Elizabeth Taylor had exceptional beauty, and lesser actresses might have coasted on those looks, gravitating towards sweet, uncomplicated roles. But after a child-star phase, Taylor grew up to be a powerhouse of an actress, nailing nuanced, fractured women and cementing her place in Hollywood history.

Here's a Liz Taylor film primer:

1. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," 1958. As the seductive Maggie, Taylor played up a simmering vulnerability that teetered between resentment and devoted love for her broken husband, played by coiled-spring Paul Newman. It starts out as a family drama circling around a Southern patriarch, but at the core, "Cat," is an exploration of the cross-currents and disappointments of relationships.

2. "BUtterfield 8," 1960. The role that linked lingerie and Liz Taylor forever. Taylor won a Best Actress Oscar for a call girl who thinks she's found real love, but only unearths heartbreak. In what could be called a Taylor signature, her tough-as-nails Gloria Wandrous slowly betrays yearnings for a more traditional, normative life. The scene in which Gloria helps herself to someone else's fur coat remains a subversive thrill to watch, because one can't help but cheer her gumption and effortless glamour.

3. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," 1966. If there's one Liz Taylor movie that most people have seen, it's this one. A tour-de-force performance of spitting inchoate rage, Taylor's Martha is Shakespearean in her vitriol towards Richard Burton's George. For those who don't know of such things, it goes without saying that this performance had a particular frisson, given that the Taylor-Burton love affair was scandalous, passionate and tabloid-catnip long before anyone heard of Brad and Angelina or Tom and Nicole.

4. "Suddenly, Last Summer," 1959. Katherine Hepburn opposite Elizabeth Taylor? What's not to love? In this adaptation of a brooding Tennessee Williams play, Hepburn plays a rich widow who mourns the sudden death of her beloved son, Sebastian. Taylor plays Sebastian's young cousin, Catherine, who appears to go mad after his death. In a startling plot turn, Hepburn's Mrs. Venable has Catherine committed and pushes to have the young woman lobotomized. The film is claustrophobic like a steamy hothouse in the summer but it has a presence that stays with you long after it's over. Bonus points for Montgomery Clift as a young doctor on the case.

5. "Cleopatra," 1963. Hollywood grandeur before they had this CGI thing. The crowds were real, the costumes were intricate, the love between Taylor and Burton was epic and very public despite that they were both married to other people at the time. Even with the Shakespeare play as a backdrop, "Cleopatra" was a movie that people watched for the fireworks between the stars. Taylor, at the time, became the highest-paid actress when she signed on to the starring role for a then unheard-of million dollars.

6. "The Taming of the Shrew," 1967. This isn't a flawless film but Franco Zeffirelli works some magic with it. Taylor plays the famously-acid tongued Kate in a lush period piece opposite Richard Burton's loutish Petruchio. The best part of the film are the early scenes, which play almost like a wink to both Martha-and-George (released the year before) and the Taylor-and-Burton fireworks.

7. "Father of the Bride," 1950. A sweet Hollywood romantic comedy as envisioned by Vincente Minnelli. Spencer Tracy plays Taylor's nerve-wracked father in the kind of classic charming film that used to be called "romps" and "screwballs." It was later remade by Steve Martin, but for some cineastes, the original can't be topped.