adapted from Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy."

After some old-fashioned costume pageants ("Ivanhoe," ''Beau Brummell") and romances ("The Last Time I Saw Paris," ''The Girl Who Had Everything"), Taylor set the screen ablaze opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in the 1956 epic "Giant."

She was primed to become one of the era's most-acclaimed actresses.

Taylor got four straight Oscar nominations from 1957-1960, for "Raintree County," the back-to-back Tennessee Williams adaptations "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer," then her win for "BUtterfield 8," a film she later disparaged.

Professional success was tempered by the headlines that came with Taylor's personal life. She was wed again at 19, to British actor Michael Wilding, a marriage that lasted four years and produced two sons.

She married producer Todd, with whomshe had a daughter. Fisher was best man at Todd's wedding to Taylor. A year after Todd's death in the plane crash, Fisher left Reynolds to marry Taylor, who converted to Judaism before the wedding.

Then came Burton. They met while filming "Cleopatra," a colossally expensive production that nearly ruined 20th Century Fox.

The movie was derided by critics as a bloated bore, but the ardor between Taylor's Cleopatra and Burton's Marc Antony came to life for real as the co-stars began one of Hollywood's great and stormy love affairs.

The romance created such a sensation that the Vatican denounced their behavior as the "caprices of adult children."

After Taylor divorced Fisher and Burton divorced his wife, they were married in 1964. Along with a daughter, the fiery relationship produced a surprisingly