Her talent - like her love life - was an open book. With two Oscars and one honorary award
to her name this
violet-eyed damsel left behind a legend
that many will not
be able to surpass.
At first take it is the immense beauty
which strikes you
but look again.
What you see is talent
at its best when
the material was
her equal
Elizabeth Taylor took the world by storm 1944’s National Velvet. She was a mere 12 year old then, getting into the skin of a horse lover named Velvet Brown. However it was actually through 1956’s Giant that she carved a niche as an actress. As the bold, beautiful wife of a Texas ranch owner she set the pattern for her career. Performances in movies like Raintree County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer earned her Academy Award nominations but it was not until she starred as a woman with a string of illicit affairs in Butterfield 8 that she was able to take the award home. In early 1960s she became the highest paid actress up to that time when she signed a million dollar contract to star in 20th Century Fox’s Cleopatra. But it is only towards the middle of her career that the starlet dished out her best performance as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?. The 1967 movie brought her yet another Oscar Best Actress award.
Read moreA significant aspect in Taylor’s life is that she joined the HIV and AIDS awareness campaign launched in the 1980s. This was a time when only a few people - let alone celebrities - even dared to mention the disease. She co-founded the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985, served as its founding national chair, and helped the organization raise more than $260 million. She was also highly regarded for her charity work. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 for her humanitarian activities.She was never satisfied with the movie roles that she was offered for they all seemed stereotyped. Never one to take up work for the sake of earning a few bucks, Taylor had refused a good amount of movies in her career. However the ones she chose were enough to leave a ever lasting impact in moviegoers.
Another remarkable feature about her was her gift for self-appraisal. Just before turning 60 in 1992, she was quoted on saying to Life magazine, “I’ve been lucky all my life. Everything was handed to me: looks, fame, wealth, honors, love. But I’ve paid for that luck with disasters. Terrible illnesses, destructive addictions, broken marriages.”
For all the talent she showed on screen it was mainly for her personal life dramas that Taylor was placed in the limelight. She had been down the aisle eight times. However she dubbed that it was her third husband, producer Michael Todd, and actor Richard Burton (whom she married twice) who were the greatest loves of her life. Her first marriage was to hotel heir Conrad “Nicky” Hilton at 18 on May, 1950. Her most lengthy marriage was to Burton which lasted for 10 years during which they made 11 movies together. The couple also made it to the headlines for their lavish lifestyle, including his gifts to her: the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond and the 69.42-carat Taylor-Burton diamond.
Shortly after her marriage and divorce from senator John Warner, Taylor’s life began to nosedive. She took to overeating, drinking and taking pills. With her health flagging Taylor gave up stardom. She had faced nearly 40 surgeries ranging from hip replacements to the removal of a brain tumor.
The unparalleled screen icon died of congestive heart failure at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital on March 23. She may have been 79 at the time of death but her image as the mesmerizing Hollywood Queen will live on for many more generations, preserved in over 50 movies.
Daily News - Ruwini Jayawardana
