Friday, March 29, 2024

Elizabeth Taylor The Biggest Star Ever

It could be said of the death of Elizabeth Taylor: Now she belongs to the ages. But the truth is, Taylor has always belonged to the ages — it’s why her absence is so significant to millions. How can it be that Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor won’t be around to admire and gawk over, ever again?
Taylor, who died Wednesday at age 79 of congestive heart failure after weeks in a hospital in Los Angeles, once said she wanted her tombstone to read: “She lived.” And oh, did she ever!
“She embodied everything it is to be a movie star,” says Turner Classic Movies weekend host and film expert Ben Mankiewicz. “There’s such a tendency to diminish her talent while looking at her stardom. I don’t think they have to be separated, they’re one and the same. But you can’t escape the awesome power of her stardom.”
Her legacy is lengthy: three Oscars, several memorable films (“National Velvet”, “Cleopatra”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “Butterfield 8”), her clarion call for more attention to the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic at a time of widespread indifference. She has been iconic virtually since World War II, one of the last products of the old Hollywood studio system. And, thanks to her friendships with the likes of Michael Jackson and Elton John, she has been a forerunner of today’s celebrity-driven pop culture. Her last important movie was in 1966, and still her star power endured.
Liz (she actually disliked the headline-friendly nickname) Taylor is the gold standard, says Nancy Schoenberger, co-author of “Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century”. “The level of her fame and glamour and the sheer dazzle of the woman were unparalleled. I don’t know if we’ll have that kind of movie stardom again.”
Superlatives usually failed to capture the Taylor aura. She was the most beautiful woman in the world, she was the greatest movie goddess in the world. She also suffered from multiple medical ailments and nearly died several times in her nearly eight decades.
“Elizabeth Taylor is immortal — as long as we’re speaking about Hollywood, we’ll be talking about Elizabeth Taylor, the pre-eminent cinematic star of the 20th century,” says one of her biographers, C. David Heymann, author of “Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor”. “She was a comet, an 80-year comet.”
But the biggest star ever? “Who more than Elizabeth Taylor?” says another of her biographers, William Mann, author of “How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood”. “She was so remarkable at making us care equally about her personal life as much as we cared about her movies. We got it all with her.”
She was the most notorious, the most tempestuous, the most bejewelled, the most generous, the most blessed, the most tragic screen star in the Hollywood firmament. She was a supernova celebrity who pioneered a new standard of fame even before 24/7 media. As one of the first stars to live her life almost entirely in the global public eye, she could teach Angelina, Lindsay and Gaga and, yes, Charlie, a thing or two about grace and gauche under pressure.
“Today, you can’t be a big celebrity unless we know everything about you, and that goes back to Elizabeth,” Mann says. “She showed that you take the parts of your life that will resonate with the public and use them to your advantage. Everything that is standard about celebrities today can be traced to Elizabeth Taylor, whether it’s causes or personal lives or the marketing.”
But she didn’t court the attention. “She wasn’t a calculating diva,” Mann adds. “She got the media exposure because of the way she lived her life. She wasn’t out there seeking it. It came to her.”
Why do many feel such sadness at her departure? Because so many followed her life so closely for so long.
Taylor did not have the typical Hollywood burnout: Almost to the end, she was tweeting merrily on Twitter, raising millions for charity, and still selling millions of magazines when her picture was on the cover (her last appearance: Vanity Fair in July 2010).
“Up until the end, she sold for us, and I’m not surprised,” says Peter Castro, People’s deputy managing editor. “She was iconic, she was gorgeous, she was everything a movie star should be, and our readers really grew up with her and loved her.”
But what will most people remember? Her breathtaking beauty, those huge violet eyes and voluptuous figure. All those marriages and divorces (eight marriages to seven men). The eye-popping jewels, all her years of lavish spending and fighting and drinking and love-making in between movie-making.
“She had great lust for life — when she fell in love, she fell in love hard,” says Schoenberger, whose book is about Taylor and Burton, the hard-drinking Welsh actor who was the love of Taylor’s life, the man she married twice but couldn’t actually live with.
Time and again, people point to Taylor’s appetite for living.
She loved “fiercely, blithely and sometimes rashly — but we should all be lucky enough to come to the end of our lives knowing that when love was offered, we leapt at it,” says Eloisa James, author of “When Beauty Tamed the Beast”. “And in her advocacy for AIDS patients, she taught us that love is not merely a matter of wedding vows. She showed a deep love of humanity even at its most fragile.”
Taylor was liberated before women’s liberation was much of a movement. She lived as she pleased.
Taylor wasn’t a bad businesswoman, either. She was the first female actor to get a million dollars a film, for Cleopatra. And she got a percentage of the profits. That’s how they do business in Hollywood today, and that also goes back to her.
But she wasn’t always beloved by the suits in Hollywood, especially after Taylor and Burton’s wildly overwrought affair (both were married to others at the time) on the set of “Cleopatra” sent the movie into overtime and cost overruns that nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox.
And whatever her sins and mistakes, she was by all accounts an outstanding mother. She had four children, who survive: sons Christopher and Michael Wilding (from her marriage to British actor Michael Wilding), and daughters Liza Todd-Tivey (from her marriage to producer Mike Todd) and Maria Burton-Carson (from her marriage to Burton). She had 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

