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FOREVER ELIZABETH Iconic photographers on a legendary star

CONTENTS Foreword 4-5 Introduction 6-7 Norman Parkinson 8-37 Milton H. Greene 38-69 Douglas Kirkland 70-115 Terry O’Neill 116-157 Gered Mankowitz 158-189 Eva Sereny 190-207 Gary Bernstein 208-237 Greg Brennan 238-245

Terry O’Neill

Photographers’ Biographies 246-247 Postscript 248-249 2

FOREWORD Words and illustration by Robert Risko

Okay, so you just received this gorgeous picture book on Elizabeth Taylor by the finest photographers in the business and it’s sitting there in front of you like a delectable dessert and you’re wondering how to savour every bite. Some of you won’t be reading this right now because you have no self-control. You’ll go straight to the centre and try to find the sweet spot. But just where is the sweet spot in the decades of beautiful images she left behind? Everyone will have their favourites and there is no accounting for taste; and, as beautiful as she was, let’s face it she had some tacky moments too. But even those fashion fails captivate our eyes because it wasn’t just her physical beauty that we loved, it was her vulnerability. She was a cat. Her eyes could express all seven deadly sins in a split second and although she could be perceived as a victim, she always landed on her feet and came back more powerful. More beautiful. That’s why it’s hard to say which is our favourite “Liz Look”. Can one really say that they prefer apple pie over chocolate cake? Maybe you can! When I was asked to write this foreword, I thought I was going to write about seeing her for the first time when I was ten years old in Cleopatra or how she ripped my heart out when I was twelve in Suddenly Last Summer, which aired on TV late one night. She was my mother’s age and my mother’s idol, so I knew that this dark-haired lady was a female that I needed to pay attention to! She was every Catholic woman’s fantasy of what they might do if they hadn’t been taught that their desires were something they had to control. My mother idolised her because she was a real woman, not just a pin-up. She showed us every aspect of what a real woman experiences throughout her life and, along with being one of the most beautiful women to ever walk the planet, I think that’s a big reason why we love her. Her face is a perfectly shaped oval

with proportions that must follow the golden ratio. She doesn’t have the kind of beauty that earlier stars like Ava Gardner had. Those ladies were more chiselled and made to resemble Greek or Roman statues, which was great for black-andwhite films where cheekbones were highlighted, and jawlines created with heavy shadows. Elizabeth Taylor created a new school of American beauty, one of refinement that softened the harsh angles of yesteryear, primarily because photography had evolved. In another time she might have been thought of as plain but underneath that beautiful, smooth skin was a perfect bone structure holding her fine features in place. Her eyes were like two jewels embedded in a porcelain egg. Her double row of eyelashes on the upper and lower lids gave the impression of a black velvet jewellery case revealing diamonds every time she opened and closed her eyes! She collected (and wore) her husbands like pieces of jewellery until they no longer enhanced her beauty or simply until she just grew tired of them. When she lost her youth, she gained weight until a magazine cover proclaimed her “Fat and Happy” and she seemed to throw it in our faces! It was as if she were trying to destroy her beauty, but she couldn’t. It made us love her more. She was the anti-Marilyn. If Monroe was a kitten, Taylor was a Mama Lion who wasn’t afraid to show her teeth or who she ate for dinner. That’s why my mother loved her. That’s why I loved her. There are those of you who are particular when it comes to your sweet tooth but, personally, I’ll take it all when it comes to Elizabeth Taylor. Pile on the whipped cream and chocolate sauce. She is to be consumed from every angle until you can’t take another bite. Her appearance is intoxicating, and her spirit is temperamental, and we can’t look away. So, give in and indulge in this incredible collection of Elizabeth Taylor portraits. The great thing is, there isn’t a single calorie in it!

INTRODUCTION Carrie Kania, Creative Director at Iconic Images

There are few people of cultural significance who have grown up in the public eye. Their every move, transformation, reinvention documented by an eager press for a hungry audience. Elizabeth Taylor is one such person. At the age of 12, after a few co-starring roles, Elizabeth Taylor graced the big screens with her star-making performance in National Velvet. Released the Christmas of 1944, the film was a box-office success making the young actor an instant celebrity; an actor who fascinated us. Her life from that moment changed. From then on, up until her death in 2011, Elizabeth Taylor was in the public eye. Every detail of the star’s life enthralled the public. Her many marriages, more than 50 major films, television appearances, stage roles – and then her later life, when she focused on creating bestselling perfumes and became the ambassador for several major charities, Elizabeth Taylor was seemingly everywhere. And when you are everywhere, cameras are always focused on you. In this book, Forever Elizabeth, eight photographers open up their archives to share their images and experiences working with Elizabeth Taylor. In some cases, the photos were simply by chance or luck, in others, publicity shots to promote what Taylor was working on at the time, whether that be film or fragrance. The result is a unique look at a unique star, documented by photographers Norman Parkinson, Milton H. Greene, Douglas Kirkland, Gered Mankowitz, Eva Sereny, Terry O’Neill, Gary Bernstein and Greg Brennan. One of the twentieth century’s greatest fashion photographers, Norman Parkinson would on occasion produce portraits of stars and aristocrats. Parkinson first met Taylor in 1953, when the star was 21 years old. He met her again nearly 20 years later, in 1972, when Life magazine commissioned portraits

