As the tributes for Elizabeth Taylor roll in around the net, Business Insider has published 14 of the movie star's magazine covers, including this Cosmopolitan from August 1961. Her tumultuous Bold and the Beautiful personal life, including eight marriages to seven men, provided the sort of tabloid fodder modern celebrity media and reality television is made of, creating a template for the modern tragi-narrative: the proverbial childhood ugly duckling who became a swan but whose extraordinary beauty, fame and wealth could not shield her from the vagaries of life.
Indeed, beauty, wealth and fame can unwittingly ensnare those who possess it. "I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Jezebel quotes Taylor telling Kim Kardashian in a post on her 'unapologetic life'. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else."
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Taylor's life was increasingly played out in the public eye; the disconnect between her public and private self caused her grief. "The public me," she said, "the one named Elizabeth Taylor, has become a lot of hokum and fabrication — a bunch of drivel — and I find her slightly revolting."
As with Taylor's friend, the late Michael Jackson, her latter life was marked by a series of accidents and health problems, while she also struggled with her weight and body image, professional insecurities (despite winning two Academy Awards) and identity and loneliness within her marriages.
"Everything was handed to me," she said. "Looks, fame, wealth, honors, love. I rarely had to fight for anything. But I’ve paid for that luck with disasters.”
While she sought to use her fame to draw attention to the plight of HIV/AIDS sufferers, we might never know if she came to a point of peace in her last days. However, her life reads like a cautionary tale we can all learn from.
"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (1 Peter 3:3-4)
Indeed, beauty, wealth and fame can unwittingly ensnare those who possess it. "I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Jezebel quotes Taylor telling Kim Kardashian in a post on her 'unapologetic life'. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else."
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Taylor's life was increasingly played out in the public eye; the disconnect between her public and private self caused her grief. "The public me," she said, "the one named Elizabeth Taylor, has become a lot of hokum and fabrication — a bunch of drivel — and I find her slightly revolting."
As with Taylor's friend, the late Michael Jackson, her latter life was marked by a series of accidents and health problems, while she also struggled with her weight and body image, professional insecurities (despite winning two Academy Awards) and identity and loneliness within her marriages.
"Everything was handed to me," she said. "Looks, fame, wealth, honors, love. I rarely had to fight for anything. But I’ve paid for that luck with disasters.”
While she sought to use her fame to draw attention to the plight of HIV/AIDS sufferers, we might never know if she came to a point of peace in her last days. However, her life reads like a cautionary tale we can all learn from.
"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." (1 Peter 3:3-4)
See also:
Obituary: New York Times
Obituary: ABC
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