Taylor Named as 21st Recipient of AFI Life Achievement Award

Elizabeth Taylor on Friday said she is “thrilled, excited and honored” at being named the 21st recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.

The 60-year-old actress, who in recent years has been more active in the fight against AIDS and in her perfume business than in acting, will be honored for her film career, which began in 1942 at MGM.

The March 11 tribute at the Beverly Hilton Hotel will air later on ABC, according to the announcement made by AFI’s new chairman, Frederick S. Pierce.

In a statement, Taylor said she is grateful to “everyone in the industry . . . for their support and encouragement throughout my acting career. I especially wish to thank the public, whose support over the years has meant so very, very much to me.”

Taylor received her first Oscar nomination for 1957’s “Raintree County,” her second for 1958’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and a third for 1959’s “Suddenly, Last Summer.” She won twice as best actress for 1960’s “Butterfield 8” and 1966’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Taylor is only the fourth woman to receive the award, which is considered in the film industry to be among the most prestigious. Earlier recipients were Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis and Lillian Gish. Other honorees have included James Cagney, Orson Welles, William Wyler, Henry Fonda, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck and, last year, Sidney Poitier.

AFI co-chairman and tribute producer George Stevens Jr., whose father co-produced and directed the 1956 “Giant” in which Taylor starred with Rock Hudson and James Dean, said the actress’s work “has stood the test of time.”