Several local newspapers have given prominent coverage to the death of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor, the actress known for her sultry screen persona, stormy personal life and enduring fame and glamor.
Taylor died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks. She was 79.
During her life, Taylor visited Taiwan twice: First in 1979, when she was invited to be a presenter of the Golden Horse Awards — the Taiwanese version of the Oscars — and again in 1984 for a sightseeing trip.
John Feng (馮寄台) recalled how in 1979, when he was a 32-year-old diplomat at Taiwan’s representative office in Washington, he received an unexpected assignment: To give a briefing to the Hollywood superstar, who had just accepted an invitation to attend the Golden Horse Awards presentation ceremony.
“I was extremely gratified when I returned to my office ... All of my colleagues envied me,” Feng, now Taiwan’s representative to Japan, was quoted as saying in local media reports.
The Government Information Office had invited Taylor to be a presenter at the Golden Horse Awards shortly after the US switched its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. At the time, Taylor was married to John Warner, a US senator who once served as US navy secretary.
SWEATY PALMS
Feng recalled that he was so nervous that he stammered when he met Taylor in person at her luxury home in Georgetown.
“I got a lump in my throat and my forehead and palms were sweaty,” Feng said.
Sensing his edginess, Taylor led him on a tour of her study and showed him a number of priceless paintings and collector’s items on display in the room.
“She even told some interesting jokes,” Feng recalled.
As the briefing had not ended by noon, Feng said, he invited Taylor to lunch.
Much to his surprise, Taylor accepted his invitation and even canceled a dentist appointment.
Feng booked seats at the classy Jockey Club and said that when they arrived, “all those present in the room stared at me in envy,” he said.
Taylor made her second visit to Taiwan in the company of her then-fiance Victor Luna, and she spent two days at Sun Moon Lake.
GOLDEN HORSE BOOST
Taylor’s presence at the 1979 Golden Horse Awards helped boost the event’s international profile and expand the vision of local filmmakers, noted local film director Lee Hsing (李行) said.
Lee said he has fond memories of receiving a trophy from Taylor at the awards.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience,” said Lee, director of the award-winning film The Story of a Small Town.
Taylor posed for pictures with the cast of the film at the award ceremony.
Wen Tien-hsiang (聞天祥), chief executive of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards Committee, said on Wednesday that the committee plans to organize a retrospective of Taylor’s films as part of this year’s Golden Horse film festival activities, but added that he was not sure whether the copyright owner of Taylor’s films would agree to the plan.
In a glittering career spanning more than five decades and more than 50 films, Taylor won two Academy Awards for best actress; first, as a call girl in BUtterfield 8 in 1960 and as the acid-tongued Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966.
She was also awarded a special Academy Award in 1992 for her humanitarian work. She was known as the most loyal of friends and a defender of the gay community in Hollywood when AIDS was new to the industry and beyond.
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