Elizabeth Taylor ~ Best Actress 1966

Elizabeth Taylor won her second Oscar for Best Actress for the 1966 drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” She stars as Martha opposite her then-husband Richard Burton (their first marriage of two), George Segal and Sandy Dennis, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, in this Mike Nichols-directed adaption of Edward Albee’s play. Taylor won her first Oscar for “BUtterfield 8,” a 1960 drama in which she plays a prostitute. She had been nominated for Best Actress three times before that, for “Raintree County” (1957), “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (1958) and “Suddenly, Last Summer” (1959). The choice of Elizabeth Taylor—at the time regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world—to play the frumpy, fifty-ish Martha surprised many, but the actress gained 30 pounds for the role and her performance (along with those of Burton, Segal and Dennis) was ultimately praised.

Elizabeth was powerful and emotional beyond her years, and it showed her true raw talent as one of the finest actresses to grace the screen. Richard Burton was as powerful as Elizabeth, and one would almost believe this was how they lived in reality. Sandy Dennis gave an performance of a lifetime, but it was Elizabeth that shown the brightest or “darkest” in the deep emotional roller coaster of a film.