Fourteen Days into our Holiday jaunt finds us lingering in that transitional decade, the fifties, and who is dropping by, looking like Santa's haughtiest helper, but Elizabeth Taylor, nearing the height of her considerable beauty, and apparently cheesed off about something, based on that expression and hand on her hip. Just what is vexing the lady is a bit of a mystery. Could be the fact that Santa showed up at this photo shoot in the same colors as the star, or maybe she objects to that strange leer on Mr. Claus' bearded face. Either way, behind her peeved pout is a lifetime spent in the public eye.
Taylor, whose first credit remains the dubiously titled There's One Born Every Minute (1942), has been proving her unique qualities from the first. A stunning beauty from infancy may have shaped her life's path, but her spirit, so touching in Jane Eyre (1944) as Peggy Ann Garner's doomed friend at the orphanage, and so naturally noble in Lassie Come Home (1943) and Courage of Lassie (1946), found its most vibrant, youthful expression in what this viewer still regards as her best movie, National Velvet (1944). Ms. Taylor could have called it a day then and she'd probably still be a legendary actress.
Alas, she grew up and bloomed into a voluptuous woman and occasionally, a good actress in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966). For many years the feckless misadventures of Taylor and her too numerous companions filled the tabloids, appalled the Vatican, and sold many tickets for some pretty awful movies. Yet, when her friend and fellow actor Rock Hudson became ill with AIDS, the iconic actress became a graceful human being again, working tirelessly to raise awareness and to find help for those with the affliction. While aging and struggling with her own health problems in the glare of the public spotlight probably hasn't been easy, it's refreshing that Taylor has kept some of her former saltiness alive, commenting recently that she wouldn't want to give up all her admitted faults, since "one problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues."
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