The last of the legendary superstars has died. A superstar from an era when American movies were so powerful, the whole globe feasted on our celluloid dreams and her face. Elizabeth Taylor died of heart failure today at 79 and every generation of Americans knew her and followed her turbulent life. The girl with the violet eyes, the woman who broke the rules and the pay barriers for women in film. And in some ways, she created this frenzy of tabloid celebrity we all live amidst still today. But she was also a woman who was never tougher than when looking at her own choices.
I’ve had a lot of tragedy in my life. I’ve had the lowest valleys, the highest highs. I’ve had extreme happiness. I’ve had addictions. I’m like a living example of what people can go through and survive.
Have you ever thought of what you wanted on your tombstone? Here lies Elizabeth.
She hated being called Liz. But she lived.
And boy. Did Elizabeth Taylor live. The last icon and first global superstar. She once told me that she couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t famous.
Famous for her acting, illnesses, jewelry, friends, marriages and divorces.
Above all, for her stunning beauty , whether glamorously thin, or later unhappily heavy, time never dimmed her legendary violet eyes. She was born with a double set of lashes.
And she was so rapturously beautiful little girl that you couldn’t believe it and full of composure.
Every day, I pray to God to give me horses. Pushed by her mother, Elizabeth was a movie star at 12 years old. How do you do? Her career spanned 70 years of more than fifty films. I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.
Opposite the screen’s greatest leading men.
I love you.
She was the first actress to earn a million dollars for a movie. Elizabeth Taylor.
And won two oscars, her last for this sheering 1966 performance., Maybe George Bowie didn’t have the stuff. That maybe he didn’t have it in him.
But Elizabeth,the actress was often eclipsed by Elizabeth, the woman.
Married eight times to seven men, she married Richard Burton twice, the public and paparazzi consumed her every romance. She said there were two great loves in her life.
Director Mike Todd, who tragically died after one year of marriage, and Richard Burton, who in 1962, she met on the set a Cleopatra. We both tried very hard to resist, it was just like, boom!
And the rest, as they say is – is in history. Both were married at the time.
And their very public affair, condemned by the Vatican, became an international scandal. Unquestionably, their torrid relationship was one of the last century’s great romances. Richard Burton was a great actor.
And also a hunk.
Throughout the ’60s, The Burtons were the most celebrated couple on the planet , superstars before there was such a word.
Lovers and friends all showered her with jewelry, a collection considered one of the finest in the world.
Don’t get your fingerprints on it. Look at that.
In later years, Taylor successfully transformed herself into a businesswoman, selling perfume.
But her humanitarian work may be her greatest legacy.
Using her fame, she raised millions for aids research, bravely standing by actor Rock Hudson, one of its first victims, when others shunned him.
To the public, she may have been the last great movie star.
But for those who knew her, she was also a loving mother and loyal friend.
There have been so many lessons, life and death lessons, emotional lessons. I don’t believe in regrets.
And I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow, no one does.
And Barbara Walters is here now.
We were saying earlier, we don’t think of her as a pioneer, but her sheer fearlessness about her own choices in life changed things in this country.
Absolutely.
By the way, she never wrote her autobiography.
This, all the different clips that people will see, that’s her autobiography.
She was gutsy and salty and funny.
And look at the things we’ve talked about , married eight times. She wanted to get married, she married them. She wanted to divorce them, she divorced them.
She championed aids when nobody did.
She stood by people who were rejected.
Michael Jackson adored her. Rock Hudson.
And everything she did was bigger, maybe not better, but pronounced and different.
I felt sad at the grocery store today. It’s about vegetables produced in Ibaraki and neighboring prefectures that are currently affected by the radiation. Cabbages, sweet potatoes, and all other greens were sold at clearance prices. This is strange. It’s only spinach and milk that have been banned. People are overreacting too much. …That’s why.
I feel sorry for the farmers. They are innocent victims.
If I get to see my kids again, then I’ll definitely want to give my heart, kiss and say I love you very much. And I’ll also say that this is not your fault. What’s happened to my kids is just wrong.
And it was unforunate that they’ve been separated from me, from her loving father in their lives. I really can’t wait to be a part of their life again and
I can’t wait to be reunited with my children so I can hold them and love them and hug them again
jus like I used to right before the abduction.
I’d say Keisuke, I love you and miss you so very much. Everyday is so hard just to get through. Your granma Joan misses you. Cousins,McKenzie and Reily, your uncle Rod and Daina. I haven’t forgotten you. We are gonna stop fighting for you.
I can’t wait to see you again. I just… I miss you so much. I pray everyday tha today is the day that I’ll see your ?????? again. I love you.
All I can say is I’m not gonna give up.
I want my daughter home. I’ll continue to fight. And my daughter knows this. Hopefully the Japanese knows this. The state department knows this. My daughter is coming home, she’s an American.
Erika was abducted when she was night months old. So she’s been a part of my life for a nine,tenth of her life. I was only a life of her for the first one tenth of this. So she won’t remember me. So what I really want to say to her is “Erika. I do want to get to know you. I do want you to be my daughter, I want to be your father. I want you to meet… You have many relatives who love you here in the states. Much a great deal of family , aunts, uncles and cousins and your grandparents who are hanging on to life, waiting for the chance to meet you, and to get to know you. So we are all waiting for you here with our arms wide open for a big hug when you come. I just can’t wait to get to know you someday. I love you.
