FOR one of Hollywood's last icons, long accustomed to ranks of publicists employed to manage her myth, micro-blogging appeared an incongruous, almost inelegant medium for Dame Elizabeth Taylor to speak to her faithful. But even with the constraints
of Twitter, the two-times Oscar winner showed she has lost none of her charm and class. "Any prayers you happen to have lying around," she told fans, "I would dearly appreciate. Love you."
The 77-year-old is this weekend recovering from heart surgery on what she dismissed as a "leaky" valve. It is only the latest health scare to befall the actress. In recent years, she has cut an almost ethereal figure, existing in luxurious yet fragile Bel Air seclusion. Her public appearances are rare and she breaks cover only to dispel rumour, whether it be frivolous gossip of a ninth marriage, or darker speculation surrounding her mortality.
Yet no matter how many images emerge of a frail septuagenarian, or the fact her era has long passed, the aura of studio glamour remains. In the ever-swelling ranks of film iconography, Taylor's position remains assured. Once hailed as the world's most striking example of feminine beauty, she bewitched producers, audiences, and leading men alike. Her turbulent but passionate relationship with Richard Burton is arguably the greatest celebrity love affair of the 20th century. She is already one of the immortals.
When she entered the world in a Hampstead hospital on 27 February, 1932, few would have thought Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor would one day become a film siren. She was born with residual hypertrichosis, a soft weaving of dark hair which covered her body. "Her ears were covered with thick, black fuzz and inlaid into the sides of her head," her mother, Sara, once recalled.
Her American parents ensured she became accustomed to a lavish lifestyle at an early age, but the price of being pampered was ambition. Taylor's mother, an actress who made few waves, saw in her charge a second chance at fame. She was signed to Universal at the age of nine, but the studio's production chief would later express regret. "She can't sing, she can't dance, she can't perform," said Edward Mohl. "What's more, her mother has to be one of the most unbearable women it has been my displeasure to meet."
Nonetheless, she went on to win a contract with MGM, featuring in a series of teen pictures and achieving prominence in National Velvet. Successful adulthood roles followed, including Father Of The Bride and A Place In The Sun.
By the early 1960s, the woman with the raven hair and violet eyes seemed to embody the wider feelings of liberation and sexual awakening, and her star rocketed. Taylor became the highest-paid actress in Hollywood, earning in excess of $1 million per film.
The era heralded arguably her most famous and influential role. Though its production was an arduous process, the epic of Cleopatra cemented Taylor's reputation, and brought her together with Richard Burton. When they met, she had already shrugged off three husbands – hotel magnate Nicky Hilton, actor Michael Wilding and singer Eddie Fisher – while a fourth, producer Mike Todd, had died in a plane crash. Nonetheless, marriage beckoned. The two were similar characters – fiercely intelligent and charming if need be, yet reckless too – and the union saw Taylor's fame reach a new plateau.
In his recently published biography of Taylor, How To Be A Movie Star, William Mann recalls the striking physical characteristics which so entranced the golden age of Hollywood. Joseph L Mankiewicz's costume department on the set of Cleopatra made the most of her voluptuous figure, choosing for her a collection of plunging dresses. Burton could not help but pay attention to her allure, once remarking: "Her breasts would topple empires before they withered."
A driven and determined woman, reflected in her on-screen toughness, Taylor won seventh place on a list of Female Legends compiled by the American Film Institute. She was not without her critics, though, especially when it came to her testing demands. At one point smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, she insisted she would not use the same holder more than once. Her butler was ordered to prepare a special box of holders seven days a week, each colour co-ordinated not only with her clothes, but any tablecloths she might sit down by.
As the Sixties went on, Taylor's ebullient presence won her Academy Awards for her performances in Butterfield 8 and Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Yet despite the public being infatuated with her relationship with Burton, it never translated into box-office success when they starred opposite one another. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she worked less regularly, but enjoyed a diverse range of jobs, ranging from Broadway appearances to television mini-series. In later years, however, her acting career has been overshadowed altogether by other ventures and controversies. She has designed jewellery and launched perfumes in her name. Buoyed by her friendship with Rock Hudson, she has also devoted time and energy aplenty to raise money for Aids related charities.
What is remembered best, though, is the pained and erratic behaviour – her well-documented battle with alcohol addiction, the intimate friendship with the late Michael Jackson, or marriage to construction worker, Larry Fortensky, the last of her seven husbands. She has appeared infrequently in public since the turn of the decade, doing so with the aid of a wheelchair and helpers. A trip in June to the Hollywood Bowl to take in an Andrea Bocelli concert was her first outing in months. At her California bolthole, she is said to spend a lot her time either asleep or watching television. Crueller reports suggest her house is now effectively a private hospital, complete with nurses and a regime of drugs and treatments.
Taylor has suffered the removal of a brain tumour, numerous viral illnesses, and has had two hip replacements. She also has osteoporosis and congestive heart disease making it difficult for her to walk.
Yet still she maintains a thriving network of friends. Every Christmas she posts from the US a luxury hamper from Fortnum & Mason filled with goodies. It is addressed to a house in the small Welsh village of Pontrhydyfen, the home of Burton's niece Sian Owen.
As she approaches her ninth decade, hopeful that other health problems will not follow her heart scare, Taylor, made a dame in the millennium New Year honours list, has been reminiscing. Only last month, it was revealed she sleeps with a photograph of Burton by her bedside, 25 years after his death. "She still says that had he lived that they'd be back together once again," a family friend said. "It would have been third time lucky. They were mad about each other."
YOU'VE BEEN GOOGLED• Taylor's father, Francis, was an art dealer who counted among his clientele some of Hollywood's earliest stars, including James Mason, Vincent Price and Greta Garbo.
• Aged seven, Taylor was touted for the role of Bonnie Blue, the daughter of Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler, in Gone With The Wind, but was discouraged by her father.
• Taylor has helped raise millions of pounds for good causes. She became particularly devoted to Aids charities, setting up her own foundation in memory of friend, Rock Hudson, left.
• She has an abiding passion for jewellery, and owns many precious pieces, including the 50-carat La Peregrina Pearl, purchased by Burton as a Valentine's Day present in 1969.
• Although she has maintained a low profile since Michael Jackson's death, she was one of his most trusted friends. He wrote her a song, 'Elizabeth, I Love You', as a 65th birthday present.
