She was married eight times, and the Pope denounced her as a sexual vagrant. But her viewers never cared
In every way possible, Elizabeth Taylor was larger-than-life, the essence of a Hollywood star. Reams and reams have been written about her beauty, yet it?s not enough. Not even close. More than her radiant face, her lustrous hair and voluptuous grace, it was her violet eyes, vibrant enough to captivate even in black and white, that epitomised her. Deep and piercing, her gaze could have been right out of today?s 3D TV ads; it seemed as if she was standing right in front of you, and there was nowhere else you could, or wanted to, look. Often, her stunning looks upstaged her acting, no mean feat considering she won two Oscars, for BUtterfield 8 and Who?s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. A full list of her stellar performances can do her little justice, her movies need to be watched, not talked or read about. But this can be said, few roles by any actor have been as poignant as hers in Lassie Come Home, or as regal as Cleopatra.
Outside of her professional life, too, Taylor was a sensation. Whether it was for her eight marriages (testimony to her endurance and vigour, more than anything else) or her magnificent work to create AIDS awareness (she set up the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and over the next 25 years, raised close to $100 million), Taylor lived like the star she was: publicly, controversially and, most importantly, inspiringly.
