By Samantha Gleisten

The sheer scope of the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor is breathtaking. She is the last of the great screen legends and one of the most famous women in the world. As she lived a life more varied than any character she ever portrayed, it is seemingly impossible to capture the essence of this multifaceted life in a 60-minute documentary. But "Elizabeth Taylor: England's Other Elizabeth," which premieres on GREAT PERFORMANCES on April 4, 2001, manages to do just that through highlights from the personal as well as public life of the legendary actress.

Longtime pal Shirley MacLaine, who recently appeared with Taylor in the TV movie THESE OLD BROADS.

With grace and honesty, the film tracks Taylor's amazing journey to international stardom and showcases her life's work. It weaves together a collection of interviews of those familiar with Taylor's film career, personal trials, and work as an AIDS activist -- among them Hollywood veterans like Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, and Rod Steiger -- with clips from some of Taylor's memorable performances as well as a revealing interview with the star herself. What emerges is a complete picture of the inimitable leading lady. From her years as a child star to her humanitarian efforts as an adult, and the many chapters in between, Taylor discusses the ups and downs of her days with candor and humor in "Elizabeth Taylor: England's Other Elizabeth."

While Taylor has been navigating the spotlight of fame ever since she established herself as a child star in NATIONAL VELVET, opportunities to hear her tell the stories of the events that shaped her life -- in her own words -- are few and far between. Here, Taylor recalls both joyous and tragic memories with the emotional intelligence and depth we have come to associate with her.

Taylor's humor shines through as she recounts her first public performance as a child of three. She was a young ballerina in England, chosen from her class to do a solo for the royal family. "The sound of applause hit my ears for the first time, and I was transfixed ... I looked at the people clapping, and I just went on butterfly curtsying, and finally, they had to give me the hook," says Taylor.

She also discusses some of the many traumatic moments that have touched her life. Taylor shares the story of the evening when fellow screen star Montgomery Clift crashed his car after leaving a dinner party given at her home in Beverly Hills. "He had the worst accident I've ever seen, and I was the first one on the scene and pulled his head off the dashboard." Taylor's harrowing account of the accident brings to life an episode in Hollywood history that shaped Clift's future.

Elizabeth Taylor.

And in a moving testimony that brings the viewer into her experience and the memory that remains so vivid, Taylor relates the moment she became a widow, at the age of 26, with the death of her third husband, producer Mike Todd. She was shooting CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF at the time, with Paul Newman, and she and Todd were to fly to New York, where he was to be the honoree at a Friars Club roast, when she fell ill. After an extended and pained goodbye, Todd left for the ceremony without her. His plane crashed en route, in New Mexico, on March 22, 1958. Her pain and sense of profound loss is immediate in the retelling, as is the will of a survivor.

"There's pain there. She has suffered ... She's had a lot of tragedy in her life ... but she's a survivor," says Jeanine Basinger, Chair of the Film Studies Department at Wesleyan University, and featured film historian in the documentary.

And as so often been the case with Elizabeth Taylor, it is her ability to truly feel things and remain in the fight that has both underscored her life and symbolized her acting career. According to Basinger, "Elizabeth Taylor has a sense of sensitivity. She has strength and self-confidence as well, but there is sensitivity in her; a sense of someone who can feel things and as a result can suffer. People like [and respond to] this; men want to feel they can protect and help her, and women, instead of feeling jealous, have a sense of, 'My God, she's that beautiful and still she's suffering!' There's a sensitivity to her that takes her out of being just a pretty face. There's a quality to her that is some[thing a] little extra."

This little something extra, beyond beauty, has been there from the beginning. As the sympathetic child actress with an advanced sense of emotional depth and maturity in NATIONAL VELVET; the feeling teenager able to radiate the essence of first love in A PLACE IN THE SUN; or the seasoned adult capable of emotional and intellectual somersaults that incorporate childlike vulnerability and aged bravado in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, Taylor captures the attention of audiences with an arsenal of acting tools, despite never having taken an acting lesson.

Close friend and fellow actor Rod Steiger.

"Taylor's career is quite remarkable," says Basinger. "She went from being this little girl, who was unusually beautiful and sensitive, into a woman, through teenage roles, into this incredible international stardom that was really unprecedented, and over into playing character roles as she does now." It is a career that spans 60 years and includes some of Hollywood's most remembered movie classics.

"Elizabeth Taylor: England's Other Elizabeth" pays homage to her career with an extensive selection of clips from a few of the more than 50 motion pictures Taylor has appeared in, including LASSIE COME HOME, NATIONAL VELVET, A PLACE IN THE SUN, THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS, GIANT, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, BUTTERFIELD 8, CLEOPATRA, and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? A pattern of performance emerges through these vignettes, and Taylor's presence and command of the screen is undeniable, as it is electrifying. With a quality of reactive sensitivity, Taylor embraces the emotional life of her characters with empathy and conviction. "She's an actress who gives it all she's got," says Basinger. She does, and what she's got is more than words can convey.

Photo of Elizabeth Taylor: Pictorial Press.