasu Pitts, Elizabeth Taylor (Mary Skinner), Martin Milner, Emma Dunn, Moroni Olsen

  Warner Bros.

  PRODUCER: Robert Buckner

  DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz

  SCREENWRITER: Donald Ogden Stewart

  A Date with Judy (1948)

  Wallace Beery, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor (Carol Pringle), Carmen Miranda, Robert Stack, Xavier Cugat, Selena Royle MGM

  PRODUCER: Joe Pasternak

  DIRECTOR: Richard Thorpe

  SCREENWRITERS: Dorothy Cooper, Dorothy Kingsley Julia Misbehaves (1948)

  Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor (Susan Packett), Cesar Romero, Lucile Watson, Nigel Bruce MGM

  PRODUCER: Everett Riskin

  DIRECTOR: Jack Conway

  SCREENWRITERS: William Ludwig, Harry Ruskin, Arthur Wimperis Little Women (1949)

  June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor (Amy March) Janet Leigh, Rosanno Brazzi, Mary Astor, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Lucile Watson

  MGM

  PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Mervyn LeRoy

  SCREENWRITERS: Andrew Solt, Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman 520

  Filmography

  Conspirator (1950)

  Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor (Melinda Greyton), Harold Warrender, Robert Flemyng

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Arthur Hornblow Jr.

  DIRECTOR: Victor Saville

  SCREENWRITER: Sally Benson

  The Big Hangover (1950)

  Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor (Mary Belney), Percy Waram, Fay Holden, Leon Ames, Edgar Buchanan, Selena Royle, Gene Lockhart

  MGM

  PRODUCER/DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Norman Krasna

  Father of the Bride (1950)

  Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor (Kay Banks), Don Taylor, Billie Burke, Moroni Olsen, Leo G. Carroll, Melville Cooper MGM

  PRODUCER: Pandro S. Berman

  DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli

  SCREENWRITERS: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett Father’s Little Dividend (1951)

  Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor (Kay Dunstan), Billie Burke, Moroni Olsen, Russ Tamblyn

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Pandro S. Berman

  DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli

  SCREENWRITERS: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett A Place in the Sun (1951)

  Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor (Angela Vickers), Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Raymond Burr, Keefe Brasselle, Fred Clark, Frieda Inescort, Shepperd Strudwick Filmography

  521

  Paramount

  PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: George Stevens

  SCREENWRITERS: Michael Wilson, Harry Brown

  Callaway Went Thataway (1951)

  Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howard Keel, Jesse White, Natalie Schafer. Guest stars (unbilled): June Allyson, Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor, Esther Williams, Dick Powell MGM

  PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS/SCREENWRITERS: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank

  Love Is Better Than Ever (1951)

  Larry Parks, Elizabeth Taylor (Anastacia “Stacie” Macaboy), Josephine Hutchinson, Tom Tully, Ann Doran

  MGM

  PRODUCER: William H. Wright

  DIRECTOR: Stanley Donen

  SCREENWRITER: Ruth Brooks Flippen

  Ivanhoe (1952)

  Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor (Rebecca), Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Emlyn Williams, Robert Douglas, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Pandro S. Berman

  DIRECTOR: Richard Thorpe

  SCREENWRITER: Noel Langley

  The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) Elizabeth Taylor (Jean Latiner), Fernando Lamas, William Powell, Gig Young, James Whitmore

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Armand Deutsch

  DIRECTOR: Richard Thorpe

  SCREENWRITER: Art Cohn

  522

  Filmography

  Rhapsody (1954)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Louise Durant), Vittorio Gassman, John Ericson, Louis Calhern, Michael Chekhov, Barbara Bates MGM

  PRODUCER: Lawrence Weingarten

  DIRECTOR: Charles Vidor

  SCREENWRITERS: Fay and Michael Kanin

  Elephant Walk (1954)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Ruth Wiley), Dana Andrews, Peter Finch, James Donald, Rosemary Harris, Abraham Sofaer

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Irving Asher

  DIRECTOR: William Dieterle

  SCREENWRITER: John Lee Mahin

  Beau Brummell (1954)

  Stewart Granger, Elizabeth Taylor (Lady Patricia), Peter Ustinov, Robert Morley, James Donald, Rosemary Harris, Peter Bull MGM

  PRODUCER: Sam Zimbalist

  DIRECTOR: Curtis Bernhardt

  SCREENWRITER: Karl Tunberg

  The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) Elizabeth Taylor (Helen Elswirth), Van Johnson, Walter Pidgeon, Donna Reed, Eva Gabor, Roger Moore MGM

  PRODUCER: Jack Cummings

  DIRECTOR: Richard Brooks

  SCREENWRITERS: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Richard Brooks

  Filmography

  523

  Giant (1956)

  Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor (Leslie Lynnton Benedict), James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mercedes McCambridge, Jane Withers, Chill Wills, Dennis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rod Taylor, Judith Evelyn, Earl Holliman

  Warner Bros.

