Her friends and family had a hard time accepting her death˳ “She’d come back from the brink so many times˳ We all expected her to do it again˳ So in that sense it really was a shock when she didn’t,” says her friend and final publicist, Sally Morrison, about Elizabeth Taylor’s death, in Los Angeles on March 23˳ Elizabeth had been in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for six weeks, suffering from complications caused by congestive heart failure, which was first diagnosed in 2004˳ Hampered throughout her life by a series of health woes—crippling back pain, osteoporosis, respiratory illness, scoliosis, a brain tumor, a stroke, more than 100 hospitalizations—she had valiantly soldiered on through her last years, and had taken to Twitter to reassure her hundreds of thousands of fans that she was still in this world, despite what they might read in the tabloids˳ “Dear friends, my heart procedure went off perfectly,” she tweeted in October of 2009 after doctors repaired a leaky valve˳ “It’s like having a brand new ticker˳”
For her final six months they had managed her condition, carrying her from bed to wheelchair˳ Her mind was still sharp, but she had been robbed of her famed, outsize joie de vivre˳ She became so frail that the decision was made to hold her 79th-birthday party a month early, in January 2011˳ For the occasion, her house in Bel Air was filled with her favorite flowers—gardenias and lilies of the valley˳ When her guests—her large extended family and close friends—raised their glasses to toast her, she summoned the strength to remark, “I’m not dead yet!”
But she was worn out and refused further cardiac surgery˳ Two months later she died˳
Once again, Elizabeth Taylor was front-page news˳ For an actress who hadn’t made a significant film since A Little Night Music, in 1977, the outpouring of grief and attention was staggering˳ Suddenly people were wondering: Who was this most famous of actresses during the last 10 years of her long, slow escape from the public gaze?
Perhaps because she had been a child star—National Velvet made her famous at the age of 12—she outlived many of her co-stars, including Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, Rock Hudson, and Laurence Harvey, and five of her seven husbands: hotel heir Nicky Hilton, actor Michael Wilding, producer Mike Todd, singer-actor Eddie Fisher, and actor Richard Burton˳ Hollywood could easily have become a ghost town for her, and she could have become a latter-day Norma Desmond, sequestering herself in her mansion, avoiding the company of all but a few old Hollywood friends˳ But Elizabeth had always embraced thrills and people and fun˳ “You might as well live” was one of her favorite sayings˳
It’s true that in later years she preferred to see visitors and her large family of four grown children (Michael Howard Wilding, 58; Christopher Edward Wilding, 56; Elizabeth Frances Todd, 54; Maria Burton, 49), 10 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren in the privacy of her home, on Nimes Road, which winds its way through tortuous curves banked by oleander˳ Her privacy was protected by a team of Israeli security guards, who would lead visitors into her gemtlich mansion, where paintings you’d expect to see in museums (including works by van Gogh, Manet, Rouault, Hals, Cassatt, Matisse, Modigliani, and Pissarro) hung in ornate, spotlighted frames˳ Her two gleaming best-actress Oscars (for BUtterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) shared space with tchotchkes and memorabilia, such as a life-size, signed poster of Michael Jackson and a stained-glass portrait of her beloved Maltese dog Sugar˳ In her upstairs bedroom—and you were invited upstairs only if Elizabeth was really fond of you—DVDs of her favorite television show, Law Order, sat among more mementos, dozens of amethyst crystals, photographs, and porcelain figurines˳ There she would watch the Home Shopping Network with Sugar, or display her vast collection of jewels to her dog, describing the provenance of each dazzling piece˳ “I’ve never loved a dog like this in my life,” she said about Sugar˳ “Sometimes I think there’s a person in there˳” When Sugar died, in 2005, she was replaced by Daisy, another fluffy white Maltese, whom Elizabeth equally adored˳ Daisy slept on a silk cushion on Elizabeth’s bed, when she wasn’t on Elizabeth’s lap˳
