Elizabeth Taylor, 79, Forever Young On Film
What can one say?
Her last theatrical film appearance was in The Flintstones, harkening – though surely unexpectedly – to her earliest work as a child actor, 52 years earlier.
I met Taylor in 1980, when she was in the stage show, The Little Foxes. The breathlessness around her in Miami was astounding. I knew who and what she was, but this was the first time I had encountered a pop star reaction by people over 50.
I was 16. And was more interested in her co-star Maureen Stapleton, And before that, Mercedes McCambridge, who had turned up in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I was not being an acting snob. I just never really “got” Elizabeth Taylor.
But many millions did.
Her film career really peaked just two years after my birth, in 1966’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolff?. After that, she was really more famous for being famous than anything else. And in many ways, that may have been the case for much of her career. Marriages, White Diamonds, Michael Jackson, AIDS benefits…. even Cleopatra is a better story (helping bring down a studio) than a movie… even the first Oscar she won – an achievement peopple felt she was entilted to and would not earn on merit – was for the forgettable Butterfiield 8.
I guess it was the exception proving the rule, but perhaps even more, her personal tenacity, that ended up finding her a second Oscar for Wolff, in a role no one knew she had in her, just 6 years later. Maybe it was that drive that made her and the eyes and the body greater than the sum of its parts.
Did she live too long to end up on the same cloud with her once co-star James Dean, friend Michael Jackson, Marilyn, and Elvis? Only time will tell.
Truly a legend of legends. She was so good to the gay people too.
Now that was a Movie Star. Great actress, great philanthropist and could drink most men under the table. Nobody we have today could even hope to compare.
The American cinematheque has a Truly amazing and aweseome Groupon today, I’m certain that they will schedule a tribute to Liz in May or June that will feature her very best work.
Taylor was unquestionably the last of her breed: a bona-fide Movie Star.
She combined the classic beauty of a Garbo or Crawford with the sassiness of Davis and the larger-than-life personality of Kate Hepburn.
Is it unfortunate that she made so few great films (“A Place in the Sun,” “Giant;” possibly “Virginia Woolf?;” personal cult favorites like “Reflections in a Golden Eye” and “Secret Ceremony”) during her decades-spanning career? Perhaps. But as Orson Welles told Peter Bogdanovich when he complained that it was regrettable how Garbo only made two certifiable masterpieces (“Ninotchka” and “Camille”) during her career:
“You only need one.”
David–
Taylor will survive because of one role in one film George
Stevens true authentic Hollywood masterpiece “A Place in the Sun”. Her chemistry with Clift in that film (and his being a gay man makes their “impossible” love all the more
agonizing) is what the term “mythic” was coined for as applied to movie acting. All the rest could and perhaps will fall away but that film will be forever.
wow, the end of an era. i guess most people will have their special taylor movie memories to live on in their hearts — for me it will be my fond memories from childhood onward, getting to know liz in ‘national velvet’ and ‘little women’, growing up with ‘elephant walk’, ‘giant’, ‘the sandpiper’… these are the movies that whisper ‘elizabeth taylor’ to me, and always will. may she rest in peace with the legends of cinema.
Wait a minute — you were 16 in 1980? Damn. I was already on my third newspaper gig then — at the Dallas Morning News — and covering the New York Film Festival. I feel so old…
I find the “last, great movie star,” rhetoric really odd. She was clearly from a different era, like David mentioned her last cinematic appearance was in the early 1990’s. Unless you’re a despicable person, you’ll be remembered fondly in your passing. All the hyperbole today is odd to me since her relevance outside of charitable work was quite limited for the past two decades.
NickF: It’s a reference to Liz Taylor’s being one of the last of her kind, an Old Hollywood movie star, a relic from an age when stars didn’t have to shill on late-night talk shows, much less set up Facebook pages or release viral videos, to sell their movies. When Kirk Douglas goes, he, too, will remembered that way.
But since you’ve obviously come here to mock, not praise, you might be amused by this: I asked my 20 students in a University of Houston class today if any of them had ever seen a Liz Taylor movie. No hands were raised. So I told them: The day will come when each of them will ask if anyone in a group of much younger people had ever seen a movie starring Angelina Jolie. And they will be dismayed by the response.
