Not quite a lady, but a diva!

(bdnews24.com, March 25, 2011)

The first time I saw her, though not in real life, was when I was taken to see Taming of the Shrew, the Hollywood version of the Shakespeare classic, many years ago. She is introduced through a peephole in a large wooden door, as a pair of startlingly beautiful violet eyes, heavily made up, which hold anger, aggression, a strange shyness and something that could only be called ‘star power’. Some years later, I saw her again, this time as a photograph at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; she featured in a wonderful black and white image as Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile, with heavily kohled eyes and slick hairdo, a gold snake coiled against her magnificent bosom. I was stunned by that photograph, not just because it showed off more cleavage than I knew existed when I was that young, but by the power of those eyes, the direct gaze, the firm resolution shining through. Elizabeth Taylor, I understood, was a star, a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, a lady who was more than a woman, a complete diva.

As I grew up, I learned more about the star and the person behind the makeup. She was Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, born in England to American parents, brought up in the United States, known all over the world. She was, by the time I could read, more than just an actress, she was all celebrity, all scandal, all glamour and gossip. Her love story with Sir Richard Burton grabbed headlines all the time; even as she divorced him, she called him the greatest love of her life. And she had many – movie stars and politicians, even a construction worker. Marriage happened to her eight times, twice to Burton, and once each to Nicky Hilton, Michael Wilding, Michael Todd, Eddie Fisher, John Warner and Larry Fortensky. When someone asked her why she kept repeating the act, she said, “I don’t know, honey. It sure beats the hell out of me.”

As an actor, Taylor was seen in blockbusters and flops alike. She started acting when she was all of nine years old in There’s One Born Every Minute, and worked in a number of films, transiting neatly into more adult roles with no trouble at all. From Lassie Come Home to National Velvet, she was a star by the time she was 12. In Conspirator (1949), at just 16, she moved to a grown up character but Father of the Bride (1950) was the production that brought her into adult roles, big time. Some years after that, her southern belle accent in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof steamed up the screen as much as her passion with Burton in Cleopatra, but she took home two Oscar awards for her work in Butterfield 8 (1960) and Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966).

Perhaps best known in the life that was Elizabeth Taylor was her collection of jewels. The famed 33.19 carat Krupp diamond and the 69.42 carat Taylor-Burton diamond are perhaps the best known of her enormous collection, apart from the 50 carat La Peregrina, a teardrop shaped pearl that she almost always wore. She channelled her passion for sparkling stuff to start designing for the Elizabeth Collection, touted as “fine jewellery with elegance and flair”; even her designer-label fragrances mirror the jewel theme: White Diamonds, Black Pearls and Passion. As she aged, Taylor segued from her short shorts and babydoll frocks into more matronly kaftans and wraps, often making a ridiculous picture, trundling along carrying extra weight on her tiny, top-heavy frame, loaded with spectacular jewels. Her glamour was never doubted, but her style statement was, with talk show hosts and comedians alike making fun of her.

As her acting appearances faded into minor roles and then none at all, her philanthropic activities increased, keeping her in the public eye to some extent. She was more recognised as a social activist, with AIDS awareness, research and treatment being top of her champion-list. Taylor fought illness – suspected lung cancer, a benign brain tumour, skin cancer, pneumonia, congestive heart failure (which finally brought about her death) and alcoholism, surviving them all with some help from devoted doctors, various love interests and her indomitable will to survive.

The legend Taylor died, at the age of 79. She was a grandmother ten times over, with four children and four great-grandchildren and a host of friends, alive and dead, from the still-gorgeous Debbie Reynolds to the late Michael Jackson. Eulogies have been written about her, the star, and many more will follow. But for me, that image of beautiful violet eyes glowing through the peephole in a large wooden door is what she will always be about. That, and the knowledge that she was a true diva who even dictated before she finally passed away that her own funeral be 15 minutes late!