Elizabeth Taylor was an actress.
Elizabeth Taylor . She made the transition to adult roles in the early 1950s , when she starred in the comedy Father of the Bride ( 1950 ) and received critical acclaim for her performance in the tragic drama A Place in the Sun ( 1951 ) . She was next paid a record-breaking $ 1 million to play the title role in the historical epic Cleopatra ( 1963 ) , the most expensive film made up to that point .