Thursday, March 24, 2011

The sad passing of an Acting Legend Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor was born in London. She was the second child of two children. Known for her violet colored eyes.  Elizabeth held dual citizenship between England and the USA.  Because Her parents left England to avoid the outbreak of war, and found roots in Los Angeles California.  As a result of moving there, they were eventually introduced to Cheever Cowden Chairman of Universal studios.  Thus a Star was born.  Her first big film was There's one born every minute.
Of course who doesn't remember her in Lassie come home?  What made fans fall head over heels in love with her was her performance in National velvet.  This film grossed $ million for the studio.  That was huge money at the time.

Elizabeth was adored by her fans.  Women copied her glamorous looks, Men pursued her.  She was married 7 times in her adult life.  Twice to one husband.  Does that count as two marriages, or a do over on one?  In her adult life she received the highest pay any actress had received up to that point by signing a contract to play Cleopatra for One Million dollars.  The year was 1960, and the film came out in 1963.  In the end she ended up being paid Two Million for the roll.

Her Academy award wins were for Butterfield, her second award was for Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?  She did have a lot of nominations though.  I personally think that one of her greatest adult roles was in Cleopatra.



In addition to having been married 7 times, Elizabeth also had 4 children spread out through those marriages.  To Sons with Wilding.  One daughter with Todd, and one daughter with Burton.

Taylor with Mike Todd and Daughter Liza

She was quite the Humanitarian.  She performed in The USO with Bob Hope.  Spread the message about aids and help raise money for research.  She founded the Elizabeth Taylor Aids foundation to provided assistance to people with HIV-Aids,  And to raise awareness. 



Miss Taylor was also famous for having been given two famous pieces of jewelry.  One was the Krupp diamond.  A 69.42 Carot pear shaped diamond.  The other famous piece was the 50 Carol La Peregrina pearl.  This pearl had been the original property of Mary l of England. 
Elizabeth's love of Jewelry, and glamorous style didn't end there.  She was also well known for her white diamonds perfume.  Those commercials were so awesome that the same commercial ran for over 15 years. 

Elizabeth was brought to the hospital for treatment of congestive heart failure in 2004, and cardiac arrest caused by a leaky valve in 2009.  Her heart problems returned in February of 2011.  This caused her to be readmitted to the hospital, where she remained until her death on March 23, 2011.  She has been memorialized and is buried at Forest lawn memorial park in her own private mausoleum.  

Since I will have a great deal of recovery ahead of me in the near future, perhaps I will spend some of my time watching a few Elizabeth Taylor movies.  She may be no longer be with us, but she will forever live on in film. 

In memory of Miss Elizabeth Taylor.

Leslie

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