Jump to content

ELIZABETH TAYLOR DEAD :(


mikidiki

Recommended Posts

Actress Elizabeth Taylor dies

March 24, 2011 - 12:29AM

 

Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, famed her striking beauty and a film career that spanned five decades, has died at the age of 79, a statement by her publicist said on Wednesday.

 

"Legendary actress, businesswoman, and fearless activist Elizabeth Taylor died peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles," said the statement.

 

"She was surrounded by her children- Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton," it added, noting that she was also survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

 

Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed beauty whose hectic off-screen love life often eclipsed her most sultry film roles, has died. She was 79.

 

She died today at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CNN reported, citing a statement from her publicist. She was hospitalised six weeks ago for congestive heart failure.

 

The former child actress grew into a voluptuous and jewel-drenched movie star, making headlines with stormy love affairs and eight marriages. Her husbands included actor Richard Burton (twice), singer Eddie Fisher, US Senator John Warner and producer Mike Todd.

 

"I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," she said in an interview with Kim Kardashian posted by Harper's Bazaar on February 9. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things."

 

Though critics panned many of Taylor's performances, the actress and her fans proved she could strike gold at the box office. In 1963, she signed a then-record $1 million contract to appear in Cleopatra with Burton - and earned $6 million more because of delays in filming.

 

Over the years, she won two Academy Awards, for playing a call girl in Butterfield 8 and a shrewish professor's wife opposite Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She also received Oscar nominations for three other films.

 

She became an early AIDS activist, raising millions for research and treatment. She also supported a number of charities and, in a business venture, sold perfumes and scents under her name. In 1999, she was made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

 

'Seeing People Suffer'

 

"Acting is, to me now, artificial," she told the Associated Press at an AIDS clinic dedication in 2005. "Seeing people suffer is real."

 

Her movies, public dramas and health problems made Taylor a frequent topic of cover stories in Life, People and other magazines. By the time she won her first Oscar at age 28, Taylor had been married five times. "What do you expect me to do? Sleep alone?" she said.

 

Aside from her many love interests, Taylor was known as a loyal friend. She met Montgomery Clift early in her career and remained a lifelong friend. She was a steadfast ally of her friend Michael Jackson, speaking out on his behalf after he was charged with child abuse. Jackson died of an overdose of prescription drugs in June 2009.

 

Rock Hudson's Death

 

When Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, Taylor became one of the first figures in Hollywood to raise money and campaign against the disease. And she stayed the course, helping establish the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991.

 

Taylor battled health issues throughout her career, as well as drug and alcohol abuse that landed her in the Betty Ford Clinic, where she met her seventh husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky.

 

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on Feb. 27, 1932, to American parents living in London. In 1939, at the outset of World War II, her mother Sara, a former actress, took Elizabeth and brother Howard to California. By 1943, Elizabeth was in Lassie Come Home and the following year attained stardom in National Velvet.

 

"She wasn't a kid," recalled Velvet co-star Mickey Rooney on a CNN program. "She had the essence of a growing, beautiful child who was going to be more beautiful every day."

 

Her early movies tracked the young star's life: Life With Father (1947) and A Date With Judy (1948) led to Little Women (1949) and Father of the Bride, which came out in 1950, the year of her first marriage, to Conrad Hilton Jr.

 

Romantic Roles

 

Early romantic roles included A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956), followed by her first Oscar nomination for Raintree County (1957). She was nominated and again failed to win for well-regarded performances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), before scoring in Butterfield 8 (1960).

 

In her movies, Taylor sometimes revealed a character's unexpected vulnerability by a familiar catch in her throat, a portrayal that seemed to echo her real-life dramas.

 

A pattern was established by the 18-year-old Taylor, whose marriage to hotel heir Hilton began with a three-month honeymoon and ended in divorce nine months later.

 

She then married actor Michael Wilding, whom she divorced in 1957 after five years and two children. Three days later she married producer Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash a year later.

 

Love Again

 

"I never thought I'd love again" after Todd died, Taylor said, according to CNN. "It was a disaster."

 

Still, love again she did. A year after Todd's death, Taylor married Fisher, Todd's best friend. When Fisher met Taylor, he was married to actress Debbie Reynolds. "In the old days, if Elizabeth saw a man she wanted, she got him, no matter who she stepped over," Reynolds told Hello! magazine in 2001.

