Taylor's American parents were residing in England at the time of her birth. With the outbreak of World War II her parents returned to the United States, settling in Los Angeles. Her beauty brought her to the attention of a talent scout, and in 1942 she made her first film, There's One Born Every Minute. This was closely followed by Lassie Come Home (1943) and a role as the girl heroine in National Velvet (1944) that made her a star. Taylor made a smooth transition from juvenile to adult roles in the films Life With Father (1947), Father of the Bride (1950), and An American Tragedy (1951). After appearing in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Giant (1956), and Raintree County (1957), she gave compelling performances in film adaptations of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959). Her mature screen persona was that of a glamorously beautiful, passionate woman who is easily carried away by emotions of love and anger. Taylor won an Academy Award for her performance as a New York call girl in Butterfield 8 (1960). She met and fell in love with the British actor Richard Burton while they were filming Cleopatra (1963), and she won a second Academy Award for her performance opposite him in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), directed by Mike Nichols from the play by Edward Albee. She costarred with Burton again in a film adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew (1967), and they made five more films together. After the mid-1970s, however, she appeared only intermittently in films, Broadway plays, and television films. Taylor's personal life was exceptionally well publicized and tended to overshadow her acting career. Among her eight marriages were those to the film producer Michael Todd, the singer Eddie Fisher, the U.S. senator John Warner and two to Richard Burton (1964-74, 1975-76).

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