Daily Mail reports countless photographs have paid homage to Liz Taylor’s fabulous figure. But none has been so revealing as this. A private collector has released the only known picture of the star – then aged 24 – posing nude. It is understood to be the first time the photo has been shown publicly. It was an engagement gift from Miss Taylor to producer Michael Todd, who was her third husband.
The picture was taken by one of her closest friends, actor and photographer Roddy McDowall. He persuaded her to pose naked by promising her it would be done tastefully. She then gave it to Todd as a present after he proposed in 1956 – the pair married a few months later but the relationship was tragically short-lived. Todd was killed 13 months after their wedding day when his private plane crashed during a storm over New Mexico. A devastated Miss Taylor is believed to have given the nude photograph to her assistant and make-up artist Penny Taylor.
It was bought by private collector Jim Shaudis in 1980 and had been thought lost. But after her death from heart failure last week aged 79, he decided to show the image publicly for fans of the star.
