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Arts and Culture

Elizabeth Taylor: 1932-2011

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Posted on Mar 23, 2011
AP / Mario Torrisi/dapd

The late screen legend Elizabeth Taylor departing the set of “Cleopatra” in 1962.

She was a bona fide movie star by age 12, thanks to a horsey little number called “National Velvet,” but it’s safe to say that Elizabeth Taylor was able to avoid the curse of the child actor, given the countless memorable screen moments she produced over the next 50 years in films such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Butterfield 8,” “Cleopatra” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to name just a few. (And did you know she was once the voice of Maggie Simpson?)

On Wednesday morning, the violet-eyed grande dame of old Hollywood died of congestive heart failure, leaving a colorful legacy both on- and offscreen—and, more important, a noteworthy contribution in the fight against AIDS as one of the first public figures of her stature to call attention to the growing global epidemic. CNN had more on this last point following news of her passing.  —KA

CNN:

In the early 1980s, Elizabeth Taylor stepped up when others were afraid.

A mysterious disease was taking the lives of many gay men, and there was fear and uncertainty about how it was being transmitted. But the movie star refused to treat HIV/AIDS sufferers like lepers.

“Everyone was talking about AIDS, but talking behind their hands,” Taylor said in a BBC Omnibus Special profile that aired in 2000. “But nobody was doing anything about it, including myself. And then I got really angry.”

Taylor’s activism made her an international spokeswoman for the fight against HIV/AIDS. Now, the iconic star is as revered for her charity work in that battle as she is for her shining moments on the screen.

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By rollzone, March 25, 2011 at 10:23 pm Link to this comment

hello. thank you, Ms. Elizabeth, for giving my mother
the aspirations of being the genuine female classic
characteristics which you embodied so beautifully. you
painted a wholeness into her world so noticeably vacant
today. RIP

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By John Poole, March 25, 2011 at 3:24 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Are people truly being honest when they declare her an actress? She was not
convincing to me in WHO’S AFRAID….  I saw the original Broadway production and
know what can be done with the role. She just seemed stiff in many movies. I
think the fact that she is a gay icon does explain much about her “style”. I doubt
there’d be many posters or busts of Madame Curie in Hollywood gay bars. Since
she does fit so well into the gay icon gallery she is a curiosity. We know the
current gay icons and we also know those who aren’t. A study should be made
and conclusions at least attempted as to what “feminine” characteristics are
deemed notable and worthy of emulation and why other female traits and
accomplishments are dismissed as mundane and perhaps not “glamorous”
enough. A list would be quite long.

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Leefeller's avatar

By Leefeller, March 24, 2011 at 10:07 pm Link to this comment

I hear the ass hole church that protests at military funerals is going to protest at Taylors, guess they need the publicity, .....maybe they will show up at mine, .....I need the publicity!

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By Maani, March 24, 2011 at 7:42 pm Link to this comment

I agree.  Almost one of a kind.  And she never rested on her laurels: she remained busy with doing good work once she left Hollywood.

I can’t think of any remaining Hollywood legends, either male or female.  The two who come closest (but are not in Taylor’s category) are Lauren Bacall and Robert Redford.

Peace.

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By Blackspeare, March 24, 2011 at 5:22 pm Link to this comment

She was virtually the last of the true Hollywood “Star.”  Her long career before cable TV and the Internet when the movies was it combined with her notoriety assured her lasting fame.  And becoming the spokesperson for AIDS made her one of a kind——RIP Ms. Taylor.

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