 

With the input from The Daily Star                                                                                          Image credit: Supplied

Related News

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle make significant donation to their ‘second home’

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been driven by their mission for philanthropy and humanitarian work since they bonded to each other. By collaborating with a myriad of global organizations, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have for years now advocated for various, wide-ranging efforts and their latest is no less ... Read more

Shakira visits school for underprivileged with sons

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Shakira returned to her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia for a heartwarming visit to a school for underprivileged children. In the photos shared by DailyMail.com, the artist was seen accompanied by her two sons, nine-year-old Milan and seven-year-old Sasha, as they were greeted by an excited crowd of fans Shakira, who shares ... Read more

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix Show nominated for Hollywood award

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s debut Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan has been nominated for a Hollywood Critics Association TV Award. The news broke on Twitter, with their very personal documentary appearing in the list of nominees for Best Streaming Nonfiction Series in the Hollywood Critics Awards. The ... Read more

Reports say Prince Harry is quite protective of Lilibet

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Prince Harry’s relationship and utter protectiveness towards Lilibet has just been brought to light by analyzers. Insights into the intricates of the father-daughter pair have been shared by a body language expert named Darren Stanton. He weighed in on everything during his most recent interview with Hello! For those unversed, this ... Read more

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Bruce Willis’ retirement from Hollywood

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Arnold Schwarzenegger has high praise for Bruce Willis following the actor’s announcement that he is retiring from acting due to a brain disorder called aphasia. Willis left the acting last year, putting an end to a career starring in many memorable films that helped make the Die Hard star one of ... Read more

Angelina Jolie is launching a new kind of project

The actress said she is starting the project to provide people with a platform to create Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Hollywood star and human rights activist Angelina Jolie is launching Atelier Jolie, a fashion-based business venture with a very Jolie-appropriate twist. As of now, there isn’t too much information about what to expect from this ... Read more

Meghan Markle sparkles in gold as she receives Women of Vision award

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Meghan Markle looked stunning in a strapless gold dress worth $1,850 as she stepped out for the Women of Vision gala which she will receive an award for her “lifelong advocacy for women and girls”. The Duchess of Sussex, 41, looked the picture of happiness as she was joined by husband ... Read more

Rihanna becomes most followed woman on Twitter

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Global icon Rihanna has overtaken Katy Perry to become the most-followed woman on Twitter. The “Umbrella” singer is now the fourth-most followed person on the platform in the world. The entrepreneur-slash-singer has become the most followed woman on the social media platform. According to Social Blade, Rihanna has now 108,278,326 followers ... Read more

Shah Rukh Khan defeats Lionel Messi, Harry-Meghan to win TIME100 Most Influential People poll