 

Even as her movies proved her box office luster, Taylor was beset by health crises. (Her Oscar for Butterfield 8 came after she underwent a widely reported tracheotomy.)

 

Fisher and Taylor divorced after she and Burton - who was also married - began their much-publicised love affair on the set of Cleopatra in Rome. The shoot ran well over budget, almost bankrupting 20th Century-Fox, and the torrid affair brought unneeded publicity to an already troubled film. Overtime due to various delays earned Taylor $7 million for the movie.

 

Big Box Office

 

Taylor became seriously ill during production and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz neared a nervous breakdown, but, after three directors, five writers and a cast of literally thousands, the picture was finished - and then smashed box-office records even as it failed to impress the critics.

 

Taylor and Burton shed their old mates and were married in 1964. They made 11 more pictures together, most memorably Virginia Woolf. None gained the notoriety of Cleopatra even as Taylor's and Burton's relations grew more tempestuous in the course of a 10-year marriage that ended in divorce in 1974. They remarried in 1975, then divorced again 10 months later. Burton died in 1984.

 

In November 2004, Taylor said she'd been diagnosed with congestive heart failure but would continue raising money for AIDS research. Among other contributions, she auctioned a diamond-and-emerald engagement ring Burton had given her. Earlier she sold a $US1 million diamond from Burton to fund a hospital in Botswana.

 

In addition to breaking her back several times, which hobbled her over the years, she was hospitalized in February 1997 for removal of a brain tumor. The tumor proved benign but she suffered a seizure six days after her discharge and had to be re-hospitalised.

 

AIDS Research Fund

 

In early November 2005, wearing a billowy black pantsuit and much jewelry, Taylor appeared in a wheelchair to help dedicate a UCLA clinical research and education center. With bracelets dangling from her arms and a huge diamond on her left hand, the 73-year-old actress announced creation of the Elizabeth Taylor Endowment Fund to support AIDS research.

 

Aside from her charities, Taylor over the past two decades promoted a line of scents and perfumes with such names as Passion, White Diamonds, Black Pearls, and Diamonds and Rubies, thus playing off her well-known romance with costly jewelry.

 

She had two sons, Michael and Christopher, with Wilding; a daughter, Elizabeth, with Todd; and a daughter, Maria, whom she and Burton adopted.

 

To some, Shakespeare's reference to Cleopatra seemed to fit Elizabeth Taylor as well: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I apologize if the topic's been posted previously. She apparently died this morning at 79. R.I.P., Dame Elizabeth. I shared her birthday.

I just read the news. Can't believe this. I just watched the episode of "Here's Lucy" with her in it. All of these great Hollywood stars leaving us. It's so sad to me. No one can compare to them. She was certainly a beautiful woman!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actress Elizabeth Taylor dies

March 24, 2011 - 12:29AM

 

Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, famed her striking beauty and a film career that spanned five decades, has died at the age of 79, a statement by her publicist said on Wednesday.

 

"Legendary actress, businesswoman, and fearless activist Elizabeth Taylor died peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles," said the statement.

 

"She was surrounded by her children- Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton," it added, noting that she was also survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

 

Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed beauty whose hectic off-screen love life often eclipsed her most sultry film roles, has died. She was 79.

 

She died today at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CNN reported, citing a statement from her publicist. She was hospitalised six weeks ago for congestive heart failure.

 

The former child actress grew into a voluptuous and jewel-drenched movie star, making headlines with stormy love affairs and eight marriages. Her husbands included actor Richard Burton (twice), singer Eddie Fisher, US Senator John Warner and producer Mike Todd.

 

"I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," she said in an interview with Kim Kardashian posted by Harper's Bazaar on February 9. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things."

 

Though critics panned many of Taylor's performances, the actress and her fans proved she could strike gold at the box office. In 1963, she signed a then-record $1 million contract to appear in Cleopatra with Burton - and earned $6 million more because of delays in filming.

 

Over the years, she won two Academy Awards, for playing a call girl in Butterfield 8 and a shrewish professor's wife opposite Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She also received Oscar nominations for three other films.

 

She became an early AIDS activist, raising millions for research and treatment. She also supported a number of charities and, in a business venture, sold perfumes and scents under her name. In 1999, she was made a Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

 

'Seeing People Suffer'

 

"Acting is, to me now, artificial," she told the Associated Press at an AIDS clinic dedication in 2005. "Seeing people suffer is real."

