The eternal beauty: Elizabeth Taylor

Vineet Sharma

There are divas and there are divas. Elizabeth Taylor is one such star that transcends the realms of stardom itself and goes beyond the established norms to assert her sublime perennial charm. Born on the 27th of February 1932, this petite girl permeated into the minds and hearts of uncountable men and has till today retained that grace that makes one wonder about the age-old saying about beauty being skin deep.Elizabeth Taylor started her road to the apex of glamour world at an early age. She took her ballet lessons when she was three years old, an age when a child has barely learnt to walk straight!! Her talent was not only confined to the silver screen, she was seen on television on a numerous occasions. Her role in made-for-TV movie Divorce His-Divorce Hers and hit TV series Malice in Wonderland is still remembered with fondness by people today. Her love for jewellery is well known, she made headlines in the fashion industry with her possession of Krupp Diamond and Taylor-Burton Diamond. These stones of enormous size and brilliance once made an admirer say, “I don’t know why she wears such big stones…maybe to mask her own shine”. Her foundation to help fight AIDS, the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation (ETAF) had helped to raise an estimated USD 50 million to fight the disease. This goes out to show that she is a beauty with compassion and a heart of gold. A practitioner of Kabbalah, she has promoted the religion with selflessness but has never imposed her desire on the ones close to her. She has stood by the side of her friends throught thick and thin, a rare quality in today’s world. The most recent example of this is her support to Michael Jackson during his bitter trial on the grounds of child molestation. The new millinium has not been too good for this gentle frame and she was diagnosed withCongestive heart Failure in 2004. Over the years, she has broken her back five times, had both her hips replaced, survived a benign brain tumor operation, skin cancer, and has faced life-threatening bouts with pneumonia twice. But a born fighter, she has always stood up and faced adversities with a smile. All we have to wish her is success in every thing she does for she is a diva that has stayed away from the tantrums, closer to her admirers.List of awards and honours for Elizabeth Taylor 1957 Golden Globe Award, Special Achievement Award 1958 Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Raintree County 1959 Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof 1960 Academy Award, Best Actress: Butterfield 8 Golden Globe Award, Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama): Suddenly, Last Summer Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Suddenly Last Summer 1965 Golden Laurel Award, Female Star 1966 Academy Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? New York City Film Critics Circle Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1967 BAFTA Award, Best British Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (UK) Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Golden Laurel Award, Female Dramatic Performance: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? National Board of Review, Best Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (USA) 1972 Silver Berlin Bear Award, Berlin International Film Festival, Best Actress: Hammersmith Is Out (Germany) David Di Donatello Award, Best Foreign Actress: Zee and Co. (Italy) 1977 Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year Award, Harvard University 1985 Golden Globe Award, Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement Golden Apple Award, Female Star of the Year Woman In Film Crystal Award 1992 Academy Award, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award 1993 American Film Institute, Lifetime Achievement Award 1997 Screen Actors Guild, Lifetime Achievement Award 1999 Declared a Dame Commander of the British Empire (UK) Awarded Academy Fellowship, British Academy of Film and Television Arts 2000 The Vanguard Award, GLAAD Media Awards (USA) 2001 President’s Citizens Medal (USA) Maverick Award, Taos Talking Picture Festival (USA) 2002 Kennedy Center Honoree, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 2005 BAFTA Award, Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment (UK)