Elizabeth Taylor's last appearance on Larry King Live was July 22, 1996 for a special program on HIV/AIDS. At the time, some hospitals segregated HIV/AIDS patients. Taylor slams the practice, as well as conservative politicians for saying HIV funding was wasteful because HIV "could be prevented."
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Screen legend and iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor has died in Los Angeles. She was 79.
The Oscar winning actress passed this morning in Los Angles from congestive heart failure, reports the New York Times.
The London-born Taylor began as a child star and enjoyed a six-decade career in Hollywood. Taylor appeared in more than 60 films and is best known for roles in films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, Giant, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Butterfield 8. Taylor won the Best Actress Oscar for the latter two films.
But in the last generation she reinvented herself as a humanitarian and a tireless fighter in the battle against HIV/AIDS. That work gained her a special Academy Award in 1993.
Taylor became the "very first American public figure" to speak out against HIV/AIDS in the dark days of the 1980s. "The Hollywood star founded the American Foundation for Aids Research (Amfar) following the death of her close friend Rock Hudson in 1985," reports the Independent. "Taylor immediately set up the charity and worked tirelessly for the cause. 'I am on a crusade against Aids and I'll battle forever even after a cure is found,' she said."
A percentage of the profits from Taylor's fragrance brands are earmarked for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. As of 2000, she had raised $120 million for her foundation and for the American Foundation for AIDS Research," adds the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Stunning, classy, selfless.
