Liz Taylor Dead At 79

The story just broke a few minutes ago on CNN; further details are available courtesy of the New York Post:

Quote :

LOS ANGELES -- Legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor died early Wednesday morning, according to ABC News.

The 79 year old was in her second month at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she was being treated for symptoms of congestive heart failure.

Taylor, who spent virtually her entire life in the public eye, was an iconic film star who won two Academy Awards, an eight-times bride, a humanitarian who campaigned indefatigably against AIDS and a collector of some of the world's most glamorous jewels.

She is survived by her children, Michael and Christopher Wilding by her second marriage, Liza Todd by her third, and Maria Burton, who she adopted with Richard Burton, to whom she was twice married. She also had nine grandchildren.

Not entirely a surprise, since she'd been in poor health for some time. Still, she was a legend, and she will be missed.

Why is it no one whose existence I'm aware of ever dies?

Someone is going to tell me what she was in. I don't care nearly enough about another dead 80 year old to Google anything.

Acording to google she was Cleopatra

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Mikey, how the hell do you not know who Liz Taylor was? Have you been living under a rock all your life?

Eileen - Mikey is a brain-dead wannabe troll who pretends not to be aware of anything outside a couple of American sports. He is not intelligent enough to worry about. Do your blood pressure a favour, and ignore him.

EileenK98 wrote:

Mikey, how the hell do you not know who Liz Taylor was? Have you been living under a rock all your life?

To be fair, Liz Taylor hasn't been all that culturally relevant for about as long as Mikey and I have been alive. Honestly I only knew her name, but had no clue what she was famous for.

Nihilist wrote:

Also learned last night that she also had a box on her nightstand in this movie- it was filled with bees. She used it as a vibrator.

I don't think I want to know what she used the asp for.

Also Rex Harrison's costume fails history forever:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

When I was young (and she was in her prime) she was considered the world's most beautiful woman. She was actually an excellent actress. Unfortunately, her personal life over-shadowed her talent in her later years.

And for lovers of Mary Sue's everywhere, she has the distinction of actually having VIOLET eyes.

Rabid Badger wrote:

When I was young (and she was in her prime) she was considered the world's most beautiful woman. She was actually an excellent actress. Unfortunately, her personal life over-shadowed her talent in her later years.

And in the 1980's she was one of the first public advocates for AIDS research (during the decline and following the death of Rock Hudson, one of her closest friends). She helped organize some of the first fundraisers for a disease that, at the time, most people didn't want to even acknowledge existed.

What I found slightly ironic was the author of her obituary in the New York Times died six years ago (they kept the bulk of his writing, and had two others just update it).

I like what my local newspaper said about her. The Star Tribune said that when she was asked what she wanted on her tombstone, she rather slyly said "She Lived."

It was the paper's response to that that I liked. Their response to that was "And how."

I wholeheartedly agreed. Whether or not her personal life overshadowed her career and charity work, she probably had more of a life than anyone else.

Certainly more than a certain former CBS sitcom actor I could mention.

Spotts: Speaking of her AIDS work, when I was watching my local TV news yesterday they ran a short segment about her visiting Boston in 1993 as part of a fund-raiser dedicated to AIDS research.