There was no such thing as a typical day for Elizabeth˳ Her devoted personal assistant of 25 years, Tim Mendelson, confided that “she had a genius for creating chaos around her˳ A typical day was whatever occupied her attention at the moment˳ That’s what was so great about working for her˳ One day it might be something having to do with the dog, or a friend who needed help˳ Or she might just decide to spend a few days in bed watching television˳” She loved to blast the music of the unlikely Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle—she adored big voices—and in her Maybach she often played CDs of Andrea Bocelli, the blind Italian tenor˳
Behind the swimming pool, Elizabeth’s secluded garden bloomed with gardenias, lilies of the valley, and birds-of-paradise, amid lush palms and bamboo˳ Orchids were cultivated in a small greenhouse˳ Elizabeth held her annual Easter parties for her extensive family by the pool, but by 2004 back pain, which had plagued her for most of her life, as well as three hip-replacement surgeries, made it too painful to walk˳ She had to abandon strolling in the garden, one of her favorite activities˳
As she found it increasingly necessary to rely on a wheelchair, Elizabeth still made forays into West Hollywood˳ Wearing cowboy boots, dressed in resplendent colors, and ablaze with diamonds, she favored deep-coral-red lipstick and nail polish and wore her hair coiffed high and dyed Liz Taylor black˳
Living with constant pain and having to rely on prescription painkillers—after two stays at the Betty Ford clinic to be rid of pill and alcohol addictions—would have dampened most spirits, even one as feisty and vital as Elizabeth’s˳ But that was not what happened˳ Her third act would turn out to be a worthy coda to a life so extravagantly lived, and her legacy may finally rest as much on the accomplishments of her last decade as on the fiery years of her early film stardom˳ With her fabled beauty and her film career behind her, she could at last turn her attention to humanitarian and creative ventures˳
The Great Escape
The last, strange decade of Elizabeth’s life began with one of the most cataclysmic events in American history, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks˳ Michael Jackson was in New York, where he’d just given two concerts, on the 7th and 10th of September, at Madison Square Garden, to which he had brought two of his closest friends and idols: Marlon Brando and Elizabeth˳ His original idea had been for them to sit onstage like two great Easter Island figureheads flanking the show, but instead they sat in the audience˳ All three found themselves trapped in the city after the Twin Towers fell˳ Michael had gotten a call from friends in Saudi Arabia who warned that America was under attack˳ He hollered down the hallway of his hotel for everyone in his entourage, and for Brando, to leave immediately˳ Elizabeth was staying at another hotel, the St˳ Regis, a few blocks away˳ Now here’s where the story gets complicated˳ In one version, these three towering icons of American pop culture planned their escape, afraid that they would be the next target˳ Michael and Brando had trouble leaving their hotel garage because fans kept banging on the car windows, following them down the street, screaming˳ Unable to fly, they drove out of the city˳
The actor Corey Feldman, whom Michael had befriended when Feldman was a child star, remembers that he and Michael had quarreled the previous night at Michael’s show, in Elizabeth’s dressing room backstage at Madison Square Garden˳ “Elizabeth hadn’t arrived yet, and then 9/11 happened˳ But I remember that [the next day] Michael was trying to get Elizabeth out! He was at first looking for a private jet,” Feldman recalls˳ “He wanted permission to fly out—but everything was surreal˳ I didn’t go with him˳”
A former employee of Michael Jackson’s says that Michael, like General Washington, led his entourage to a temporary safe haven in New Jersey, before the three superstars took to the open road˳ “They actually got as far as Ohio—all three of them, in a car they drove themselves!” he recalls˳ Brando allegedly annoyed his traveling companions by insisting on stopping at nearly every KFC and Burger King they passed along the highway˳ One can only imagine the shock their appearance caused at gas stations and rest stops across America˳
