Peter Stackpole and Liz Taylor

Peter Stackpole was the official photographer of my cousin, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor. Two days after the Oakland fire, Michael Harkins and I stepped over downed power lines so we could peer inside his friend’s garage at the hundreds of glass negatives lying in heaps on the cement floor. Peter took the photograph of Chili Williams. Peter and LIFE magazine employed Liz in the war effort. The bottom pics show Liz and her mother in front of the home of the artist, Augustus John, who is kin to the author, Ian Fleming. Those two pics were taken by Mark Kaufman, another LIFE photographer.

John

Chili Williams — The Polka-Dot Girl (skylighters.org)

Peter Stackpole(1913 – 1997) was an original staff photographer for Life magazine, who chronicled the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, the invasion of Saipan, the glamour of Hollywood and life beneath the sea.

Mr. Stackpole worked for Life…