The Last Movie Star

My regular readers will know that I am a huge Elizabeth Taylor fan. I've consumed a tonne of her movies, have read everything I can get my hands on about her and her life, and I've admired her ability to overcome obstacles such as grief and ill health to carve out a phenomenal career on the screen and stage, and in her charity work too. When Rock Hudson's battle with AIDS first became public he was actually kicked out of a French hospital; tragically that was the kind of stigma the disease carried then. Elizabeth's work in this arena was fundamental to changing the public perception of the disease + she raised tremendous sums of money for research.

She was a true movie star in a way that will probably never be seen again. Celebrity just ain't what it used to be and I was shocked and saddened this morning to wake up and hear about her death.

In all the reporting of her dramatic life, we shouldn't forget her legacy in film. From here on in I'll let another recently passed Hollywood legend do the talking ...