Elizabeth Taylor was not an actress.
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor , DBE ( February 27 , 1932 -- March 23 , 2011 ) was a British American actress , businesswoman , and humanitarian . She began as a child actress in the early 1940s , and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s . She began receiving better roles in the mid-1950s , beginning with the epic drama Giant ( 1956 ) , and starred in several critically and commercially successful films in the following years . These included two film adaptations of plays by Tennessee Williams , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ( 1958 ) and Suddenly , Last Summer ( 1959 ) ; Taylor won a Golden Globe for Best Actress for the latter . Although she disliked her role in BUtterfield 8 ( 1960 ) , her last film for MGM , she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance .