As Maggie the Cat, Taylor turned Tennessee Williams’ heroine into a study in desire, frustration and fierce determination.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) centres on Maggie and her husband Brick, played by Paul Newman, on a Mississippi plantation where family secrets and inheritance collide. Taylor plays Maggie’s hunger for love and for a child with a rawness that earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
It is a performance that refuses to be merely glamorous: Maggie is funny, furious and, above all, alive.
Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.