Shining Through Scandal: The Incredible Life Of Elizabeth Taylor

The Only Time Taylor Didn’t Lose A Husband Over Divorce

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Taylor told LIFE in 1964 that Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was definitely a high point in her career, despite her devastation. “I think in a way I became Maggie. Mike was killed just two weeks after I started work on Cat and I guess I went slightly around the bend with grief. I was lucky I had somebody else to become. When I was Maggie was the only time I could function. When they said, ‘Cut,’ I would go back to my dressing room, and I don’t remember much what I did. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t talk; I couldn’t eat even. Most of the time I would just more or less look.” Mike Todd was one of the seven husbands Taylor actually loved, but probably not as much as the one that came along a little later down the road…