Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Goodbye, Elizabeth Taylor.
She was not one of my favorite actresses but she was a beautiful icon and a trooper.  My favorite films of hers were National Velvet and A Place in the Sun.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like to think of her as she was in Father of the Bride and an early film hardly anyone remembers called Cynthia. She was wonderful too as "Helen" in Jane Eyre when still a child. After the death of Mike Todd her life became an increasingly sad spectacle that said depressing things about the voyeuristic nature of American audiences.

I suspect that Butterfield 8, the story of Gloria Wanderess, may have been uncomfortably close to the life Elizabeth Taylor had actually lived. I'm sure she was horribly exploited as a child -- as were most of Hollywood's child stars. In a very real sense they were sacrificial victims to our perpetual need for amusement, and the peculiar lust for money and power known only to the Moguls of Hollywood's "Golden Age."

I am sorry she died before the age of eighty. Living to eighty represents triumph over adversity to me. I hope she found a measure of peace and contentment in her later years.

Common Sense said...

Yes, she was a trooper and will be missed. RIP Ms. Taylor.

Z said...

She was okay in Father of the Bride, very beautiful, that's for sure.
Helen was such a tiny role, but so sad.

Anonymous said...

May she rest in peace. She was the stuff of Time, Life, the Post and news stories all my younger years. Her 8 marriages were legendary.

Most of her life she had suffered from severe health problems yet managed to overcome them and triumph.

Virginia Woolf, Cleopatra and Butterfield8...great movies all.

Did you know she herself auctioned off the "Burton-Taylor Diamond" to fund a hospital in Botswana?

Jan said...

I think that she was one of the actresses which one could call a movie star in the truest sense of the word, especially as defined in years past.

It was another world, then, even in the entertainment field.

I think she did a lot for charities dear to her heart.

I'm sure that she will be missed by many.

Z said...

Imp, she certainly had a big heart for charity.

Jan, she really was a star.
It's kind of amazing to think of a world without Elizabeth Taylor! Odd...

Z said...

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_17682062?source=rss

Yahoo's headline is LIZ LIKED TO MARRY..

Imagine that's what they think? As if she chose to have turmoil all her life? But, I have to admit, a lot of people over the years have said to me "if only Todd hadn't died..he was her soul mate!" REALLY, how do you know?! :-)

I met Elizabeth Taylor about 30 years ago...at The Breeder's Cup Ball. As I was introduced, she took my hand and looked at me as if she'd come to the function just to meet me...she was THAT charming.
And her eyes were an absolutely amazing color violet...She couldn't have been more beautiful.

highboy said...

She was also smoking hot. Just saying....

Faith said...

How true, it IS hard to think of a world without Elizabeth Taylor.

cube said...

Not one of my favorite actresses either, but certainly a Hollywood icon. Her humanitarian work
will be missed by many around the world.

Always On Watch said...

Z,
Interesting that you mentioned A Place in the Sun, which happens to my favorite of her films.

With all of her illnesses over the years (since the 1960s), I'm surprised that she lived as long as she did.

Anonymous said...

How sad, another genuine movie star is gone. She was truly beautiful. No, she was not a great actress, but she dominated the screen.

I think her best performance was Virginia Woolf. I liked Cleopatra, and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, but, Paul Newman was probably the reason I liked it so much. Quite a pair those two!

Rest in Peace, Elizabeth.

Pris

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it her Oscar for 'Butterfield' that she said she received it the hole in her throat, a tracheotomy? I remember the quip which referred to a previous nomination for which she lost the Oscar.

Silvrlady

Ducky's here said...

R.I.P. Maggie the cat.

Z said...

One of the most embarrassing moments for me was as a teenager when I was reading WHATEVER HAPPENED TO VIRGINIA WOOLF aloud in my room, all emotions included, and my mother came in!
smiling...

She did that when I was singing with Diana Ross with a brush for a microphone, too.

