Dame Elizabeth Taylor: Actor, advocate and addict of all things that sparkle

No other woman exudes the amount of opulence that has today become synonymous with the name Elizabeth Taylor than the woman herself. The sparkle of the unparalleled jewels she would flaunt was only matched by the sparkle of her iconic violet eyes. From elaborate costumes on set to her decadent gowns off-screen, Elizabeth Taylor embodied the enigmatic aura and fashion finesse of her characters, making her one of the most memorable fashion icons of our time. The movie star, who was known for over 50 films spanning 65 years, died from congestive heart failure at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Hospital following a 6-week stay on March 23 at the age of 79. The three time Oscar-winning actress made philanthropy en vogue, with her founding role in the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmfAR) and The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Taylor will forever be remembered as the sexy movie siren, whose real-life drama (including eight tabloid-worthy marriages) surpassed the scandal and glitz of her silver-screen characters. Arab News honors the actress behind the drama, the advocate behind the cause, and the fashionista behind the trends. Making waves Taylor has made waves for her wardrobe both on and off screen. In the 1960s, she famously tantalized viewers in the controversial slipdress worn in Butterfield 8 (1960), the film that got the then-three-time nominated actress an Oscar. She later stopped moviegoers in their tracks with her modish Egyptian ensembles in Cleopatra (1963) — her favorite costumes ever worn (no doubt the elaborate headpieces and jewelry suited the actress’ personal decadent style quite well), but it was the violet-eyed star’s striking gaze that put viewers in a permanent trance under Taylor’s unmatched beauty. Taylor style Elizabeth Taylor was fearless. She always flaunted her three best assets: Her eyes, her diamonds and her voluptuous cleavage. In her younger days, she favored plunging necklines with straps poised to slip off her shoulders, her hair like a dark cloud around her thickly made-up eyes, which were further enhanced by a genetic mutation that gave her double rows of eyelashes! (Some girls have all the luck!) As the fashionista grew older, her style got even bolder. The seventies brought tight miniskirts and more elaborate headpieces, and the eighties ushered in feather boas, bright blue eyeshadow, and poufy everything. Toward the end of her life, Taylor attended events for her many philanthropic pursuits in a wheelchair, swathed in silk caftans and draped with fur and velvet wraps. In 1997, she won a Lifetime of Glamour Award from the CFDA. Her extraordinary style is one of the many things that will be missed. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend Taylor’s third husband, Movie producer Mike Todd, gifted the starlet with a 29 and 7/8 karat diamond engagement ring. Not to be outdone, Richard Burton, her 5th husband, later presented her with a 33 karat Krupp diamond only to eclipse that with a 69 carat diamond (worth more than $1 million at the time) as a 40th birthday present. Yet out of all her magnificent gems, it was the 69.42 carat pear shaped diamond, named the Taylor-Burton, that catapulted this jewelry lover into the collector Hall of Fame. Her own jewelry line, the Elizabeth Taylor collection by Piranesi (sold at Christie’s) garnered instant attention. One of Oscar’s best friends Taylor was nominated three times before snagging two Oscars: Raintree County (1957), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof  (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won Oscars for her roles in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Butterfield 8 (1960). Many critics claim she won her first Oscar because she was sick, and not because she deserved it. These same critics also believe she deserved nominations — and maybe even wins too — for A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cleopatra (1963) and even Taming of the Shrew (1967).