Velvet and Amethyst

Almost exactly a year ago, Friend D was visiting.  As I was showing her around this area, we stopped in the lovely little village of Céligny, and found the cemetery where the great Welsh actor Richard Burton was buried in 1984, after spending his last years living in this area.  I described that visit in this post.

Two days ago, on Wednesday, Burton's ex-wife (twice), the beautiful Elizabeth Taylor, died in Los Angeles, where she had been hospitalized with symptoms of congestive heart failure for six weeks.  According to the local paper, there was speculation as to whether she would be buried here in Switzerland.  She is reported to have said, when she attended Burton's funeral in 1984, that she wished to be buried next to him.  Of course, later on, she stated that she would like to be buried next to Michael Jackson.  It is probably just as well that she had a change of heart.  Burton had originally purchased a plot for her next to his own.  It is reported that he ultimately cancelled the purchase.  No doubt such a threesome would not have been welcomed by Burton's widow.

All speculation ceased when it was reported today that her funeral, a small private service, took place yesterday and that she was buried in the cemetery where other screen greats such as James Stewart, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy lie.  In the end, she was buried closer to Michael Jackson, who also has his last resting place there, than to Burton.  Note: the story linked to erroneously reports that Burton was buried in Wales.

Elizabeth Taylor was an cinematic icon of my youth.  Who can forget her as the beautiful, feisty Velvet Brown, who rides her gallant horse to win the Grand National in National Velvet and then is denied the prize because girls were not allowed to be jockeys?  She was barely 12 years old at the time.  Thus began one of the most tumultuous screen careers of the 20th century, both on- and off-screen.  Married eight times to seven different men (Burton counts twice in the marriage statistics), the black-haired amethyst-eyed beauty accumulated two Oscars for Best Actress.  Among her many movies, two of my personal favorites are Giant and Raintree County.  Both are movies that I like to watch over and over again.  Each time I see them, it renews for me the age I was and the era I experienced when I first saw them.

I remember the shock we all felt to hear of the sudden death of her third husband, Mike Todd, in a plane crash.  I also remember the deep disappointment so many of us felt when she turned to the married Eddie Fisher, husband of her erstwhile friend, Debbie Reynolds, for comfort.  Soon after that, she and the ill-fated Fisher went to Europe for the filming of Cleopatra, where she met Richard Burton.  And that was that.  Yes, there were a couple other husbands after Burton, but Burton looms largest.  For those who might be interested, here is an interesting blog post about the various homes she resided in with her various husbands.

Elizabeth's leaving Fisher and the United States for Burton and the Europe of her birth happened around the time - just a bit earlier - that I myself left the US for Morocco.  Her turbulent years with Burton spanned several of my own turbulent years, not nearly as headline-grabbing or public, but important to me.  When I returned to the US with HWMBO in 1982, it was to a Washington scene where she was married to a Republican Senator, an incongruous marriage at best, given her own activism for causes like AIDS, not at all dear to Republicans.

Part of my early fascination with her dealt with her regal name, "Elizabeth," one she shared with the current English monarch, as well as with the first Elizabeth, the great Queen Bess of the Renaissance, and my own mother.  Rest In Peace, Liz, Velvet and so many other characters to whom you gave life!  Your work will live on after you - and so will the memories!