 

Her movies, public dramas and health problems made Taylor a frequent topic of cover stories in Life, People and other magazines. By the time she won her first Oscar at age 28, Taylor had been married five times. "What do you expect me to do? Sleep alone?" she said.

 

Aside from her many love interests, Taylor was known as a loyal friend. She met Montgomery Clift early in her career and remained a lifelong friend. She was a steadfast ally of her friend Michael Jackson, speaking out on his behalf after he was charged with child abuse. Jackson died of an overdose of prescription drugs in June 2009.

 

Rock Hudson's Death

 

When Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, Taylor became one of the first figures in Hollywood to raise money and campaign against the disease. And she stayed the course, helping establish the American Foundation for AIDS Research in 1985 and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation in 1991.

 

Taylor battled health issues throughout her career, as well as drug and alcohol abuse that landed her in the Betty Ford Clinic, where she met her seventh husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky.

 

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born on Feb. 27, 1932, to American parents living in London. In 1939, at the outset of World War II, her mother Sara, a former actress, took Elizabeth and brother Howard to California. By 1943, Elizabeth was in Lassie Come Home and the following year attained stardom in National Velvet.

 

"She wasn't a kid," recalled Velvet co-star Mickey Rooney on a CNN program. "She had the essence of a growing, beautiful child who was going to be more beautiful every day."

 

Her early movies tracked the young star's life: Life With Father (1947) and A Date With Judy (1948) led to Little Women (1949) and Father of the Bride, which came out in 1950, the year of her first marriage, to Conrad Hilton Jr.

 

Romantic Roles

 

Early romantic roles included A Place in the Sun (1951) and Giant (1956), followed by her first Oscar nomination for Raintree County (1957). She was nominated and again failed to win for well-regarded performances in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), before scoring in Butterfield 8 (1960).

 

In her movies, Taylor sometimes revealed a character's unexpected vulnerability by a familiar catch in her throat, a portrayal that seemed to echo her real-life dramas.

 

A pattern was established by the 18-year-old Taylor, whose marriage to hotel heir Hilton began with a three-month honeymoon and ended in divorce nine months later.

 

She then married actor Michael Wilding, whom she divorced in 1957 after five years and two children. Three days later she married producer Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash a year later.

 

Love Again

 

"I never thought I'd love again" after Todd died, Taylor said, according to CNN. "It was a disaster."

 

Still, love again she did. A year after Todd's death, Taylor married Fisher, Todd's best friend. When Fisher met Taylor, he was married to actress Debbie Reynolds. "In the old days, if Elizabeth saw a man she wanted, she got him, no matter who she stepped over," Reynolds told Hello! magazine in 2001.

 

Even as her movies proved her box office luster, Taylor was beset by health crises. (Her Oscar for Butterfield 8 came after she underwent a widely reported tracheotomy.)

 

Fisher and Taylor divorced after she and Burton - who was also married - began their much-publicised love affair on the set of Cleopatra in Rome. The shoot ran well over budget, almost bankrupting 20th Century-Fox, and the torrid affair brought unneeded publicity to an already troubled film. Overtime due to various delays earned Taylor $7 million for the movie.

 

Big Box Office

 

Taylor became seriously ill during production and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz neared a nervous breakdown, but, after three directors, five writers and a cast of literally thousands, the picture was finished - and then smashed box-office records even as it failed to impress the critics.

 

Taylor and Burton shed their old mates and were married in 1964. They made 11 more pictures together, most memorably Virginia Woolf. None gained the notoriety of Cleopatra even as Taylor's and Burton's relations grew more tempestuous in the course of a 10-year marriage that ended in divorce in 1974. They remarried in 1975, then divorced again 10 months later. Burton died in 1984.

 

In November 2004, Taylor said she'd been diagnosed with congestive heart failure but would continue raising money for AIDS research. Among other contributions, she auctioned a diamond-and-emerald engagement ring Burton had given her. Earlier she sold a $US1 million diamond from Burton to fund a hospital in Botswana.

 

In addition to breaking her back several times, which hobbled her over the years, she was hospitalized in February 1997 for removal of a brain tumor. The tumor proved benign but she suffered a seizure six days after her discharge and had to be re-hospitalised.