But one of Elizabeth’s close friends and assistants, who asks to remain anonymous, insists that Elizabeth did not flee New York with her two companions˳ “Elizabeth stayed behind,” he insists, “where she went to a church to pray, and she went to an armory where people were who couldn’t get home or who’d stayed behind to look for the missing˳ She also went down to Ground Zero, where she met with first responders˳ Eventually, the airports opened and she flew home˳” She may well have done some of those things, though no reports surfaced in the media of sightings of Elizabeth Taylor ministering to the frightened and wounded or showing up at Ground Zero˳ But it was during and after the crisis that Elizabeth’s relationship with Michael—whom she already adored—deepened˳
Their friendship was based, in part, on their both having been child stars, on their youth bartered away by their parents and the studios and managers who handled them˳ “He had one of the worst childhoods ever,” she once said about Michael˳ “I think I had the second˳”
In a conversation with Elizabeth a few years ago, I confided that one of my favorites of her many movie roles was her luminous appearance, at age 11, in Jane Eyre as the little orphan Helen Burns, who has her beautiful hair cut off by the evil Mr˳ Brocklehurst, and who then heartbreakingly dies of consumption˳ “That’s Michael’s favorite role, too!” she shrieked in delight, and it made sense: the image of a lost and abandoned child dying beatifically on-screen˳ Michael Jackson had tried to re-do his childhood, in the fantasy world of Neverland Valley Ranch, in Los Olivos, California, and with his dangerous and foolish “sleepovers” with young boys˳ Elizabeth, who wed her seventh (and final) husband, construction worker Larry Fortensky, on the grounds of Neverland, in 1991, seemed to understand Jackson’s troubles, and she defended him throughout his salacious child-molestation trial˳
A person close to Elizabeth recalls that “the only time I ever saw her put her foot down about Michael was when Marlon Brando’s son Miko, who was working as one of Michael’s bodyguards, was rounding up kids for Michael’s sleepovers˳ Elizabeth got wind of it, and she really came down hard˳ She knew it wasn’t right—she had grandchildren of her own—and that, even if they were the innocent little sleepovers Michael claimed, he was still on dangerous ground˳”
Elizabeth agreed to be part of the television extravaganza called Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration, which aired in November 2001˳ Enthroned onstage between the Gloved One and Macaulay Culkin, another child star whom Michael had taken under his wing, Elizabeth watched Liza Minnelli sing “You Are Not Alone˳” One year later Michael and Elizabeth traveled to New York to attend the wedding of Minnelli to theatrical entrepreneur David Gest˳ Elizabeth was Liza’s co-matron of honor, but she kept the entire bridal party waiting for 45 minutes because she had left her shoes in the hotel˳ “We waited, of course,” Minnelli recalls with a laugh˳ “It was always worth the wait˳”
Michael, in turn, worshipped Elizabeth˳ “She was like a wife and a mother to me,” he confided to Corey Feldman˳ His shrine to her at Neverland Valley Ranch was “like something you’d see in a church˳ She knew how opportunistic some people can be and how innocent about certain things Michael was, especially about sex,” says a friend and adviser˳ When Michael was called upon to give a public kiss to Lisa Marie Presley on the announcement of their ill-fated marriage, he came to Elizabeth to ask her the best way to kiss a girl˳ “He called Elizabeth,” a friend of the family recalls, “and asked her how she liked to be kissed˳”
“As if you wanted to climb into the other person’s soul,” she answered˳
Not only was he grateful for her loyalty and her support, Michael was also her biggest movie fan˳ “To Michael, Elizabeth was a saint, a goddess˳ And it’s tragic—all those surgeries [Michael had]˳ If you look closely, in the beginning, he’s trying to look like Elizabeth˳ His ruined face, his appearance, was a tribute to Elizabeth gone terribly wrong˳ I think he wanted it to be the greatest fan letter ever written˳”
