Description

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Suddenly Last Summer. Twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth Taylor ignores the begging of beach urchins in a scene from Suddenly Last Summer, in which she co-stars with Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift. It is Taylor’s first film after the death of her third husband, Mike Todd, in a plane crash. Just months after Todd’s death, Taylor married Eddie Fisher and found herself at the center of a scandal. It was a place that would become familiar for her, though never comfortable, for the next 30 years. S’Agaró, Spain. 1959.

I think that what you've got to do is discover the essential truth of the situation, and have a point of view about it.

Burt Glinn
© Burt Glinn | Magnum Photos
At the time of filming for Suddenly, Last Summer in June 1959, Elizabeth Taylor was the most desirable actor in Hollywood. She played the role of Catherine Holly, a young woman institutionalized for a severe emotional disturbance that occurred when her cousin, Sebastian Venable, died under questionable circumstances while they were on summer holiday in Europe. The film received mixed reviews at the box office, with Variety calling it "possibly the most bizarre film ever made by any major American company".

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Burt Glinn served in the United States Army between 1943 and 1946, before studying literature at Harvard University, where he edited and photographed for the Harvard Crimson college newspaper. From 1949 to 1950, Glinn worked for LIFE magazine before becoming a freelancer. He became an associate member of Magnum in 1951, along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock – the first Americans to join the young photo agency – and a full member in 1954.

Glinn made his mark with spectacular color series on the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico and California. His reportages have appeared in Esquire, Geo, Travel and Leisure, Fortune, Life and Paris-Match. He has covered such monumental news events as the Sinai War, the US Marine invasion of Lebanon, and Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba.

© Burt Glinn | Magnum Photos

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