Wednesday
Mar232011
Elizabeth Taylor, "Functioning Voluptuary" (RIP)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 9:47AM A very sad morning it is. I am loathe to report that Elizabeth Taylor, has passed away at the age of 79. While I gather my thoughts -- I am genuinely upset at the moment, Liz having been one of my favorite people in the universe my whole life -- please enjoy this beautiful tribute from Paul Newman, another lost great, to one of the most important stars of all time.
or check out the gallery section to enjoy her beauty.
tagged Liz Taylor, Paul Newman, RIP
Liz Taylor, Paul Newman, RIP
Reader Comments (23)
I'm at a loss for words... I simple cry right now!!
What a beauty, what a talent, what an icon! There goes a legend...
RIP Liz Taylor :'-(
I am also legitimately sad about her passing. One of the best. RIP
God love her. She's giving Richard Burton hell again as we speak.
We shall not see her kind again. What an incredible loss. She's been on my mind since I read the "Suddenly Last Summer" post yesterday.....so perhaps even a bigger shock this morning. Thanks for posting the tribute from Newman, perfect decision on your part.
They called her the Last Great MOVIE STAR. Simply put, there are few genuine STARS left in Hollywood these days. I will never ever forget how indelible she was in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. To me it's her most ferocious performace ever. God Bless You Liz.
I'm extremely sad at this... we kinda knew she was battling heart condition, but when the news strikes you it's very sad.
At this time I find solace thinking she lived a life we can only dream of, she experienced things no one will ever experience, she was surrounded by her family and she'll be reuniting with her husbands and dear friends.
Here's to you Elizabeth! Thank you for everything! :)
This breaks my heart. RIP to a true icon in the best sense. They don't make 'em like Dame Elizabeth Taylor anymore, and they never will.
Guess I need to get around to seeing "A Place in the Sun" now. I missed "Butterfield 8" when it was on TCM last month. She was amazing in "Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?", and it still holds up today. There's a lot of her catalog that I should catch up on, like "Cleopatra," "Suddenly, Last Summer," "National Velvet," and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." "Giant" was great. Taylor and Hudson were both swoon-worthy.
Such a sad day for film fans. RIP Elizabeth Taylor.
She's up there with Michael now....
She was already a legend when I was a little kid and I am over 30. I've seen very few of her films but I still feel sadness.
I'm really sad! I'm crying... I love Liz Taylor!!
R.I.P.
I often wonder how she managed to survive so well through her child-star years through her teenage days and on into adulthood. Yes, there were the myriad marriages, but there was nothing really like the troubles that, say, Lindsay Lohan or Drew Barrymore or, to name someone more contemporary to Liz, Judy Garland went through. Was it her talent? Her beauty? Her upbringing? The people she worked with? Or was it just something innate within her? Whatever it was, there will certainly never be another like her. And now the world has lost one more of the Great Movie Stars - I'm not so sure that she was the Last.
Favorites: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Place in the Sun, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and National Velvet. And those White Diamonds commercials - that was always my grandmother's favorite perfume.
Saddened and shocked by the news. Cinema has lost a giant.
I love her dearly. I always dreamed of meeting her - seeing those violet eyes in person. She was a goddess - a woman blessed and cursed by the Heavens. It's true, Sandro, this is a woman who lived a life remarkably unique for its variety, passion and challenges. I cry now, thinking of all that she faced and all that she accomplished and all that she gave the world. I love her dearly and will always treasure her as a unique lady, dame and broad. RIP you marvelous woman! You are the very definition of legend...
I was bawling through that tribute. Probably my favorite screen legend. She will be missed.
Her age is the greatest sting, 79, too young. I feel bad that I just know of her but don't know her through her performances. She's sort of like Cher for a lot of young people who know of the legend but may not know the legend.
There's been this gossip tibit I never forgot about her, not sure I should share because it's a bit too grass.
This is sort of unimaginable - how can we be living in a post-Liz world? She's just so... indelible.
She's actually been on my mind a lot lately, too - I rewatched Suddenly,... about a week ago, and I saw A Little Night Music a short while before that, and the various ups, downs and roundabouts of her career has just seemed really extraordinary to me.
Finest on screen quality - clearly taking her acting very seriously, but just as clearly wanting to show an audience a good time.
And she was a screamer without peer.
I'll always be fondest of her in Giant - not her best performance, but a movie-star feat of holding together the disparate and often conflicting dynamics of a domestic epic through sheer charisma. She plays against Hudson's straightforward manly-sensitivity and Dean's method strangulation equally effectively. All these years later, that title seems to be referring to her.
Marilyn, Natalie, and now, Elizabeth .... these truly were the lastHOLLYWOOD MOVIE STARS... they were all studio "babies" and we will NEVER see the likes of them again.
I remember the night in 1988 or '89 when a rumor swept through the club a bunch of us baby gay boys were dancing at, that Elizabeth Taylor died, and every one of us was completely stricken. At the time she was the most vocal celebrity speaking on behalf of and raising money for AIDS research, when everyone else was still ruled by fear, and we needed her. I'm glad we had her for another 21 years.
I remember reading an interview with Richard Burton once, where he talked about making The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor. (Burton had been hailed as this great classical stage actor who had passion and style and a marvellous voice, etc. A famous Hamlet). Burton said when he watched Taylor film her scenes, it seemed like not much was happening, and he worried for her.
But when he watched the rushes, he was amazed that everything was there, all depth and meaning (and allure), and she knew exactly what she was doing and was master of the camera. He started worrying about his own work instead and whether it had the depth that Taylor was showing.
adri -- that's a great story.
I am here to pay my respects to legendary Elizabeth Taylor. In my humble opinion, her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ranks perhaps in the top three all-time female performances ever captured on screen. May she rest in peace.
hollywood may as well shut up shop now