Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)

Elizabeth Taylor died today. She was a great actress. She was so beautiful too; she could make your heart stop beating. Anyone who has watched her in films like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" can attest to that rare combination of talent and beauty. Finally, she was a philanthropist and a world class human being. May God be with you, Liz.

In the fifties, sixties and seventies, Elizabeth Taylor ruled the Hollywood world with her talent and feminine power, and despite the inordinate amounts of pressure the studios would place on her shoulders by insisting she work when she didn't want to and placing her in crappy films in order to sell them:

While she wanted to play the lead roles in The Barefoot Contessa and I'll Cry Tomorrow, MGM continued to restrict her to mindless and somewhat forgettable films such as: a cameo as herself in Callaway Went Thataway (1951), Love Is Better Than Ever (1952), Ivanhoe (1952), The Girl Who Had Everything (1953) and Beau Brummel (1954). She had wanted to play the role of Lady Rowena in Ivanhoe, but the part was given to Joan Fontaine. Taylor was given the role of Rebecca. When Taylor became pregnant with her first child, MGM forced her through The Girl Who Had Everything (even adding two hours to her daily work schedule) so as to get one more film out of her before she became too heavily pregnant. (Wikipedia)

-- despite this studio system which literally owned actors and told them which films they would be in, Taylor was nominated for an Academy Award five times and won twice, one for A Place in the Sun (1960) and one for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woof? (1966).  Both of these films are must-sees for any film-lover.  Suddenly Last Summer (1959) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) are two more of my favourite films with Elizabeth Taylor.  The original Father of the Bride (1950), The Sandpiper (1965), and Giant (1956) are worthwhile films as well.  In these films and many others, she play alongside and against some of the most impressive leading men who have ever acted, and she held her own.

I also deeply admired her dedication to the HIV/AIDS cause and her ability to persevere through many physical aliments with grace and poise.

She was survived by four children and many grandchildren, a family she fought her whole life to keep out of the Hollywood media and rumor mills, no mean feat.