Michael Wilding, an urbane leading man of the British screen who burned at a lower magnitude of star-power than did his contemporary James Mason, achieved cinematic immortality of sorts by becoming the second of Elizabeth Taylor's seven or eight husbands (like Grover Cleveland in the annals of the U.S. Presidency, the nearest equivalent to the sheer power of celebrity that accrues to top movie and pop stars, some count Richard Burton once while other accountings deem him husbands #5 and #6).

Born in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, England on July 23, 1912, Wilding became a commercial artist after leaving school. He gained employment in the art department of a film studio in London in 1933, and he was soon poached by producers to become a movie star-in-training due to his dashing good looks. After debuting in "Australian Pastorale" (1933), Wilder worked steadily in British pictures for nearly three decades. Though never a star of the first rank like Mason, he had leading roles in numerous motion pictures, including a part in the classic "In Which We Serve" (1942). Wilding often co-starred with Anna Neagle.

Wilder moved to Hollywood and was featured in two of Alfred Hitchcock's lesser efforts, "Under Capricorn" (1949) and "Stage Fright" (1950). Overall, Wilding's Hollywood career was less successful than his British career had been; yet, if he had not made the move, he wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time to catch a gorgeous young Liz Taylor, rebounding from the hard fists and mental cruelty of hotel-chain scion Nicky Hilton (grandfather of the notorious amateur sex-tape queen Paris Hilton. Wilding married Liz in 1952 and lost her to studied-wise guy Mike Todd, a force of nature crafted from chutzpah if not pure, unadulterated hi-test testosterone, in 1956. Wilding and his beautiful movie star wife were divorced in 1957, but the product of their love was two sons.

Some celebrity psycho-historians claim that Liz loved the 20-years-older Wilding like a father; they remained good friends after the divorce. Since Wilding eventually consoled himself with marriage to the legendary Margaret Leighton, it is hard to feel sorry for him, other than the fact that Leighton's untimely death in 1975 left him a widower for the last four years of his life.

After uber-hustler Mike Todd's death in a plane-crash in 1958, La Liz stole crooner Eddie Fisher from her best friend Debbie Reynolds and (contrary to subsequent pronouncements) spent the first two to three years of their marriage making fabulous whoopie. (she boasted that he could make it three times per boudoir session. He complained that a $50,000 piece of jewelry only kept her happy for three days.) Michael Wilding came back into the picture after screendom's most spectacular (if not most expensive) Cleopatra imitated history and began playing house with her Mark Antony, Welsh he-man and fabled inebriate Richard Burton, for the first time. After Liz suffered the slings and arrows of yet another divorce and the Olympian battle of trying to keep up, glass for glass, with her "Taffy" (a pejorative name for Welshman; on his part, Burton called her "Tubby" -- and worse), Wilding went to work for the Burtons.

Wilding's career in pictures had begun dropping off in the '60s due to poor health, and they were glad to have him around as part of their entourage that went through the inflation-adjusted equivalent of about $350 million at the height of their fame circa 1963-73. Wilding was a companionable sort and was there to agree with Richie when, deep in his cups, he confessed to a journalist on the Puerto Vallarta set of "Night of the Iguana" (1964) that if Liz’s derrière got any bigger, she'd have to truss it up in a sling.

Wilding's last movie role was a non-speaking cameo in Robert Bolt's disastrous "Lady Caroline Lamb" (1972), which co-starred Leighton. It was an ignominious end to an honorable career in motion pictures. Ultimately, though, Wilding's immortality lies in his being the answer to a trivia question, consumed by the much larger personality of his ex-wife, the legendary Elizabeth Taylor.


Derby Day (1952): $3,000/week

Father of Christopher Edward Wilding and Michael Wilding Jr. An epileptic seizure triggered Wilding's fall down a long flight of stairs in 1979. The head injuries received in that fall proved fatal. Was involved with and nearly married actress Marie McDonald after his divorce from Elizabeth Taylor. With five failed marriages between them, Wilding and Margaret Leighton allegedly had a difficult time finding someone to marry them in 1964. They were denied not only by their church, but by many justices of the peace in the Los Angeles area. Wilding finally convinced a local judge by bribing him with a hundred-dollar bill.