Rare Elizabeth Taylor photos with James Dean and Richard Burton to go on display

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Grit and Glamour, which opens at the Getty Images Gallery in October, includes a number of rare photos
One shows the late Elizabeth Taylor larking about on the set of Giant in 1956 with her co-star James Dean
In others, Ms Taylor is seen standing on Westminster Bridge and laughing with husband Richard Burton in 1972

Published: 06:07 EST, 13 August 2015 | Updated: 10:38 EST, 13 August 2015

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A selection of never-before-seen photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, who died in 2011 aged 79, are set to be the highlight of a new exhibition charting the British star's life.

Entitled Grit and Glamour, the display will open in October at the Getty Images Gallery in London and will include hundreds of photographs of the late actress, both on-set and off.

Among the highlights is a candid snap of Ms Taylor taken on the set of 1956 film Giant which shows her performing a tumble - helped along by co-star James Dean - which has been released exclusively to MailOnline ahead of the opening.

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Early days: Elizabeth Taylor adjusts the bow tie of actor Montgomery Clift at a Los Angeles premiere in November 1949

Another shows her laughing while sharing a joke with Peter O'Toole and husband Richard Burton after the latter made a surprise visit to the set of Under Milk Wood, which was based on the 1954 radio play by Dylan Thomas, in 1972.

Others show her at the very start of her career, with one particularly haunting shot, taken in 1948, showing the actress peering over the rails of Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament in the background.

Ms Taylor, who was infamously married eight times to seven husbands, died in 2011 after an extended bout of ill health and is buried in Los Angeles' Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

The actress was survived by four children, one of whom, Christopher Wilding - one of her two sons with second husband Michael Wilding - was involved in choosing the photographs used in the exhibition.

Speaking to MailOnline, he said: 'It has been very special for me to look through these photographs spanning decades of my mother’s life. They remind me how special and unique it was growing up around her - life often took on the magical atmosphere of the traveling circus.

Haunting: In this photo, taken in 1948, the actress, then aged just 16, peers out over the Thames from her perch on Westminster Bridge

Glamorous: This photo, taken in 1951 when she was 19, shows Ms Taylor looking every inch the Hollywood star in a white ballgown

Head over heels: Ms Taylor takes a tumble with the help of co-star James Dean on the set of the 1956 movie, Giant

Star: Ms Taylor pictured enjoying Derby Day at Epsom on the 5th June 1957 accompanied by her third husband, producer Mike Todd

'But mom never played the celebrity; she lived life on her own terms and was always true to herself. She had a keen sense of fairness, and she always sided with the underdog. She stood up for what she believed in.'

One such cause was championing HIV and AIDS patients, a crusade begun in 1985 when fear of the illness spreading was at its height, and co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) with Dr. Michael Gottlieb and Dr. Mathilde Krim.

Her devotion to combating the disease was sparked by death of her close friend and co-star, actor Rock Hudson, who died of the illness in the October of that year.

Later, in 1991, she launched an HIV/AIDS charity of her own - the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF) - which supports organisations caring directly for those who suffer from the disease.

Proceeds from print sales made during the exhibition will be donated to ETAF, with Louise Garczewska, the director of Getty Images Gallery, saying she hopes the display will raise 'much needed funds' for the charity and 'ensure Elizabeth Taylor's legacy continues'.

In the spotlight: Ms Taylor pictured with her future husband Richard Burton at a screening of Lawrence of Arabia in 1962

Wedding number five: Ms Taylor pictured at her 1964 wedding to Mr Burton, her fifth husband, in Montreal on the 15th March 1964

Sharing a joke: Ms Taylor laughs after being joined in bed by Mr Burton during a Under Milk Wood sex scene with Peter O'Toole in 1972

Jetset: Ms Taylor and Mr Burton pictured at a Monte Carlo party thrown by Princess Grace of Monaco in November 1989. The scorpions on her cape were added to symbolise the princess' birth sign of Scorpio. She is also wearing the Taylor-Burton Diamond

Old friends: Ms Taylor with friends Whoopi Goldberg and Elton John at a benefit concert for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1992

Elizabeth Taylor stars in the 1963 film Cleopatra

She added: 'Many of the images will not have been seen before and provide fascinating insight into an incredible woman. We hope the exhibition will raise much-needed funds for HIV/AIDS projects.'

Joel Goldman, managing director, said that 100 per cent of the proceeds would go direct to good causes. 'Ms Taylor set up her estate so that 100 per cent of ETAF’s operating costs would be covered by her Trust allowing all donations to go directly to helping people living with HIV and AIDS,' he said.

'ETAF has awarded grants to nearly 700 organizations in 37 countries around the globe including the Terrance Higgins Trust in London.'

The exhibition, which opens on the 9th October and will run until the 7th November, will go on tour after it closes, and is due to be staged in New York, Los Angeles, South Africa and France later this year.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: A GLAMOROUS LIFE WELL LIVED

One of the most famous of all the actresses to ply her trade in Hollywood, Elizabeth Taylor was almost as well known for her many marriages as she was for her cinematic success.

Born in London's Hampstead to American parents living in the British capital, Ms Taylor's silver screen career began early, with the actress' first roles coming while she was still a child.

In 1939, the family had fled London following the outbreak of World War II and relocated to New York and then Los Angeles, where Ms Taylor became one of Universal's and then MGM's child stars and made her film debut, in There's One Born Every Minute, at the age of nine.

Appearances in Lassie Come Home and Jane Eyre followed in 1943, as did a return to the UK to make White Cliffs of Dover in 1944, but her real breakthrough role came later the same year in 1944's National Velvet.

The enormous success of the film made her an overnight star, with the actress going on to appear in a slew of hit films over the course of her career, the most famous of which were Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Cleopatra (1963) and Under Milk Wood (1972).

But for all her success on screen, it was her lavish lifestyle, penchant for diamond jewellery and her seven husbands, one of whom she married twice, that really made her a household name.

Her first wedding came in 1950 but only lasted a year thanks to husband Conrad Hilton's alleged abusive behaviour. Number two was actor Michael Wilding, a man 20 years her senior, with whom she had two sons: Christopher and Michael.

Less than a week after divorcing Wilding on the 26th January 1957, Ms Taylor married again, this time to film producer Mike Todd with whom she had a daughter, Elizabeth.

The only one of Ms Taylor's marriages not to end in divorce, it lasted just over a year until Todd's death in a plane crash in March 1958. An inconsolable Ms Taylor was comforted by Todd's best friend, Eddie Fisher, with whom she began an affair.

The pair went on to marry in 1959 but divorced in 1964 thanks to Ms Taylor's well-documented affair with Welsh actor Richard Burton who would become her fifth husband and the only one she married and divorced twice.

Her sixth husband was Virginia's Republican senator John Warner whom she married in 1976 shortly after divorcing Burton for the second and final time.

Once again, the marriage didn't last with Ms Taylor so unhappy with her new life in Washington D.C, she became depressed and was forced to check into the Betty Ford Center.

After emerging, she divorced Warner and married construction worker Larry Fortensky, whom she had met while being treated at the Center, in a lavish 1991 ceremony at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch.

Although the couple divorced in 1996, they remained close for the rest of Ms Taylor's life. The actress was rumoured to be planning to marry a ninth husband, Jason Winters, in 2007 but denied the rumours and was unmarried when she died at the Cedars Sinai Clinic in Los Angeles in 2011.