Elizabeth Taylor

British drama critic and biographer Morley celebrates Elizabeth Taylor in a heavily illustrated text that starts with her birth in 1932 and ends in 1987. He links events in her life with a career that has been like a yo-yo since Taylor was a child star in National Velvet and the Lassie films, her ongoing reign as queen of the super-stars notwithstanding. He tracks the box-office decline of initially bankable movies costarring the actress and husband Richard Burton after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and shows us today's Taylor as continual newsmaker, dramatically losing and regaining weight, suffering health crises. Given Morley's convincing admiration, readers will probably agree with his conclusion that Taylor is a tough fighter, a woman to be proclaimed. (Jan.)