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com The King of Bollywood Shah Rukh has beaten global icons like Lionel Messi and Serena Williams as well as business moguls like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg in the magazine’s annual TIME100 readers’ poll. Shah Rukh Khan, 57, topped the list of the most influential people around the world for TIME ... Read more

Angelina Jolie steps down from UN envoy role

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Oscar-winning US actress Angelina Jolie announced that she is stepping down as an ambassador for the UN refugee agency UNHCR after more than 20 years in that role. Angelina Jolie and the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) for Refugees released a joint statement announcing the end of their 20-year partnership. Global ... Read more

Meghan Markle helped prepare Thanksgiving lunch for homeless women

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle helped helped cook a Thanksgiving feast for 300 homeless women. The 41-year-old helped prepare lunch at Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles while wearing a face mask, gloves, black baseball cap, and green jumper. Her visit was revealed in a snapshot of her chopping pumpkin for ... Read more

Google’s 2022 Most Searched Celebrities: Amber Heard tops, Johnny Depp second

Hollywood actress Amber Heard topped Google’s 2022 Most Searched Celebrity list, surpassing her ex-husband Johnny Depp. Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Heard topped the list as the most-searched celebrity in the United States in 2022, with an estimated 5.6 million monthly searches. Johny Depp came in at number two, with 5.5 million searches per month. Heard ... Read more

Jeff Bezos pledges to donate the majority of his fortune

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Jeff Bezos, founder of the largest online retailer, Amazon, has recently announced his intention to donate the majority of his personal wealth of $124 billion. Bezos told CNN exclusively that he plans to use his fortune to combat climate change and political divisions, but that he will also work to help ... Read more

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra visits drought-hit people in Kenya

Says ‘millions are on the brink of starvation’ News Desk : dhakamirror.com This week, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas visited northern Kenya to see kids who are severely acutely malnourished as a result of the widespread drought that has been plaguing the Horn of Africa, said a Unicef Press release. During the two-day tour, ... Read more

Angelina Jolie visits flood-hit Pakistan, offers support

Hollywood star promises to use her influence to push the international community to do more about climate change Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Angelina Jolie, actress, humanitarian and special envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, urged the international community to do more as millions of people are in trouble in the flood-hit areas of ... Read more

UNICEF Bangladesh Ambassador Mim visits children affected by the floods

News Desk : dhakamirror.com UNICEF National Ambassador for Bangladesh Bidya Sinha Mim is visiting Sylhet this week to meet children whose lives have been upended by floods that ravaged northeastern Bangladesh in May and June this year, according to a press release Thursday. The widespread flooding affected the lives of 7.2 million people, including 3.5 ... Read more

Princess Anne to be awarded by Durrell trust after 50 years of wildlife charity work

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust will celebrate Princess Anne for her 50 years of contributions and effort. The only daughter and second child of Queen Elizabeth II, Anne, 72, will be recognized for her “commitment to charity” over many years to save wildlife species. The philanthropic trust is creating a turtle sculpture for its Art ... Read more

Priyanka Chopra breaks down hearing the refugees’ stories

Entertainment Desk : dhakamirror.com Priyanka Chopra, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, uploaded a video from her trip to Poland, where she met refugees from Ukraine who had to abandon their country because of the Russian invasion. She spent time with women and children, and posted information on social media about the biggest global refugee issue.

Naomi Campbell receives honorary doctorate

Naomi Campbell is one of the most influential people in the fashion world. She has officially earned her doctorate. The University for the Creative Arts recently conferred an honorary doctorate on the former supermodel. The University for the Creative Arts awarded him this award for his outstanding contribution to the world of international fashion over ... Read more

Bill Gates is donating his foundation a new amount of $20 billion to address global concerns

News Desk : dhakamirror.com To confront the “massive global challenges” the world is experiencing, Bill Gates announced on Wednesday that he will donate $20 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In a statement, Gates said that the foundation, which he and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates founded in 2000, now aims to spend ... Read more