Geeeez...can't a girl get a little privacy? :-)

Anonymous said...

Silvrlady, Yes she did win for Butterfield 8, and I think the previous one it was thought she'd win for, was Suddenly Last Summer.


Pris

Anonymous said...

She had the Legion D'Honneur from President Mitterrand.

All the French medias are talking about QUEEN ELIZABETH TAYLOR.

SAM

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I think I most liked her in the 1967 movie adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.

She captured the essence of the role of Katharima (the "shrew") in that performance... which is to say if you needed a reason to empathize and sympathize with the intended mysogynistic tone of Shakespeare's play, Liz Taylor's bitchy Kate provided it.

How such a beautiful woman could be so damned repellent... and yet so alluring. I think it was her best role.

ExPreacherMan said...

Hi Z,

Just a little trivia that I posted today also over at BookWorm Room:

It was an interesting day yesterday.. I began thinking of Liz Taylor and floods of stuff came to mind. Some history and three degrees of separation.
Liz’s first love was William D. (Bill) Pawley Jr, son of (WDP Sr.) the former ambassador to Brazil and President of Curtis Wright Manufacturing (WWII Fighter planes). Bill flew Air Force planes “Over The Hump” (Himalayas I believe) during WWII.
Bill was 28 and Liz was 17 when they were engaged and she wore his 3.5 carat diamond engagement ring Bill [and history] said. They stayed engaged for a tad over a year, when Liz’s mom broke up the engagement (for Liz’s “career sake”) and that consequently broke Bill’s heart.
Here is a picture of Bill and Liz at Bill’s Dad’s Mansion on Miami Beach, FL.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/photos/2011/mar/23/215800/
I became acquainted and then good friends with Bill about 1970 after he trusted Christ as his Savior. He and I attended Bible College together as old men, I was 41 when I graduated, Bill was about 9 years my elder. If Bill were alive today he would be about 90.
Bill would occasionally talk about his lost love, Liz, even through her eight marriages. He never forgot his love for her. That is until until about 20 years ago when he met and married a Miami socialite Kitty Wilmet. I was privileged that Bill and Kitty asked me to perform the wedding at Bill’s sister and brother-in-law, Annie Hahr and Hobie McKay’s beautiful mansion in Coral Gables, FL. That I did.
They moved into a modest home about 1/4 mile from my home here in S. Florida. Kitty died about 10 years ago. When I visited with him after that he was a broken man and talked about Kitty but more than ever about his lost love Liz Taylor. He showed me trinkets (jewelry) he had kept from his time with Liz.
Bill soon moved from his home near me a broken man still thinking of what could have been with the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor. He went home to Heaven with His Savior some short time later.
I was not a part of that social set, just an old country preacher who knew someone who loved someone very special.

FYI, there is a site on the web that talks about (and probably wants to sell) 66 love letters from Elizabeth Taylor to Bill Pawley.. Some of them are photographed but a tad difficult to read.
However, reading them, you can see why Bill was brokenhearted the rest of his life.
http://www.autographmagazine.com/2010/01/elizabeth-taylor-autographs-66-love-letters/

In Jesus Christ eternally, Jack

Z said...

Jack! How odd, I was particularly thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you are and you commented here, thank you.

This is an AMAZING story; I did not know about Pawley and find the story so sad but I'm happy he found such happiness with Kitty. And how wonderful you got to marry them!

Thank you for sharing this amazing part of Taylor's history....what a blessing to have you come by!

ExPreacherMan said...

Z,

Yep, just a small bit of trivia from someone who never went to movies except as a child. (10 Cent Saturday mornings back in the 30s).
Z, you know I read and enjoy all your Blogs -- just don't always get a chance to comment.

In Jesus Christ eternally, Jack

Z said...

thanks so much, exPreacherman (as if you could be an EX?)
I'm very glad you read my blog and am grateful for any time you have to add your input.

God bless you and Shirley, dear friend. xxx