for her 40th birthday. Following the success of these pictures, Parkinson worked with Taylor several more times, including portraits, again for Life, celebrating her 50th birthday. Only a year after Parkinson’s first meeting with her, Milton H. Greene, Hollywood’s famous “colour wonder boy” worked with Elizabeth Taylor in 1954. Greene was asked by Look magazine to take pictures for a series that would be called “Hollywood Mothers”, taking beautiful photographs of the young star with her 16-month-old son, Michael. One of Greene’s portraits from this session would be used on the magazine’s cover. A year later, Elizabeth Taylor was again the subject of Greene’s camera, this time for a series promoting American Airlines. Following a few more opportunities to work with Taylor in the 1960s, Greene’s last meeting with the actor occurred in 1975, in the Soviet Union on the set of George Cukor’s film The Blue Bird. This was a particular memorable session, with photographs taken at the palace of Catherine the Great, now the world famous Hermitage Museum. Elizabeth Taylor’s image was not only lucrative to her own fame, but also to the photographers, who would find themselves on a new level in their career once the photographs ran. Such was the case with Douglas Kirkland. Kirkland worked with Taylor three times, each two years apart, starting in 1961 when the young photographer was still new to his role at Look magazine. He convinced the star that her agreeing to a single sitting would mean a great deal to his career. She agreed, perhaps due to the charming photographer’s forward question. And he was right: that first session with Taylor in 1961 resulted not only in a cover for Look magazine, it catapulted Kirkland’s career to new heights. On-set photography was an essential aspect for the film studios to help them

Elizabeth Taylor was seemingly everywhere. And when you are everywhere, cameras are always focused on you

publicise upcoming releases. Images of the stars on the sets of their latest pictures gave the keen public a taste of what was next for their favourite stars. Many photographers, including those in this book, found their way to the sets of Elizabeth Taylor films, capturing images of the star in and, often, out of character. In 1967, Gered Mankowitz found his way to Capo Caccia in Sardinia and the set of the film Goforth, (later renamed Boom!). It proved to be one of the few films Mankowitz ever worked on, he found the situation and politics of the press office too challenging to want to make a career of it. This, coming from a photographer who had toured with The Rolling Stones a year earlier! Eva Sereny, only a few years into her career as a special unit photographer – working on film sets capturing images of stars that would be later shared with the press – was working on the set of The Assassination of Trotsky starring Richard Burton. Rumours spread fast that Burton would be visited by his wife, so Sereny stood at the ready to catch the couple. The results paid off, in particular with a striking image of the two stars in an apparently intense sparring match; Burton and Taylor would divorce (for the first time) a few months later. Terry O’Neill met Elizabeth Taylor through her husband at the time, Richard Burton. O’Neill first met Burton on the set of Look Back in Anger and when they met again on the set of Staircase in 1969, Burton suggested to O’Neill that he should visit Taylor on a nearby set, where she was starring in The Only Game in Town. This encounter led O’Neill to work with Elizabeth Taylor several times, including a memorable meeting with David Bowie and the world-famous Paramount Pictures 75th anniversary portrait, when O’Neill had to encourage Elizabeth Taylor to come out of her dressing room to meet the new Hollywood stars, Robert DeNiro and Harrison Ford.

In the 1980s, Taylor started to take on fewer roles. Still very much in the public eye, she used her celebrity status and reinvented herself as marketer. Elizabeth Taylor was the first celebrity to create a line of fragrances. Gary Bernstein developed a working friendship with the star, after being introduced to her by Robert Wagner. A ‘surprise’ lunch with Taylor led to countless opportunities for Bernstein to take portraits of the star in the late 1980s, including images used for marketing her bestselling perfume, Passion and the cover of her 1988 memoir, Elizabeth Takes Off. At the end of her life, Elizabeth Taylor started to focus solely on her charitable work, notably being one of the first major celebrities to advocate for HIV/AIDS research, inspired by the death of her long-term friend, Rock Hudson from the disease. Her tireless campaigning raised hundreds of millions of dollars and cemented Taylor’s legacy in the hearts and minds of a new generation. Working press photographer Greg Brennan, who specialises in capturing photographs of celebrities at events, found Elizabeth Taylor through his lens on several occasions, most memorably after a fundraiser in Notting Hill in 1999. A few years later, Brennan once again saw the star leaving a dinner at the Café Royal in London. Elizabeth Taylor, approaching the age of 70, needed some assistance negotiating the steps and was ably escorted by two of her sons. The resulting photograph is that not only of beauty – but gravitas. In his foreword, the famed illustrator Robert Risko writes of falling in love with Elizabeth when she appeared on screen when he was just a 10-year-old boy. He is not alone. These eight photographers compiled here have provided just some of the photographs of Elizabeth Taylor that we have all fallen in love with.

