Our Favorite Elizabeth Taylor Movie Moments

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor died today at the age of 79 from congestive heart failure. The violet-eyed beauty left behind an acting legacy that spanned five decades and two Academy awards (not to mention eight husbands.) Let's look back at our favorite Liz Taylor on-screen moments.

National Velvet (1944)

Elizabeth Taylor first wowed audiences in 1944 when she burst onto the scene at the age of 12 in her breakthrough role as National in the film National Velvet, about a girl and her love of a race horse. Opposite Mickey Rooney, it was not the last time Liz would play a strong feminine figure long before that was cool.

Giant (1956)

Perhaps our favorite Elizabeth Taylor film because it's one of our favorite films period, Giant touches on so many themes still hotly debated today regarding class, race, and gender equality. Mexicans vs. whites, women vs. men, new technology vs. old, big oil vs. the little guy–Giant has it all. Taylor's portrayal of the modern-minded Virginia-born wife of a wealthy and old-fashioned Texas rancher (played by Rock Hudson) is carried off with such poise and integrity, how could you not fall in love?

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1958)

In this scene from the film based on the Tennessee Williams play, Elizabeth gets the chance to showcase both her dramatic and comedic skills as she plays Maggie, the wife off alcoholic husband Brick, (Paul Newman), who refuses her sexual advances after the death of his closest friend who might possibly have been his gay lover.

BUtterfield 8 (1960)

BUtterfield 8 won Liz her first Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Gloria Wandrous (great name!) the Upper East Side slut. Which, in 1960, apparently was a bad thing to be. In this touchingly retro scene, Gloria has a come-to-Jesus moment with her mother, played by Mildred Dunnock, after finding love, at last, with just one man. Liz and then husband Eddie Fisher (who co-starred as her childhood friend Steve), famously hated the film, calling it "Butterball 8", which could be why the film isn't recalled as easily by many of Liz's younger fans.

Cleopatra (1963)

In 1963, Elizabeth starred in the highest grossing film of the year, Cleopatra, a film that still managed to almost bankrupt 20th Century Fox. Despite being a critical failure, Cleopatra earned four academy awards, all for technical achievements. More importantly, perhaps, the project introduced Elizabeth to Richard Burton with whom she began a long an tempestuous love affair.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

In 1966 Elizabeth won her second Oscar for Best Actress in the film adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. In it she plays drunken, bitter, middle-aged wife Marge (she gained 30 pounds to play the role) married to her failure of a husband George, played by real-life love Richard Burton. We love how Liz spews the words "associate professor" as if they were the dirtiest words on earth.