 

AIDS Research Fund

 

In early November 2005, wearing a billowy black pantsuit and much jewelry, Taylor appeared in a wheelchair to help dedicate a UCLA clinical research and education center. With bracelets dangling from her arms and a huge diamond on her left hand, the 73-year-old actress announced creation of the Elizabeth Taylor Endowment Fund to support AIDS research.

 

Aside from her charities, Taylor over the past two decades promoted a line of scents and perfumes with such names as Passion, White Diamonds, Black Pearls, and Diamonds and Rubies, thus playing off her well-known romance with costly jewelry.

 

She had two sons, Michael and Christopher, with Wilding; a daughter, Elizabeth, with Todd; and a daughter, Maria, whom she and Burton adopted.

 

To some, Shakespeare's reference to Cleopatra seemed to fit Elizabeth Taylor as well: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety."

 

Quite saddened by her passing. This is truly the end of an era as she was the last real "movie star".... God bless, Miss Taylor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very sad news. She accomplished so much on and off the screen. It is weird though -- she overcame so many heath problems I was sure this was just going to me another one. :(

 

R.I.P. Elizabeth!

Excellent banner in tribute to Miss Taylor! That outfit is a classic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Robert!

 

I guess this is a great excuse for us to all start our cocktail hours a LITTLE EAAAAAAAAARLY today! ;):(

 

 

I feel like I'm one of the few 20 something GUYS of my generation who actually knows who she is. But there's probably more than I think.

 

How many are going to watch the Lucy episode later? I'm currently watching the Nanny episode where she guest stars and Fran even mentions Lucy! :lucyhaha:

 

Btw that Nanny episode is hysterical from start to finish. One of my top 5 for the whole 6 seasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like I'm one of the few 20 something GUYS of my generation who actually knows who she is. But there's probably more than I think.

 

How many are going to watch the Lucy episode later? I'm currently watching the Nanny episode where she guest stars and Fran even mentions Lucy! :lucyhaha:

 

Btw that Nanny episode is hysterical from start to finish. One of my top 5 for the whole 6 seasons.

You just reminded me of the time Liz guest-starred on a block of special episodes all tied around the concept of her losing her pearls. I remember because I used to watch "Can't Hurry Love" religiously. "The Nanny" followed in that block. It was a cool idea. I recorded that episode. So I may watch it later. Almost forgot about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will be watching this episode tonight.

 

I feel like I'm one of the few 20 something GUYS of my generation who actually knows who she is. But there's probably more than I think.

 

How many are going to watch the Lucy episode later? I'm currently watching the Nanny episode where she guest stars and Fran even mentions Lucy! :lucyhaha:

 

Btw that Nanny episode is hysterical from start to finish. One of my top 5 for the whole 6 seasons.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You just reminded me of the time Liz guest-starred on a block of special episodes all tied around the concept of her losing her pearls. I remember because I used to watch "Can't Hurry Love" religiously. "The Nanny" followed in that block. It was a cool idea. I recorded that episode. So I may watch it later. Almost forgot about that.

Oh yeah, I remember that and that show! But "Nanny" was the only one she actually appeared in, right? :HALKING:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, I remember that and that show! But "Nanny" was the only one she actually appeared in, right? :HALKING:

 

 

Some of my favorite bits from the Nanny ep. such as when they want to keep Fran from seeing Liz

 

C.C.--MAXWELL, NANNY FINE'S IN THE LIVING ROOM!

Max: Miss Fine . . .

Fran: Uh I'm just seein' the kids off to school!

Max: They left an hour ago

Fran: Well it's a clear day I can see foreva

 

Fran: Oh Miss Taylor this is such an honor, I'm Fran, look at the pretty table . . . (which has Fran's automatic camera on it) Keep lookin . . . keep lookin . . . oh forget it (bites her nail and the camera takes a picture) LOLZ!

 

Fran: I've seen everything you've done, Cleopatra, Virginia Wolff, but you know what my favorite was? HERE'S LUCY! Oh when your ring got stuck on her finger, AAAHAHAHAHAHA! Say, I bet a lot of people ask you this but could I--

Liz: No!

 

Fran: I've never been married

Liz: Not even once?

Fran: Well there was one time but then I thought about it

Liz: Oh that was your mistake dear!

 

Fran: I'll just buzz Mr. Sheffield, just buzz him (walks over to the "buzzer" and imitates buzzing sound. lmfao!)