They called themselves “the House of Taylor˳” They were a group, mostly of men, who saw to Elizabeth’s affairs and her well-being in the last decade of her life—Jason Winters, Erik Sterling, Stephen Roseberry, and Tim Mendelson˳ She and Mendelson were so close that when his mother was dying of liver cancer last year Elizabeth virtually turned part of her home into a hospice for her˳ Jason and Erik are the founding executives of Sterling Winters Management, a personal-management company that represents, among other people, Janet Jackson and Kathy Ireland˳ In fact, Ireland, a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, formed a friendship and business alliance with Elizabeth through Sterling Winters˳ The two women designed and sold costume jewelry for the House of Taylor˳ Elizabeth had always loved designing and creating beautiful things, and jewelry was an aphrodisiac for her˳
The born-again, 48-year-old Ireland, married to a doctor since 1988, seemed an unlikely business partner for Elizabeth, who loved to swear and was known for her eight marriages˳ But Ireland adored her nonetheless˳ “She’s the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met,” Ireland said before Elizabeth’s final medical crisis˳ “She was always trying to get me to loosen up!” Once Elizabeth offered to donate $10,000 to the charity of Ireland’s choice if she would just say the word “fuck˳” (She did and she did˳)
Jason Winters became Elizabeth’s closest friend in the last years, so much so that rumors abounded in 2010 that he was going to be her eighth husband˳ Not so˳ “The rumors regarding my engagement simply aren’t true,” she tweeted in the spring of 2010˳ “Jason is my manager and dearest friend˳ I love him with all my heart˳”
A few years before at an H˳I˳V˳ charity event, with Jason pushing her wheelchair along the red carpet, she was filmed howling an impassioned “Nooooo!” when asked if the two were engaged˳ It was played endlessly—on Entertainment Tonight and YouTube—but the undignified nature of the clip was a source of pain within the House of Taylor˳
Winters’s story is remarkable, and Elizabeth herself was touched by it: born in the American South, Winters, now 51, is a completely self-made and highly successful business executive˳ His living room in his Palm Springs home is dominated by one of Andy Warhol’s famous silkscreens of Elizabeth˳ His deep voice and his considerable charisma remind one of the actor James Earl Jones, another friend of Elizabeth’s˳
After the failure of her marriage to Fortensky, in 1996, Elizabeth was deeply discouraged˳ Jason and Tim, and José Eber, her hairdresser of 28 years, helped bring her out of her depression, flirting with her, making her feel loved, and making her laugh˳ “Let’s face it,” one of Elizabeth’s friends and a frequent visitor to Nimes Road told Vanity Fair, “gay men helped keep her alive for the last 10 years˳ And the gay community kept her stardom alive˳ They made her an icon at a time when a lot of people didn’t care˳”
Elizabeth often traveled to Hawaii with Jason and Erik, staying at their home˳ That’s where Elizabeth was introduced to a pastime that she described as one of the most thrilling in a life crowded with thrills: swimming with sharks˳ Not satisfied with six decades of tangling with the sharks of the movie industry, Elizabeth decided to go face-to-face with the real thing, a testament to her fearlessness˳ In August 2006, at age 74, she had herself lifted from her wheelchair and lowered into a Plexiglas shark cage˳ Before taking the plunge into the Pacific, Elizabeth, clad only in a white T-shirt over a one-piece bathing suit, and wearing lots of bangles, spat into her goggles like a pro and bit onto her snorkel˳ When the tour guide cautioned her to remove her jewelry because their flash and glitter would drive the sharks into a frenzy, Elizabeth reportedly answered, “Isn’t that the fucking point?”
While it’s now de rigueur for celebrities to launch their own signature scents, Elizabeth was one of the first, in 1987˳ Since its introduction in 1991, White Diamonds has earned more than $1 billion in revenue˳
“The garden was her inspiration,” recalls Tamara Steele, senior vice president of global fragrance marketing at Elizabeth Arden, where Elizabeth developed her perfumes, including the best-selling White Diamonds, Black Pearls, Violet Eyes, and several others˳ “Her home was her fragrance headquarters˳” Steele, who worked with Elizabeth for 12 years, would be ushered into the living room to sit at the round table and discuss designs for the packaging˳ “She was a savvy and astute businesswoman, a delight to work with,” says Steele˳ “She knew her jewels, and the palettes and the colors were the basis of the design of her bottles˳”
