Did You Know #25

As you read these words you should be able sense our extended family tree becoming more and more ponderous. Stepping out on this particularbranch will bring you face to face with some of the great names of our time, in Hollywood (R. Burton), business (Hilton), and politics (Warner), and the inspiration for the number one hit of the Statler Brothers. And it can all be found by looking into the incredibly pulic life of one of motion pictures most admired actresses, and our grandfather's 9th cousin.

Here is the connection...

Gov. Andrew Ward I & Esther Sherman
Samuel Ward b.1645		Esther Ward b.1623
Samuel Ward b.1677		Daniel Burr b.1660
Elizabeth Ward b.1708		Elizabeth Burr b.1696
Mary Harris Hinman b.1749		Nathaniel Hull b.1726
Rhoda Hinman b.1774		Ezekiel Hull b.1765
Jonathan Perigo		Platt Hull b.1787
Margaret Jane Perigo b.1830		Ezekiel Hull b.1813
Francis Marion Taylor b.1860		Rebecca L. Hull b.1841
Frank Martin Bragg b.1867		Francis Lenn Taylor b.1897
Orval Bishop Bragg b.1895		Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor b.1932

Born in London, England (her mother, a retired actress, and father, art dealer, were in England on business), "Liz" Taylor was a hit from her very first film, There's One Born Every Minute (1942), and appeared in some of the greatest movies of the next two decades, such as:
National Velvet (1944)
Life with Father(1947)
Father of the Bride (1950)

Cleopatra (1963; costarred with future husband Richard Burton, the first of 11 films together)

She is also greatly renowned for her many marriages (8), seven of which ended in divorce and two of those to the same man (R. Burton). "Fourth-husband Eddie Fisher said that a $50,000 diamond could keep Taylor happy for approximately four days."[1] An episode in the classic sit-com "Here's Lucy" revolves around Lucy getting one of Taylor's famous diamond rings stuck on her finger, the highest rated episode of that series. "She has been named "#7 in the American Film Institute's list of the 50 'Greatest American Screen Legends'"; voted "the 11th Greatest Movie Star of all time" (Entertainment Weekly); highest rated episode of A & E's popular "Biography" series (1987); runner up for the most times featured on cover of People magazine (14 times up to 1996, Princess Diana was first); in 1976 she was second in a magazine poll for "Most Memorable Eyebrows" (Lassie was first);and she was the first "actress to earn $1,000,000 for a movie role (in Cleopatra (1963)."[1] She was nominated five times for the Oscars, and won twice (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966; BUtterfield 8 in 1960) along with numerous nominations and wins for very presigious awards (i.e. Life Achievement Award; Cecil B. DeMille Award; Golden Globe [3 nominations, 1 win for Suddenly, Last Summer in 1959).

[1] IMDb Biography for Elizabeth Taylor
[2] Awards for Elizabeth Taylor