Standard Culture

RIP Liz Taylor, The Original Black Swan

(Elizabeth Taylor)

Ok.  So Elizabeth Taylor was never in a production of Swan Lake, but we dig this photo of her dolled up in ballet gear, at almost the same age Natalie Portman was during Black Swan. During her early career introduction to film with National Velvet (1944), Elizabeth’s beauty was almost alarming in one so young. She was intense with her all commanding eyes even as a little girl. 

Our only comparison to the Black Swan archetype is the fact Elizabeth could go from light to dark so easily. In her later years, her and soulmate Richard Burton made people stop in their tracks during their performance in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Take a look at one tiny snippet of an awesome film to see Elizabeth’s rage come forth.

Here’s another interesting fact…

Elizabeth Taylor’s New York Times obituary was written by someone who Is also dead reports New York Magazine. The New York Times theater critic Mel Gussow wrote an extensive, moving obituary of Elizabeth Taylor that the paper published yesterday. Mel has been dead for 6 years. It’s sort of an old custom in newspapers with people that want to pre-file an obituary in advance if they’re really feeling the human being. 

Even on her exit, Elizabeth left in a dramatic way… with a man who stood in line to write her curtain-closing biography and hitting the grave before her. It seemed everyone wanted dibs on her. 

So here it goes, Miss Taylor’s official New York Times obituary.