Her close-ups in A PLACE IN THE SUN are just breathtaking.
I’m in the minority that thinks CLEOPATRA is a darn good movie.
Re: NickF and Leydon… I made this point on another blog earlier, but while having respect and reverence for her legend and body of work, I think there is a sizable generational divide; I obviously always knew who Liz Taylor was growing up, my Mom was like a mega-fan, and she was always on the scene doing charity stuff and with Michael Jackson or her perfume line with the ubiquitous commercials. But as I’ve been reminded of here, I’m basically a MIDDLE-AGED MAN, pushing 40, and aside from a cameo here or there, I don’t think Taylor starred in a single feature film in my entire lifetime.
The main thing I remember from my cognizant years was that HBO Movie she did with Carol Burnett circa 1983 (Between Friends?) that was on all the time. Certainly I’ve seen Giant and Cat On a… and know the lore of Liz and Richard Burton and the tales of Cleopatra. But unlike Kirk Douglas, Sophia Loren, or Lauren Bacall, who have continued to work in movies, OR legends like Wayne or Grant who passed away before I really had a fix on who they were, for a lot of Gen Xers, Taylor occupied some bizarre in-between where for us, it was mostly these weird appearances and marriages and Larry Fortensky jokes on Letterman, Taylor still existing as this tabloid celebrity with a considerable disconnect between this serious actress/beauty of days past we never experienced, and curiosity figure in the present that was our overriding image.
I also find the “last great movie star” mantra wrong. Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland are both still alive. Neither had the same publicity power as Taylor (though who did?), but they had three Oscars and better movies between them. Then there is, as Lex says, Kirk Douglas, Sophia Loren, and Lauren Bacall, and if they weren’t great movie stars, who is?
I don’t want to take anything away from Taylor, but she doesn’t need twisted truths to be honored for her role in cinema history.
Not to mention Mickey Rooney, who was starring in two-reelers in the silent era and was still featured in a #1 movie (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2) just a couple of years ago.
I suppose Shirley Temple will likely be the last of the “golden age” to go.
I am dismayed by all the coverage that seems to be focusing on her more as a topic of gossip than for her work. She was famous for a reason, strong work and one of the most beautiful people to be up on the screen. Just a further reminder that the press today is more interested in the life of celebrity instead of the work of actors.
Pat: What about Cheeta? š
Wasn’t Mercedes McCambridge in Suddenly Last Summer (and Giant) with Taylor, not Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
LexG: You have a point. Ironically, a friend and I had a conversation about Liz Taylor a few years ago — back when she was doing TV spots for perfume — and we both agreed that for most people below 25 (maybe under 30), that’s the only thing she was famous for: Selling perfume. Please don’t misunderstand: I greatly respected the lady’s work as a champion for AIDS/HIV research fudning. And I vividly remember, and appreciate, her finest screen performances. But we’re talking about a movie star who hadn’t played a major lead in a theatrical feature since 1977 (A Little Night Music). At the risk of sounding crass: I’ll bet quite a few people my age and older thought she had died years ago.
Her movie career was definitely over by the late 70s, but she was still fairly visible on tv. There was her role on General Hospital, the HBO movie with Burnett that Lex mentioned, the North and South mini-series, a guest appearance on The Nanny playing herself, & the These Old Broads tv movie with MacLaine, Debbie Reynolds, and Joan Collins. Plus all of the interviews that she did with Larry King and Barbara Walters.
She also did a not-bad tv movie with Jane Alexander where they played Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. For years it was the only acting I ever saw her do.
I think her final theatrical lead was “the Mirror Crackd” with Angela Lansbury. I don’t think they shared any scenes though, which was too bad since they started together in National Velvet.
DP, I’m a little older than you and have been going to movies since a little before you were born but the only time that I ever saw a Liz Taylor film in a theatre was “The Mirror Crack’d.” By the time I was becoming aware of pop culture, she was really famous for being famous. But she was a great humanatarian and thanks to her tireless work on behalf of AIDS especially in the ealry years, who knows how many people’s lives were saved.