Elizabeth Taylor: Actress, Dead at 79...

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, DBE
(February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)




Elizabeth Taylor, also known as Liz Taylor, was an English-American actress.

Beginning as a child star, as an adult she came to be known for her acting talent and beauty, and had a much publicised private life, including eight marriages and several near death experiences. Taylor was considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.

The Hollywood legend's career spanned seven decades and she had five Oscar nominations.

Taylor acted in her first film at the age of 10, three years after her American parents had returned to the United States from London, where she was born in Hampstead in 1932.

After just one film, she was hired by MGM, and became a child star with National Velvet, starring opposite Mickey Rooney. One of the longest-surviving stars of the old studio system, she was widely acclaimed for her roles Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Raintree Country and Cleopatra.

Her two best actress Oscars were awarded for Butterfield 8 in 1960, and for her portrayal of a foul-mouthed alcoholic in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967.

Later in life she became known for charitable work for Aids and other causes, as well as her friendship with Michael Jackson, who asked her to be godmother to two of his three children.

Taylor dealt with various health problems over the years. In February 2011 new symptoms related to congestive heart failure caused her to be admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment.

Taylor died surrounded by her four children at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

RIP

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Jane Russell: Actress, Dead at 89...

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell
(June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011)




Jane Russell was an American film actress and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.

She was discovered by the wealthy industrialist Howard Hughes who in 1940 cast her in the movie The Outlaw. In 1947, Russell delved into music before returning to films. She made several films unde her contract with RKO – thrillers such as His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952), both opposite Robert Mitchum; The Las Vegas Story (1952) with Victor Mature; and Double Dynamite (1951), with Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx. The Western Montana Belle had been made for RKO in 1948, but Howard Hughes bought out the rights and sat on it for four years, releasing it only in 1952, when he felt his protégée was sufficiently established. In that year she also made Son of Paleface for Paramount.

Her best known role came in 1953 when she starred alongside another Hollywood legend, Marilyn Monroe, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in over 20 films throughout her career.

In 1955, she founded the World Adoption International Fund. For her achievements in film, she received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Russell married three times and adopted three children.

She died at her home in Santa Maria, California of a respiratory-related illness. She is survived by her three children: Thomas Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert Waterfield.

RIP

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