Was Elizabeth Taylor's First Oscar A Sympathy Oscar? Here's The Crazy Story

There is no question that Elizabeth Taylor was one of the greatest actors and film stars of all time, especially in her prime in the 1950s and 1960s. She was nominated for five Academy Awards in her career, including earning nominations in four consecutive years from 1958 to 1961. It was the last of those for her nomination for 1960’s Butterfield 8, which you can watch with a YouTube TV subscription, that earned Taylor her first win. If that sounds weird, I agree, but there may be more to the story.

After Three Losses, Taylor Finally Won For BUtterfield 8

In the late ‘50s, Elizabeth Taylor could do no wrong. After getting snubbed for 1956’s Giant, co-starring with James Dean, Taylor reeled off Raintree County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Suddenly, Last Summer, earning an Academy Award nomination for each. In ‘59, she co-starred with her husband, Eddie Fisher, in what I think is the weakest of all her movies of the era, BUtterfield 8, and finally won her first Oscar.

Taylor later won a second Oscar for 1966’s masterful performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? So in a career full of legendary roles and performances, how was it that Taylor’s first Oscar win came in a movie that, frankly, not many people remember or hold in the same esteem as others in her filmography? Well, when the Academy was busy voting for the awards in early 1960, Taylor was filming Cleopatra, and nearly died from pneumonia in London.

The Notorious Production Of Cleopatra Almost Killed Elizabeth Taylor, But Might Have Won Her An Oscar

1963’s Cleopatra, starring Taylor as the Egyptian queen and Richard Burton as Marc Anthony, had a legendarily fraught production. It went way over budget and, at the time, was the most expensive movie ever made, taking two and a half years to film. One reason for the extended shoot time and inflated budget (reportedly $44 million in 1960 dollars) was Taylor’s health.

In March of ‘61, as voters were casting their ballots for the 1961 Oscars, which occurred in April, Elizabeth Taylor, who died in 2011, was hospitalized in London for a bout of pneumonia that almost killed her. The illness was so dire that she was reportedly kept alive by an electric lung (new technology at the time), was being fed intravenously, and had a tracheotomy to assist with breathing as well. At least one outlet may have even reported that the then-29-year-old star had died from the illness.

It was with this news, splashed across newspapers all over the world, that the Academy voted, and there has long been speculation that the reason Taylor finally won a well-deserved Oscar was in sympathy for the actress and her near-death experience.

BUtterfield 8 is not Taylor’s best performance, to be sure. The movie is forgettable, and her performance, while fine, is not on the same level as the other roles for which she was nominated in the years prior. Every once in a while, outside forces conspire to make an Oscar win more than just the performance, and absolutely no one disagrees that Elizabeth Taylor was an icon, deserving of an Oscar or two in her career.

However, her role in BUtterfield 8 isn’t one she might have won had she not been fighting a nearly-fatal illness at the time. Thankfully, she recovered, of course, and continued giving great performances for many more years.