Reflections in a Violet Eye -- Elizabeth Taylor

 A great many classic movie lovers will be posting tributes to Elizabeth Taylor.  She died today at the age of 79.  Elizabeth has been an integral part of movies and the Hollywood mystique from the time she was a very young child, and continued to be so until today.  My mother's generation watched her grow up on screen, and tabloids made a lot of money with the controversial parts of her life.  She married multiple times, had several serious illnesses, grieved the sudden death of her husband Mike Todd.  She bore her one-half share in the highly-publicized breakup of the marriages of Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton (the men bear the other half).  She endured public humiliation when she gained weight, came back strong and proved her incredible friendship to Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson and Michael Jackson in their own tragedies. 

We will never know the real story behind the events of Elizabeth's life.  Only she and her loved ones could ever know such things.  We do know she was a strong and resilient woman, still able to flash her beautiful smile even when she became aged and sick.  We know her through her movies, a wide range of performances in an eclectic mix of films, including National Velvet, Father of the Bride, A Place in the Sun, Suddenly, Last Summer, Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Reflections in a Golden Eye.....just some of my personal favorites.  These performances show us the Elizabeth we remember.  So do these pictures:

From lovely child .....
to gorgeous 16-year old .....

From close friendship with Montgomery Clift .....
To Richard Burton, the true love of her life .....

From beautiful mature star .....
to difficult days enduring cruelty and piercing jibes of comics .....

..... And back again, surmounting her own personal difficulties.  She became the first celebrity to dare to speak publicly about AIDS, supporting dear friend Rock Hudson's bravery in stepping forward about his personal life and our responsibility to overcome bigotry to fight the disease.

R.I.P. Elizabeth ..... you will be remembered .....