Top Elizabeth Taylor Movies Ranked
The Queen of Hollywood’s Most Iconic Screen Performances
Explore the essential Elizabeth Taylor filmography, featuring Oscar-winning dramas and legendary Golden Age epics from a true cinema icon.
About Elizabeth Taylor
In the pantheon of Hollywood immortality, few figures cast a shadow as long or as violet hued as Elizabeth Taylor. She did not merely exist within the studio system; she eventually became its north star, transitioning from a preternaturally beautiful child star into a formidable powerhouse who commanded the first million dollar salary in industry history. Her screen presence possessed a rare, combustible quality that made it impossible to look away, whether she was playing a wide eyed equestrian dreamer or a bourbon soaked harpy.
Audiences flocked to her because she lived out loud, mirroring her off screen dramas with a raw, visceral vulnerability in front of the lens. In the early days, she charmed as the determined young jockey in National Velvet and later captured the essence of post war domesticity in Father of the Bride and Little Women. However, it was her transition into mature, psychosexual dramas that solidified her as a heavyweight. In A Place in the Sun and Giant, she navigated the complexities of class and desire with a sophistication that defied her youth. By the time she stepped onto the scorching Mississippi sets of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer, she had matured into an actress who could weaponize her beauty to reveal the fractures and frustrations of the American woman.
The 1960s marked the era of her ultimate transformation. While the production of Cleopatra became a legendary spectacle of excess, it was her collaboration with Richard Burton that redefined the boundaries of cinematic realism. In Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, she famously shed the glamorous facade that had defined her career to play Martha, a role that required her to be abrasive, bloated, and utterly brilliant. It remains a masterclass in ego stripping, proving that beneath the layers of diamonds lay a performer of infinite depth. She could pivot from the gritty desperation of BUtterfield 8 to the boisterous, comedic sparring of The Taming of the Shrew without missing a beat, always maintaining a grip on the audience’s collective heart.
Her cultural impact extends far beyond the credits of A Mirror Crack’d or Reflections in a Golden Eye. She was the original blueprint for modern celebrity, a woman who understood that her fame was a tool to be used for more than self promotion. Her tireless activism during the AIDS crisis gave her a legacy of compassion that rivaled her artistic achievements. We remember her not just as a face on a silver screen, but as a survivor who navigated eight marriages and countless health scares with a defiant, shimmering resilience. She remains the quintessential movie star, a figure of such immense gravity that even decades after her peak, the world still feels the pull of her orbit.
Father's Little Dividend
1951Newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are having a baby, leaving her father to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be a granddad.
Zee and Co.
1972The venomous and amoral wife of a wealthy architect tries, any way she can, to break up the blossoming romance between her husband and his new mistress; a good-natured young widow who holds a dark past.
The V.I.P.s
1963Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.
Ivanhoe
1952Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.
The Sandpiper
1965A free-spirited single mother forms a connection with the wedded headmaster of an Episcopalian boarding school in Monterey, California.
Lassie Come Home
1943Hard times come for the Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie, however, is unwilling to remain apart from young Carraclough son Joe and sets out on a long and dangerous journey to rejoin him.
Reflections in a Golden Eye
1967Bizarre tale of sex, betrayal, and perversion at a military post.
The Mirror Crack'd
1980Jane Marple solves the mystery when a local woman is poisoned and a visiting movie star seems to have been the intended victim.
The Last Time I Saw Paris
1954Reporter Charles Wills, in Paris to cover the end of World War II, falls for the beautiful Helen Ellswirth following a brief flirtation with her sister, Marion. After he and Helen marry, Charles pursues his novelistic ambition while supporting his new bride with a deadening job at a newspaper wire service. But when an old investment suddenly makes the family wealthy, their marriage begins to unravel — until a sudden tragedy changes everything.
A Place in the Sun
1951A young social climber wins the heart of a beautiful heiress but his former girlfriend's pregnancy stands in the way of his ambition.
Jane Eyre
1943After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
BUtterfield 8
1960Gloria Wandrous, a promiscuous fashion model, falls in love with Weston Liggett, the hard drinking son of a working class family who has married into money.
Although Taylor famously disparaged the script, she distilled the character’s cynicism and desperation into an Academy Award winning portrait of a woman exploited by her own reputation. It is a gritty, unsentimental performance that successfully shattered the last remnants of her MGM child-star image.
The Taming of the Shrew
1967Italy, 16th century. Petruchio, a choleric, lying and poor rural landowner from Verona, arrives in Padua in search of fortune and a wife, while Baptista, a wealthy merchant, announces that he will not allow Bianca, his youngest daughter, to marry until the temperamental and unruly Katherina, his eldest daughter, does.
