Last night, my wife, daughter and I started watching Cleopatra, the lavish 1963 epic starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. It was our curious little way to mark the passing of the film’s unforgettable star: Taylor died March 23 at the age of 79.
Cleopatra was a colossal success or fabulous flop, depending on how you look at it. The film made $26 million—big bucks back in the day, but because it cost $44 million to produce (more than $300 million in today’s cash, and some say it’s the most expensive film ever made), Cleopatra nearly sent 20th Century Fox into bankruptcy.
But it was a suitable backdrop for Taylor, at the height of both her fame and notoriety. By the time she signed her million-dollar contract to play Cleopatra (a figure that later ballooned to $7 million), she had already won an Oscar (for 1960s Butterfield 8) and been married four times. And despite being hitched to Eddie Fisher during the filming, she embarked on a public torrid love affair with co-star Burton—the man who would become husband No. 5. And No. 6.
Taylor wore both scandal and glamour with ease. In a sense, the stereotypes we have of Hollywood culture began with her, and every other celebrity walks, for better or for worse, in the trail she blazed. “Is there any doubt that Elizabeth Taylor defined ‘celebrity’ for the modern age?” the Los Angeles Times asks. Jacob Bernstein of thedailybeast.com called her “the first superstar of the modern era.” He continues:
She had paparazzi trailing her around the world before they were even called paparazzi. She did endorsement deals with perfume companies long before people began referring to themselves as brands. She was a proud gay icon when being gay was still the love that dared not speak its name. She even battled alcoholism and drug addiction with a flair that puts Lindsay Lohan to shame.
Paris Hilton and her ill-mannered purse dogs? She's got nothing on La Liz, whose horribly behaved Malteses went everywhere with their mistress, including all over $20,000 rugs. During a film shoot in London, Taylor even rented a yacht for the pooches and parked it on the Thames when the British government declined to allow the dogs to come into the country because of quarantine laws.
J Lo and her love of bling? She's positively tame compared to Taylor, who shopped all day long, including right through interviews with reporters, snapping up goodies like $2,500 lighters and a $29,000 shell purse, back in the early '60s. Think about the mark-up today!
Taylor was the embodiment of Hollywood—and for many, a symbol for everything wrong with the entertainment industry.
But Taylor was more than the tabloids made her out to be.
“The public me, the one named Elizabeth Taylor, has become a lot of hokum and fabrication—a bunch of drivel—and I find her slightly revolting,” she was quoted as saying in The New York Times. Her friends say she was candid, generous and kind. She became a philanthropist, and arguably became as well known for her AIDS activism as any of her film roles.
And she had a sense of humor until the very end.
“I never saw her angry,” photographer Ron Galella told thedailybeast.com, “although she was always late, late for press conferences, late for everything. She was like a queen.” One year, guests to Taylor’s annual Easter lunch (set for noon) decided to show up four hours late, knowing she still wouldn’t have made her appearance. They were right: Taylor didn’t arrive until 6:30.
True to form, Taylor’s March 24 funeral started 15 minutes late—Taylor’s last request.
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