Every breath you take today should be with someone else in mind.
Elizabeth, circa 1958.
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In 1955, when MGM was deciding whether to allow Elizabeth to option out of her contract and star in Giant opposite Rock Hudson, Hudson fought for his choice for leading lady, and Elizabeth got the part. Her gratitude to Hudson was the thread of their lifelong friendship. The time they spent together both on and off the set was often filled with what Hudson described as many “liquid lunches.” Their favorite drink? Chocolate martinis. Their favorite hangover cure? Bloody Marys. Admittedly, though, their hair-of-the-dog tactic often became the whole dog. When Hudson died from AIDS in 1985 at age fifty-nine, Elizabeth was rocked to her core. Her wish was that he had not died in vain.
Though Elizabeth began fighting the stigma attached to AIDS in the early 1980s, it wasn’t until Hudson’s death that her work began in earnest. She recalled, “I kept seeing all these news reports on this new disease and kept asking myself why no one was doing anything. And then I realized that I was just like them. I wasn’t doing anything to help.” Shocked by her own inaction, she planned a fundraising dinner, the first major AIDS benefit, for AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA). In 1985, Elizabeth joined with Dr. Mathilde Krim to form the American Foundation for AIDS Reseach (amfAR) and became the organization’s first national chairman. Her participation in the fight against AIDS helped bring it to the forefront of media attention, and she discovered that Elizabeth Taylor, the commodity, could be put to good use.
In 1991, Elizabeth created the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF), whose mission is to provide support for organizations that deliver direct care and services to AIDS patients, educate the public regarding AIDS, and conduct research to develop treatments and a cure. After a lifetime spent indulging her every whim, Elizabeth gave back in full. Like everything else in her life, she was passionate about her cause: Her generosity was overwhelming, and she reveled in her newfound role as philanthropist. Over the years, she raised millions of dollars for charity, fighting for the underchampioned, the sick, and the dispossessed.
Though she was awarded two Academy Awards for Best Actress, Elizabeth wanted most to be remembered for her charity work. In 2008, amfAR honored the veteran actress for her longstanding contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Always one for a good fight, Elizabeth’s goal to find a cure for AIDS may have been her most ambitious and rewarding challenge.
On the importance of giving
Giving is to give to God. Helping is to help others.
Nothing will raise your self-esteem as much as helping others. It will make you like yourself more and make you more likable. We can’t all be Mother Teresa, but each of us can try to make our little corner of the earth better.
Celebrity is not something that comes without responsibility.
Remember always to give. That is the thing that will make you grow.
You are who you are. All you can do in this world is help others to be who they are and better themselves and those around them.
There’s still so much more to do. I can’t sit back and be complacent, and none of us should be. I get around now in a wheelchair, but I get around.
I have found that when you are not concerned with your own satisfaction or pleasure—only with giving—then you yourself receive so much more.
If not to make the world better, what is money for?
On fighting for gay rights
There is no such thing as a gay agenda. It’s a human agenda.
On her work to find a cure for AIDS
Acting is, to me now, artificial. Seeing people suffer is real. It couldn’t be more real. Some people don’t like to look at it in the face because it’s painful. But if nobody does, then nothing gets done.
I’m going to do everything in my power to make it happen.
I don’t think President [George H. W.] Bush is doing enough about AIDS. In fact, I’m not even sure he knows how to spell AIDS.
Elizabeth and Rock Hudson on the set of Giant, 1956.
© Warner Bros.
It’s bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.
I could no longer take a passive role as I watched several people I knew and loved die a painful, slow, and lonely death.
I’m proudest of my charitable contributions. I’ve raised millions of dollars for the American Foundation for AIDS Research. And I’m not stopping here. I won’t stop until that hideous disease is conquered.