  PRODUCERS: George Stevens, Henry Ginsberg

  DIRECTOR: George Stevens

  SCREENWRITERS: Fred Guiol, Ivan Moffat

  Raintree County (1957)

  Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor (Susanna Drake), Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, Nigel Patrick, Rod Taylor, Agnes Moorehead, Walter Abel, Tom Drake, Gardner McKay MGM

  PRODUCER: David Lewis

  DIRECTOR: Edward Dmytryk

  SCREENWRITER: Millard Kaufman

  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Maggie Pollitt), Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Judith Anderson, Jack Carson, Madeleine Sherwood, Larry Gates MGM

  PRODUCER: Lawrence Weingarten

  DIRECTOR: Richard Brooks

  SCREENWRITERS: Richard Brooks, James Poe

  Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Catherine Holly), Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge, Gary Raymond

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Sam Spiegel

  DIRECTOR: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

  SCREENWRITERS: Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams

  524

  Filmography

  Scent of Mystery (1960)

  Denholm Elliott, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Elizabeth Taylor (The Real Sally Kennedy, unbilled)

  A Cinerama/Michael Todd Jr. Release

  PRODUCER: Michael Todd Jr.

  DIRECTOR: Jack Cardiff

  SCREENWRITER: William Roos

  Butterfield 8 (1960)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Gloria Wondrous), Laurence Harvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mildred Dunnock, Betty Field, Jeffrey Lynn, Kay Medford

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Pandro S. Berman

  DIRECTOR: Daniel Mann

  SCREENWRITERS: Charles Schnee, John Michael Hayes Cleopatra (1963)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Cleopatra), Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Hume Cronyn, Roddy McDowall, Martin Landau,

  Pamela Brown, Cesare Danova

  20th Century-Fox

  PRODUCER: Walter Wanger

  DIRECTOR: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

  SCREENWRITERS: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall, Sidney Buchman

  The V.I.P.s (1963)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Frances Andros), Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Elsa Martinelli, Margaret Rutherford, Maggie Smith, Orson Welles

  MGM

  PRODUCER: Anatole deGrunwald

  DIRECTOR: Anthony Asquith

  SCREENWRITER: Terence
Rattigan

  Filmography

  525

  The Sandpiper (1965)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Laura Reynolds), Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bronson, Robert Webber MGM

  PRODUCER: Martin Ransohoff

  DIRECTOR: Vincente Minnelli

  SCREENWRITERS: Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson

  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Elizabeth Taylor (Martha), Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis

  Warner Bros.

  PRODUCER/SCREENWRITER: Ernest Lehman

  DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols

  The Taming of the Shrew (1967)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Katharina), Richard Burton, Michael York, Cyril Cusack

  Columbia

  PRODUCERS: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Franco Zeffirelli DIRECTOR: Franco Zeffirelli

  SCREENWRITERS: Paul Dehn, Suso Cecchi D’Amico,

  Franco Zeffirelli

  Doctor Faustus (1967)

  Richard Burton, Andreas Teuber, Elizabeth O’Donovan, Ian Marter, Elizabeth Taylor (Helen of Troy)

  Columbia/Oxford University Screen Productions, et alia PRODUCERS: Richard Burton, Richard McWhorter

  DIRECTORS: Richard Burton, Nevill Coghill

  SCREENWRITER: Nevill Coghill

  Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) Elizabeth Taylor (Leonora Penderton), Marlon Brando, Brian Keith, Julie Harris, Robert Forster

  526

  Filmography

  Warner Bros./Seven Arts

  PRODUCER: Ray Stark

  DIRECTOR: John Huston

  SCREENWRITERS: Chapman Mortimer, Gladys Hill

  The Comedians (1967)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Martha Pineda), Richard Burton, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Lillian Gish, Paul Ford, Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson MGM/Maximillian/Trianon

  PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Peter Glenville

  SCREENWRITER: Graham Greene

  Boom! (1968)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Flora “Sissy” Goforth), Richard Burton, Noël Coward, Michael Dunn, Joanna Shimkus

  Universal

  PRODUCERS: John Heyman, Norman Priggen

  DIRECTOR: Joseph Losey

  SCREENWRITER: Tennessee Williams

  Secret Ceremony (1968)

  Elizabeth Taylor (Leonora), Robert Mitchum, Mia Farrow, Pamela Brown, Peggy Ashcroft

  Universal

  PRODUCERS: John Heyman, Norman Priggen

  DIRECTOR: Joseph Losey

 

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