Elizabeth Taylor, during the 1950s. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission

Most child stars enjoy several brief years in the spotlight, only to fade from public consciousness upon reaching adolescence. One-too-many adult actors, if they are fortunate, enjoy stardom for a few years before being replaced by a new batch of up-and-comers. Only a handful of cinema greats remain in the spotlight for decades, from youth through middle and old age. Elizabeth Taylor is one such legend. This strikingly beautiful actress has enjoyed movie fame—and international celebrity—for most of her life.

Taylor first became a movie name in the mid-1940s, while still a young teenager, in such classic children's fare as Lassie (see entry under 1940s—Film and Theater in volume 3) films Lassie Come Home (1943) and Courage of Lassie (1946). But it was National Velvet (1944), in which Taylor plays a horse-loving young girl...