The Media Equation

Elizabeth Taylor: Famous, but on Her Own Terms

Published: March 26, 2011

German Press Agency/Corbis

Elizabeth Taylor in 1959. More Photos »

Multimedia

Looking Back at Elizabeth Taylor

The Actress Elizabeth Taylor Dies

Elizabeth Taylor: 1932-2011

Related

• Elizabeth Taylor, 1932-2011: A Lustrous Pinnacle of Hollywood Glamour (March 24, 2011)

• Critic’s Notebook: Lust for Life: Movies, Men, Melodramas (March 24, 2011)

• An Appraisal: An Alluring Beauty Exempt From Fashion’s Rules (March 24, 2011)

• Times Topic: Elizabeth Taylor

Related in Opinion

Levine: A Career in Tabloids, Thanks to Elizabeth Taylor (March 27, 2011)




Cavett: My Liz: The Fantasy (March 25, 2011)

Stephen Ferry/Liaison — Getty Images

ACTIVIST Elizabeth Taylor testifiedabout AIDS before the Senate in 1986. She adopted the cause early andstuck with it. More Photos »

Ceaselessly covered, but never truly uncovered, Elizabeth Taylorwas her own damn thing no matter what anybody said or did. In a featthat would be hard to replicate in the transparent age of today, Ms.Taylor seemed completely open but mysterious, too. Unlike Lady Gaga, orMadonna before her, Ms. Taylor did not maintain custody of her image andher fans by mutating to give them what they wanted before they evenknew they wanted it. Ms. Taylor was convinced from a very young age thatwhat they wanted was her as she already was and always would be. That’spart of why she was a great movie star even though she may not havebeen a great actress.

Given that she began living out loud at the age of 12, she was easypickings for a culture that has come to snack on those it adores, butunlike Britney or Lindsay or any other young star, Liz did not end up aspublic property. She may have been robbed of her privacy, but her soulnever seemed as if it were up for grabs. Ms. Taylor, who found her ownpublic image “revolting,” did not confuse what was said about her forwhat she thought of herself. She always seemed to be having a verywonderful time of it, and for all the paparazzi shots of her, there arefew in which she seems hunted or haunted.

We could chalk up her ability to wear fame as a loose garment to therelatively benign media ecosystem of her time. TMZ and the rest of thecurrent gossip Web sites became a fact of life long after Ms. Taylor wasa daily obsession, and though Hedda Hopper could be vicious, shepresented few of the challenges of the gossip hunters of today. Andwhile Ms. Taylor chafed against the studio system of Old Hollywood,which kept her under the thumb of MGM, the relationship went both ways:The studio looked after her as if she were a rare jewel because she was.

Speaking of which, the fact that she maintained dignity in death as wellas in life seems to have little to do with her lifestyle choices. Shemarried seven men, bought hundreds of carats of diamonds and duringcertain times in her life, ate and drank like a sailor on leave. “I knowI’m vulgar,” she once said, “but would you have me any other way?” Inthat respect, she was very much like Dolly Parton, another durableAmerican star who turned sartorial trashiness into a virtue by claimingit as her own. No one invented Dolly Parton or Elizabeth Taylor,although many have claimed to, and their connection to their fans was,and has been, a visceral, living thing based on an honesty anddirectness.

But that is not the same as saying that she was not a lady. She wasevery inch a lady. It’s trite to say, but think of the biggest-wattagestars, like, say, Angelina Jolie. Ms. Jolie is remarkably beautiful andvery talented, and, like Ms. Taylor, in control of her own career. Butthere is certain masculinity to Ms. Jolie’s appeal, a willingness tokick some tail on screen and go after whatever she wants off-screen. Andbefore you dismiss the argument as the product of a diseased, sexistmind, a little thought experiment: Before there was Brangelina, therewas Dickenliz. In the instance of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who isthe alpha? It’s not really even much of a question. Yet even though Ms.Taylor’s fans adored her with far more ferocity than Richard Burton’stalents ever engendered, she deferred to him.

That may be why, apart from her manifest beauty, she remained, as thedirector George Stevens said, the girl every American boy “thinks he canmarry.”

Many did, of course, none with much success. In that way, as well asothers, she was something of a traditionalist. She chose to marry themen whom she wanted to sleep with, and if she didn’t have a knack formaking marriage work, well, you can’t blame a girl for trying. If shehad trouble finding meaning and succor in marriage, Ms. Taylor foundreal satisfaction in other parts of life. The current crop ofcelebrities pick up and drop causes like a dinner napkin, but Ms. Taylordecided early on that AIDS was her calling — she had a number of closegay friends who were affected or afflicted by it — and stuck with it,raising a reported $100 million to hunt for a cure during her lifetime.In that way and many others, Ms. Taylor made the bond with a segment ofher fan base — in this case a huge gay contingent — a very reciprocalaffair.

Even as she went through what has become the crucible of modern fame fortalented women — she had affairs, dropped and gained weight, wentthrough treatment for drug and alcohol addiction — she never seemedimprisoned by her own celebrity. Early on, schooled and protected by thestudio system, she mastered the art of being famous, and as a resultbuilt a career that seems almost comical in its longevity in the currentcontext: 50 films, 70 years, and we are still talking about ElizabethTaylor.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 27, 2011, on page WK1 of the New York edition.