 

Mr. Sheffield: I'd like to introduce you to my business partner C.C. Babcock

C.C.: *giggles* Hello . . . Elizabeth TAYLOR!

Liz: I bet she's never been married!

 

(after Fran hits her head, gets amnesia and loses the pearls in the cab driven by ROSIE O'DONNELL!)

 

C.C. Maxwell, Elizabeth Taylor's pearls are missing . . . and the last person who had them . . .

Mr. Sheffield: C.C. not now, Miss Fine is lying in a hospital bed with amnesia

C.C.: I'LL KILL HER!

 

Grace: I'm Grace

Brighton: I'm Brighton

Maggie: I'm Maggie

Fran: Oh . . . I'm startin' to remember now! Say, didn't I once sing on an Australian hillside with a really butch haircut?

 

(Fran gets into the jacuzzi with Mr. Sheffield and they start splashing)

Niles: Excuse me sir, Miss Babcock's on the phone for you, but I'll just tell her you'll call right back . . . (speaking into the phone) Right after you and Miss Fine get out of the jacuzzi . . .

 

Sylvia: "How much is that dress in Macy's window . . ."

Fran: "Who . . . cares it'll be at Loehmanns on sale!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is so weird, i was just thinking, about her, and got this feeling that i thought she had died, i had been sleeping all morning, so i got up and put on the TV and i watched The Talk and they mentionned it and i found out that she had passed on earlier in the morning. THE LAST STAR, the last one to make such an impact on the industry, i've ribbed her many times about her weight and her sordid lifestyle but that was only as she had given Lucy such a hard time. I always loved her and her work and as Rickee once said, her work for the fight against AIDS cancels out anything bad i have ever had against her personaly. I loved her movies, her life story, her devotion to her children, and she truly was the last major star. I agree with Brock, i too thought this is just another health problem for a woman who lived half her life in the hospital but at least she made it to 79 and as sad as it was to see her in wheelchair nto looking her best lately, you had to admire her for many of the things she accomplished in her truly remarkable life. I think she was a DAME well before she ever got that title, a loud, brassy personality who made millions from films but many more millions from her White Diamonds perfume collection and in the process of a long career and a series of numerous marriages, she accumulated a collection of priceless jewellery that is museum worthy. I'm glad her kids were at her side when she passed on, her beauty was more than just skin deep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Liz wasn't the last star left, we've still got Lauren Bacall, Maureen O'Hara, Olivia DeHaviland, Esther Williams...

 

I had been watching a lot of her movies lately and reading about her, so it was weird to wake up and hear she had passed away. I just watched Lucy and the Burtons and am going to watch Suddenly, Last Summer a little later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robbie, she is the LAST MAJOR UNBELIEVABLY BIG KNOWN THE WORLD OVER RESPECTED ICON that was living, of course to me, Doris Day is the only one left but even Doris, as much as i love her more than Liz is not the LAST STAR, Liz was, they just don't have the star power she had, the life she led, the heights she attained, Hollywood has called her the last star as she was part of a vanishing breed, when stars were really BIG STARS. Bacall's not fit to touch the hem of her burnoose. Doris is working with animals, not in show business, she's become this recluse, the last star was someone people talked about and went nuts when she appeared anywhere even as she approached eighty!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, I remember that and that show! But "Nanny" was the only one she actually appeared in, right? :HALKING:

She actually appeared in all of them, from what I can remember. But I can definitely confirm that she was in "Can't Hurry Love". She's in the dressing room scene with Nancy McKeon and Mariska Hargitay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dun't have to tune in to TCM, i have all her major classic roles on dvd already.

 

 

I just was randomly thinking about her yesterday, and wondered if she ever got out of the hospital, and then I see a news ticker this morning that says she's dead. Weird. :blink:

 

I wonder if anyone had any premonitions about Lucy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just was randomly thinking about her yesterday, and wondered if she ever got out of the hospital, and then I see a news ticker this morning that says she's dead. Weird. :blink:

 

I wonder if anyone had any premonitions about Lucy.

Same for me, was thinking about her this morning, thought, the first post i do today will be about Lizzie, wonder if she's better, but i have a feeling she's gone already and sure enough, i put on the tv at two and see The Talk and they say she passed away this morning, just when i was thinking she was dead. :lucyhorror:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...