Engaging in a boisterous, meta-textual brawl with Richard Burton, Taylor brings a fiery physicality and sharp comedic timing to the role of Katharina. She reclaimed Shakespeare for the masses by infusing classic verse with her own brand of earthy, contemporary defiance.
Father of the Bride
1950Proud father Stanley Banks remembers the day his daughter, Kay, got married. Starting when she announces her engagement through to the wedding itself, we learn of all the surprises and disasters along the way.
Taylor serves as the ethereal centerpiece of this domestic comedy, utilizing her natural poise to ground the surrounding suburban anxieties. While the film belongs to Spencer Tracy, Taylor’s radiant presence provided the essential spark that made her the archetype of the mid-century American bride.
National Velvet
1945Mi Taylor is a young wanderer and opportunist who finds himself in the quiet English countryside home of the Brown family. The youngest daughter, Velvet, has a passion for horses and when she wins the spirited steed Pie in a town lottery, Mi is encouraged to train the horse.
Her performance as the horse-crazy Velvet Brown radiates a luminous, unbridled sincerity that remains the gold standard for child stardom. This film didn't just launch her career; it captured a singular kind of youthful determination that would become her trademark throughout the decades.
Little Women
1949Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Providing the perfect foil to Jo March, Taylor’s Amy captures the delightful vanity and eventual growth of the youngest sister with surprising nuance. This role showcased her innate ability to steal scenes even when placed within a competitive ensemble of established talent.
Suddenly, Last Summer
1959The only son of wealthy widow Violet Venable dies while on vacation with his cousin Catherine. What the girl saw was so horrible that she went insane; now Mrs. Venable wants Catherine lobotomized to cover up the truth.
Taylor navigates a high-wire act of psychological trauma and frantic vulnerability, proving she could handle the most grotesque and avant-garde corners of the studio system. Her harrowing final monologue serves as a masterclass in controlled hysteria and raw emotional exposure.
Giant
1956Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.
Playing the moral compass of a sprawling Texan epic, Taylor matures from a spirited debutante into a resolute matriarch with grace and quiet steel. It is the crucial pivot point in her filmography where she transitioned from a decorative presence into a formidable anchor for big-budget prestige cinema.
Cleopatra
1963Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans.
Despite the legendary production turmoil, Taylor’s performance captures a rare synthesis of historical regality and modern celebrity magnetism. She commands the frame with an expensive, unblinking authority that effectively transformed her into an untouchable cinematic deity.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
1958An alcoholic ex-football player drinks his days away, having failed to come to terms with his sexuality and his real feelings for his football buddy who died after an ambiguous accident. His wife is crucified by her desperation to make him desire her: but he resists the affections of his wife. His reunion with his father—who is dying of cancer—jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.
As Maggie the Cat, Taylor weaponizes her undeniable beauty and a calculated Southern drawl to navigate Tennessee Williams' stifling atmosphere of repressed desire. Her ability to command the screen while physically confined to a bedroom solidified her status as the era’s premier interpreter of high-stakes adult melodrama.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1966A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.
Taylor shed her glamorous veneer to inhabit the abrasive, alcohol-soaked Martha, proving she possessed a ferocious dramatic range that could out-bellow even the most seasoned stage actors. This transformative turn remains the definitive bridge between her days as a starlet and her ascension as a powerhouse of the New Hollywood era.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts
- Elizabeth Taylor's most iconic dramatic performance is widely regarded as her role in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" where her intense portrayal earned critical acclaim and showcased her depth as an actress.
- "Cleopatra" is the historical epic noted for its lavish production and Taylor's captivating role as the legendary queen, blending drama, history, and romance in a monumental Hollywood spectacle.
- Taylor demonstrated her versatility in a range of genres with films like "The Taming of the Shrew" (comedy/romance), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (drama), and "Father of the Bride" (comedy/romance/drama), proving her broad acting prowess.
- In "Giant," Taylor played a complex character in a sweeping drama that tackled themes of family and social change, reinforcing her status as a leading actress capable of handling emotionally rich and socially relevant roles.
- Yes, films like "Suddenly, Last Summer" and "The Mirror Crack'd" incorporate mystery and thriller elements, highlighting Taylor's ability to engage audiences beyond traditional drama and romance genres.
- "National Velvet" is an early film that captures Taylor's beginnings as a child star, setting the stage for her evolution into an adult actress known for more mature and challenging roles.
- Common themes in Taylor's acclaimed movies include complex family dynamics, social conflict, romantic entanglements, and personal transformation, as seen in films like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," "A Place in the Sun," and "BUtterfield 8."
- Taylor worked with several renowned directors such as Mike Nichols in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and Joseph L. Mankiewicz in both "Cleopatra" and "Suddenly, Last Summer," cementing her reputation in classic Hollywood cinema.
