>>
elizabeth taylor
was one of the world's most beautiful and beloved
movie stars
with a career that spans more than seven decades. her life was not all glitz and glamor. we'll talk to her long-time publicist and friend in a moment. but first
peter alexander
.
>>
her career was filled with so many memorable movie moments, but her passing isn't just the loss of one of
hollywood
's
brightest stars
, also the end of a 70-year
soap opera
that americans could not get enough. for a nation obsessed with royalty,
elizabeth taylor
was
hollywood
's queen, famous for film as she was for diamonds, drama and divorce. with those stunning looks and violet eyes,
taylor
was a
household name
by the tender age of 12.
>>
all day and every night, i want to be a famous writer.
>> reporter:
she earned acclaim for being with top leading men.
>>
i tried with you, baby. i really tried.
>> reporter:
but her off-screen dramas would be as memorable as her performances themselves. more than 50 movies, sure, but the starlet also had seven husbands. the first a wealthy hotel heir, the last a construction worker.
taylor
lost husband number three,
mike todd
, in a tragic
plane crash
. but public sympathy waned barely a year later, when
taylor
ran off with singer eddy fischer, at the time still married to
taylor
's
best friend
,
debby reynolds
. on the set of "cleopatra" she cemented her place as the best known vixen, entering a relationship with burton. the pope denounced
taylor
was a sexual vagrant. but she and burton would marry, divorce, and marry again.
>>
i'm a very committed wife. i should be committed, too, i've been married so many times.
>> reporter:
throughout the years, the public couldn't get enough of
taylor
's glamour, the excess, and those jewels, fabulous jewels. she owned the giant pearl worn by bloody
queen mary
five centuries ago, and diamonds.
elizabeth
's name will forever be synonymous with those spectacular sparklers, too.
>>
these have always brought me luck.
>> reporter:
but luck seemed to elude
taylor
when it came to her health. she missed months of work on "cleopatra."
>>
mistake lore was carried from the plane in a wheelchair.
>> reporter:
an illness that brought speculation about her well-being. among
taylor
's personal struggles, chronic back pain, weight problems and trips to rehab for addiction to both prescription drugs and alcohol. still, despite countless tabloid headlines declaring her near death,
taylor
soldiered on. in her later years, most notably as the first celebrity crusader to raise awareness and money for
aids research
. most recently, her only public appearances were to help promote those aids charities and to mourn the loss of her beloved friend,
michael jackson
, whom she wouns proudly described as the least weird man she knew. a classic
movie star
whose life could easily have inspired its own
hollywood
epic,
elizabeth taylor
mesmerized fans to the very end.
>>
love some of those old news reel clips. thousands express their fond memories of
taylor
, a lot of them reserving remarks for twitter.
carrie fischer
, her dad was
taylor
's fifth husband. fischer wrote, if my father had to divorce
taylor
for anyone, i'm so grateful it was
elizabeth
.
>>
sally marks,
elizabeth taylor
's long-time publicist and friend, joins us this morning. good morning to you. and my condolences.
>>
thank you, matt. good morning, good morning.
>>
you knew her for a very long time, and my thoughts this morning are also with her family. you were very close with them, her four children, ten grandchildren, four great grandchildren. how are they doing?
>>
well, i think, as expected, they're very, very sad. you have to understand that
elizabeth
is a
national treasure
, a global treasure, and i think their whole lives of family have shared her with the world. and right now this is their time to sort of be private and have her alone. and i have to say, we're all really grateful that the press really has left them alone, and they need that time. it's their mom.
>>
i know she had spent six weeks in the hospital this last time. and i had heard there were some thoughts that she was improving enough maybe where she should come home before things took a turn for the worse. it's a difficult question to ask, sally, but was she aware of the seriousness of the condition of her final days?
>>
i think she was very aware of the seriousness of her condition. she had been in the hospital a long time. she had been hospitalized for about six weeks, and she had been stabilized. she received fantastic care at cedar sigh sinai. and it was managed and stable for a long time. you never know. i think all of us who loved her a lot had seen her get through so many extraordinary illnesses. in my case, you know, i sort of watched her over the past 20, 25 years, and she had been very sick many times. and she always had this extraordinary
life force
, and she sort of pushed through and came back. and i think we all thought that would be the case again, and definitely fervently hoped that. so it's kind of shattering. and i think everybody around her, her very
close friends
and her family, are just devastated.
>>
you know, i was trying to think overnight, sally, about why it was that people around the world seem to identify with her so much. none of us live a life like the one
elizabeth taylor
lived. and yet perhaps it was the fragility of her that allowed us to identify with her. she had
ups and downs
like all of us, turbulence, health issues, addiction. is that, do you think, what made people really recognize her?
>>
i think that's definitely part of it. but she had these real challenges, and she was very honest about them. she was very authentic. i mean, everybody has talked a lot about her beauty, image, contribution to film. but i think the point is that her success and her appeal was based on something very authentic, very real, and honestly, very substantive. and it's that substance that her appeal was built on, that has allowed her to do so much. for example, to build an incredibly successful, great fragrance business. she was the first celebrity fragrance, and 20 years later, white diamonds is a top,
top seller
. and that's what those loyal customers have responded to. her real authentic sort of zest and love for life. and, of course, her hiv work has been very much -- she has been able to do that because of that really sort of loyal following.
>>
i was wondering if maybe we could finish here, sally, by trying to -- people probably try to imagine what must have it been like to live in the shoes of
elizabeth taylor
? i know the two of you were in florence, italy back in
1991
. just tell briefly what happened when she was recognized by a crowd of people.
>>
well, we had had come out of the aids conference, and she had made this extraordinary speech, and we were all very moved. it was very serious. and she said, let's go shopping a little bit. because she obviously loved to shop. and we all trooped along after her to the beautiful little cute jewelry stores. and suddenly we started to feel this vibration, and there were suddenly out of almost nowhere, thousands of people outside, and the bridge literally started to vibrate and shake, and we were kind of terrified actually, and she sort of blew it off, and she said, we'll be okay, it's all right, it's always like this in italy. and she took her fame casually and i think was able to use it to drive real substantive
social change
. so that's what is so special about her to me, that she was able to take something and make it -- use it to make the world a
better place
.
>>
sally morrison, thank you so much for sharing your memories again. and our condolences to you and her family.
>>
absolutely. thank you very much, matt.
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