Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - 2011

Like many I was saddened at the passing of Dame Elizabeth Taylor today. A great actress and humanitarian she had received the British honour and was entitled to use the style as she was born in Britain to American parents. She first achieved fame at the age of twelve thanks to her starring role in National Velvet but we must also remember that she became a gifted actress with four Oscar nominations and two Oscars to her name for Butterfield 8 and her second Oscar came in 1967 for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, one of 12 films she made with Richard Burton.



She was the highest-paid actress of her time, negotiating a cool $1m for her role in Cleopatra, as well as a share of the profits for the film. This is now the model for many big stars. Cleopatra was however an awful movie which elicited the world’s greatest ever movie review from the famed and feared critic of the New York Times who confined his review to just one line “Last night Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton barged down the Nile and sank!”


“Last night Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton barged down the Nile and sank!”

She was a great believer in marriage, being famously married eight times, twice to her inamoratas’ Richard Burton. By her mid twenties she had been married three times, divorced twice and widowed once; surely a modern day morality tale of sorts. She was extraordinarily beautiful, and was considered an accomplished actress by her peers. That's not true of a lot of celebrities that today's media are obsessed with but in many ways she was the template of the modern celebrity endorsing products and being associated with a “cause.”

Her son, Michael Wilding, made a statement that celebrated his mother’s life.

“My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for Mom having lived in it.”



Her business acumen extended beyond Hollywood. By creating her own jewellery line and a successful perfume range, she became a pioneer in marketing a celebrity merchandise brand. Stars including Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears all now have personal branded lines.

She was not unknown in this neck of the woods in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The Bell in Aston Clinton used to be one of England’s top restaurants and a straight run out of London from studios at Elstree and Pinewood. It was popular with the luvvies; pictures of the Burton and Taylor used to adorn its walls when it was still a proper restaurant. She and Burton were visitors to that other great movie couple who lived near Thame at Notley Abbey, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. They were also visitors to Sir John Gielgud at South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood, Bucks, now the country home of Tony and Cherie Blair.



It is hard today to remember her impact on creating celebrity culture but the photos of her bikini clad on a yacht with Burton in 1962 caused an absolute sensation, such steamy paparazzi photos were unknown in those days and the story ran and ran and probably will continue to run now she is dead. The Vatican at the time accused them of "Erotic vagrancy" and Burton's wife actress Sybil Williams fled the set of Cleopatra and headed back to England.


Notley Abbey


Sir John Gielgud's former home at South Pavilion in Wotton Underwood

In her last interview in this month's edition of 'Harper's Bazaar', when asked about all the husbands and jewellery. Taylor responded: "I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands. For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things.

"But I have never felt more alive than when I watched my children delight in something, never more alive than when I have watched a great artist perform, and never richer than when I have scored a big cheque to fight AIDS. Follow your passion, follow your heart, and the things you need will come."

But above all she was a brave campaigner and humanitarian who championed an unpopular cause and made it mainstream. Elizabeth Taylor will be remembered for harnessing her star power to help good causes. In the 1980s, after her friend Rock Hudson died, she became one of the first celebrities to speak out about Aids.



"Why shouldn't gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else?... What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding and, God knows, from hate and from ignorance."

Elizabeth Taylor

Good for her. Here’s looking at you Babe!


Trailer for "Giant"