Elizabeth Taylor - Michael Wilding - by Richard Bassett

From 1952 until 1956, Elizabeth Taylor lived the dream that she had always wanted to live. She was a young wife and mother, living in her own home. Family certainly was very important to her and when she married Michael Wilding, she knew that the stability that she so desperately wanted, she finally had. She was a working actress, raising two small boys. Had Michael Wilding showed just a little more ambition towards his own life and career in America, things may have turned out differently for him and Elizabeth. As her career soared, he found it difficult to adapt to life in America, namely Hollywood. He had been a major matinee idol in England, and when he moved to America after Elizabeth signed her new MGM seven year contract in 1952, he never achieved the same recognition as he had had in England and soon wanted to go back to England, feeling unmotivated and disillusioned. Elizabeth tried to make the marriage work but she was destined for greater film roles, living an international lifestyle, making world headlines, becoming a billionaire in her own entrepreneurial enterprises and becoming one of the most lucrative fund raisers for AIDS, a disease that was (and is) devastating the world. But, in 1956....these things were yet to come. Michael slipped back to England while Elizabeth's star escalated beyond the Heavens. Please donate if you can, and help save a life or mend a life.
By Richard Bassett, *2008

xrichbassx@yahoo.com

DONATE NOW - The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation: http://www.elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org/how-you-can-help

DISCLAIMER: WE MAKE NO CLAIM TO THE COPYRIGHTS OF THE FILM CLIPS, PHOTOGRAPHY OR MUSIC PUBLISHING RIGHTS HEREIN. UNDER SECTION 107 OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT 1976 "FAIR USE" ALLOWANCE IS MADE FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. WE ARE IN NO WAY PROFITING FROM THE USE OF THIS MATERIAL.

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[fradbg]

could you tell me the what is the violin concert that we heard?

[richardbassett1956]

Not sure...I will try to investigate it for you

[nickiwilding]

micheal wilding is my grandfather , elizabeth taylor never new about my dad as it was before her and he wanted nothing to do with my dad when he was born , he was quoted as saying one day he passed my dad in a radio station and he was taken aback as it was the first time he ever saw him and my dad was 29 and micheal said he just looked in the mirror 20 yrs ago when he saw my dad , yet he never said hello .

[richardbassett1956]

What an amazing fact to discover about yourself. Christopher and Michael must be your fathers half brother. How interesting, so sorry for the estrangement. Please keep in touch as I will post more Michael Wilding photos if I come across them.

Sincerely,

Richard Bassett

[digidestined1993]

micheal and christopher are my cousins micheal seniour is the brother of my great granddad

[richardbassett1956]

The boys are alive, of course. They are in their 50's. Michael Wilding Sr. died in July 1979.

[SugarKatie]

@SuperOldiesguy michael wilding was surely one lucky guy! I think Liz looked the best in her early 20s too. I didn't find her matronly looks attractive until recently.

[Zva26]

@SuperOldiesguy - Look at Liz in The Last Time I saw Paris" and "Giant", and compare her to "Butterfield 8" just four and five years earlier. The change is marked. She had an angelic quality and a fragility that she completely lost ---- and this was long before "Virginia Woolf". She got a trace of it back in the 1980's and early 1990', when she slimmed, streaked her hair, and became super-gorgeous once again. By 1995, this was also gone. Her weight returned, her illnesses increased, etc.

[Zva26]

@SuperOldiesguy - Elizabeth Taylor was positively drop-dead gorgeous during the Wilding days. But by the time she married Mike Todd, something changed. She became bolder, wore much more flamboyant. She began to wear tremendously low-cut gowns, fabulous jewelry, and there were times when she was definitely "over the top". She remained gorgeous, but in a flamboyant and not always classy way. Then she regained her beauty for a brief time in the 1980's and 1990's when she lost all the weight.

[SuperOldiesguy]

@Zva26 You are not the only one. I totally agree with you, yes, she was absolutely gorgeous in that period. Of course she had always been gorgeous her whole life but during that "Wilding Period" she peaked. I also came across a website who opined that Elizabeth looked matronly too soon, she was ravishing in her early 20s (it doesn't mention the Wilding Period but early 20s also means the same). Look at her in late 50s and early 60s, still beautiful yet....

[DominoPetachi83]

@msesisters3 I know! He was 20 years older than her and MORE THAN TWICE HER AGE when they married! She was only 19, he was 39, and he had just divorced his wife of fifteen years to marry her. This marriage was Elizabeth's biggest mistake. Totally different levels of maturity.

[john16ist]

@fradbg to jest "Legenda" Henryka Wieniawskiego.

[lilplinky]

yes he does

[caldinay]

Anybody also feels that Micheal looks like Alan Cumming('Eli Gold' in 'The Good Wife') a lot except Alan's thin?

[lissalives]

So sweet! What a gorgeous woman.