NORMAN PARKINSON Acclaimed fashion photographer Norman Parkinson worked with the icon several times throughout her life, including images celebrating her 40th and 50th birthdays Text by Terence Pepper OBE, curator and former Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery

Elizabeth Taylor photographed in 1953, the year she starred in ‘The Girl Who Had Everything’, and filmed ‘Elephant Walk’ in Sri Lanka and ‘Rhapsody’ in Switzerland

Elizabeth Taylor wearing ruby and diamond Cartier jewels in an advertisement for her perfume, Passion, 1987

Friends ask with a certain hush in their voice, ‘You know Elizabeth Taylor? Tell me, what is she like?’ It is her magical, elusive, legendary quality that makes an answer impossible NORMAN PARKINSON, WOULD YOU LET YOUR DAUGHTER?, 1985

Elizabeth Taylor wearing Harry Winston jewels in an advertisement for her perfume, Passion, 1987

Elizabeth Taylor in a kimono, taken in Vienna during the filming of ‘A Little Night Music’, 1976

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Finally, after a few days of discussion, I was approved and joined the cast and crew in Capo Caccia on Sardinia … GERED MANKOWITZ

Looking over director Joseph Losey’s shoulder as he works with Elizabeth Taylor

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This one was taken in my Culver City studio for a series of Passion Perfume advertisements

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There was never a session that we weren’t shooting for a quantity of clients or magazine covers the same day GARY BERNSTEIN

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I always keep bolts of fabric in my studio. During a session with multiple changes, Elizabeth went over to this pink fabric and wrapped it around herself. We set up a pink background, resulting in the photograph she referred to as ‘The Pink Lady’. It became her personal autograph photo for many years in both colour and black-and-white

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GREG BRENNAN Press photographer Greg Brennan captured Elizabeth Taylor a few times in London as the star attended events

Elizabeth Taylor visits the Lighthouse hospice in Notting Hill Gate, London, after an HIV/AIDS fundraising event, November 1991

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There was no brighter star than Elizabeth Taylor in front of the camera, or in her special life away from the camera. Truly one of kind, she was fiercely passionate about living and about helping others. For those of us lucky enough to have worked with her, she provided a treasure of memories that will last forever... ‘Forever Elizabeth’ GARY BERNSTEIN

Bernstein playing around with Elizabeth Taylor’s classic face and features

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Iconic photographers on a legendary star

ISBN: 978-178884-133-7

The rights of Iconic Images to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Illustration by Robert Risko, p.5 © Risko, Inc Photographs by Norman Parkinson, pp.8-36 © The Norman Parkinson Archives / Iconic Images Photographs by Milton H. Greene, pp.39-69 © 2021 Joshua Greene • archiveimages.com Disclaimer: The copyright to the last picture in the Milton Greene chapter (page 68) at was sold at auction. The Archives, LLC has made every effort to contact the owner. The Archives makes no claim as to the copyrights of this image. All rights to all Milton H. Greene images are reserved and cannot be used without written consent from The Archives, LLC. Photographs by Douglas Kirkland, pp.71-115 © Douglas Kirkland Photographs by Terry O’Neill, pp.3, 117-157 © Terry O’Neill / Iconic Images Photographs by Gered Mankowitz, pp.158-189 © BOWSTIR Ltd 2021/Mankowitz.com Photographs by Eva Sereny, pp.191-207 © Eva Sereny / Iconic Images Photographs by Gary Bernstein, pp.208-236, 248 © Gary Bernstein. All Rights Reserved Photographs by Greg Brennan, pp.238-245 © Greg Brennan Foreword text © Risko, Inc All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions in the text and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

CEO, Iconic Images Robin Morgan

Publisher, ACC Art Books James Smith

Editor Carrie Kania

Editor Susannah Hecht

Design Director Stephen Reid

Design Craig Holden

Production Adam Powell

Production Corban Wilkin

www.iconicimages.net

www.accartbooks.com

Printed in Belgium for ACC Art Books Ltd., Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK www.accartbooks.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Terence Pepper, Grace Lee and Andrew Batt for their support, research, knowledge and guidance.

FINEART ARCHIVES PUBLISHING CREATIVE

Thank you to the eight photographers and their archives for allowing us to share these images – and memories – of Elizabeth Taylor. And a special thank you to Robert Risko for his introduction.

As one of the 20th century’s most loved stars, Elizabeth Taylor’s image is instantly recognisable the world over. Here, eight wonderful photographers share their memories and photographic archives of the icon, including classic, rare and never-before-seen images.

Photographers Included: NORMAN PARKINSON MILTON H. GREENE DOUGLAS KIRKLAND TERRY O’NEILL GERED MANKOWITZ EVA SERENY GARY BERNSTEIN GREG BRENNAN Foreword by Robert Risko

ISBN: 978-1-78884-133-7

9 781788 841337

56500 £45.00/$65.00