Dame☆Elizabeth☆Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Taylor
February 27, 1932 † March 23, 2011

I don't entirely approve of some of the things I have done, or am, or have been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me.

Elizabeth Taylor • Bel Air • 1997 ©Herb Rittz Foundation

Im a survivor, a living example of what people can go through and survive.

Elizabeth Taylor • Rome • 1966 ©Sam Shaw

I want it all quickly 'cause I don't want God to stop and think and wonder if I'm getting more than my share. -Velvet Brown

Elizabeth Tayler • National Velvet • 1944 ©Metro Goldwyn Mayer

There’s always those few actors we as children become so enamored with that we skip everything and dash home to watch them on the television. Elizabeth Taylor was just one of those actors for me. She was also at the very top of my exception list throughout my life. If she were still alive today that’s exactly where she would still be, right at the very, very top!

It was never just her beauty or majestic qualities that drew me to her, Elizabeth was so compassionate and it radiated through her on and off screen. She truly was a generous, kind, extremely talented and magnificent woman, person. She was devoted to those things that touched her heart and moved her humanity to act. She responded to the black plague with all she had and took a public, outspoken and supportive role in the eighties for people afflicted with AIDS and the HIV virus. It was extremely frowned upon to even suggest that you had the slightest empathy or concern for those who were suffering and dying from AIDS/HIV. Elizabeth didn’t give a damn and to hell with you if you weren’t willing to open your heart, you mind and your soul to what was happening.

Watching her on film and in interviews she seemed so precise and calculated to me but in a way, that came natural, not studied or rehearsed. So much so that even her gestures and poise in person as in her films were determinate. I was always so impressed with Elizabeth as an actor and how she used her voice and hands to ensure that even while holding the back frame of a chair, or laying her gloves on a table that it would have a profound effect on how she was viewed. So much so that she could use it to develop unique characteristics in the roles that she brought to life on and off the silver screen. It really surprised me when I read that she didn’t like her voice or her body, herself. I never knew that about her until tonight, sad.

Elizabeth Taylor rode right into my heart on Pie and there she has been in her very own special place since I was a child. Her extraordinary capacity for giving unconditionally to such lengths from start to finish is beyond human measure. One of the few throughout history that successfully transitioned from child to adult actor with grace, beauty, intelligence and with such radiance. I applaud you Dame Elizabeth for standing your ground and demanding that yours and Richard Burtons relationship remain as it should between your heart and his. Thank you for sharing all the blessings that you were so abundantly graced with from God with all of us so graciously for all the years that you did. God, bless you Dame Elizabeth! God, bless you! Rest in Peace, you damn well earned it. -Petra Maricela Thompson Violetarojo

I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them

Paul Fix • Elizabeth Taylor • Rock Hudson • Giant • 1956 ©George Stevens Productions