Classic movie star, Elizabeth Taylor, passed away at the age of 79 today. A two-time Academy Award winner and the first actress to be paid $1 million for a role, Taylor was also well-known for her colorful personal life. She married 8 times, most noted to reknowned actor Richard Burton.
Taylor was also beloved by the LGBT community for her leadership in the early days of the AIDS crisis. She spoke out against our government’s paltry sepnding to fight HIV, as well as raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the AIDSorganization, AmFAR. People often say part of the reason for her fight for LGBT causes was her relationship with Montgomery Clift, her best friend and gay man. “There is no gay agenda, it’s a human agenda,” Taylor said in her acceptance speech at the 11th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in 2000. “Why shouldn’t gay people be able to live as open and freely as everybody else? What it comes down to, ultimately, is love. How can anything bad come out of love? The bad stuff comes out of mistrust, misunderstanding and, God knows, from hate and from ignorance.”
Taylor is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
I loved her in that one movie with Paul Newman
I cannot believe she’s gone