Elizabeth Taylor died. I have to keep repeating it in order to believe it. She has been part of my life for so long, on my mind now and then for as long as I can remember. She was certainly on my mind in the 50s, when I was a kid and my Mom read movie magazines Photoplay, Modern Screen and Motion Picture. I was so interested in her glamorous life that when the magazines began reporting that she and her husband, Michael Wilding, were going to divorce, I sent Elizabeth a letter saying that I didn’t believe the gossip. It was the only time I ever wrote to a celebrity. I received a postcard in response, with an obviously canned statement like, “Thank you for your support”, or something like that, copied in whatever way copies were made in those days. The pictures of Elizabeth, Wilding and their two small boys were so sweet, romantic, homey, that I couldn’t believe there could be a divorce—divorce didn’t happen in my world. I didn’t know anybody who had ever divorced. It was the fifties, after all.
Over the years, though, we all got used to the way Elizabeth lived her life. Divorce was part of it, but so were love, passion, incredible beauty, opulence, indulgence, gigantic jewels, drinking, husband stealing, fighting, tragedy, illness, and always DRAMA. She lived her life so large, so much bigger than anyone else’s, how could anyone not be eager to know what would come next? What would she do after Mike Todd died? How could she marry such a small time actor/singer as Eddie Fisher? How long would the passionate marriage to Richard Burton last? Was he her true love? Marry Senator John Warner? Why? Larry Fortensky? Huh? But I always cared; I always wanted to know what she was doing. I saw all the movies even when they were bad ones like “Divorced His/Divorced Hers”. When she got fat during her marriage to Warner I knew she was unhappy and was sad for her. When she got thin again, I was glad.
She had unworldly beauty, but she ate whatever she wanted and she battled her weight because of it, just like a normal person. She followed her heart, like we all wanted to do. She flaunted her jewels. She showed off her fantastic bosom. She nearly died, many times. She was reported to be bawdy and in television interviews we heard her raucous, boisterous laugh. After the 5-year marriage to Larry Fortensky, there were long periods of time I didn’t hear much about Elizabeth. Occasionally there would be something about her Aids charitable work, a photo taken at a speaking engagement. In the past ten years there hasn’t been much at all. Last year I searched the web for a picture and found that she was photographed in a wheelchair. She was wearing a red dress, her hair died back to it’s dark color, lavish jewels at her throat and on her fingers, red lipstick, still glamorous at 78. I printed out a picture to show my Mom, who has always been a fan, too, and is exactly 10 years older. I was glad Elizabeth still looked pretty good even if she couldn’t get around very well anymore. Not long ago there was an article about her in Vogue, with quotes from the newest book about her and a picture of her from the 50s on the cover. My best friend called to tell me it was on the newsstand and the next day I bought a copy. It was a treat to be reading about her once again. It was like the best ice cream.
I think what I, and many people, loved about Elizabeth Taylor was that she lived her life exactly the way she wanted to, without apology. She truly was the Last Movie Star. What actor or actress is left that was as famous as she was? She allowed us to see her, in all her glory and with all her faults. She didn’t hide from us. She didn’t destroy herself with drugs like Judy Garland or Marilyn Monroe or go into hiding as she got older, like Greta Garbo. She showed us who she was and said “take it or leave it”.
I’m going to miss having her in the world, but the silver lining in her passing is all the old interviews I’ve been seeing on television, the thousands of pictures that were taken of her over the years, showing up in magazines, on the web and during the news. On April 10th American Movie Classics is going to have a 24-hour marathon of her movies and I’ll have it on all day. Elizabeth Taylor is dead. I still can’t believe it.
No comments:
Post a Comment