EES members and anyone with an interest in ancient Egypt will regret the passing of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, aged 79, writes John J Johnston, the Society's Vice-Chair.
She will be best remembered for her role as the Ptolemaic ruler, Cleopatra VII Philopator in Joseph L Mankiewicz’s mammoth production of ‘Cleopatra’ in 1963. Thinking herself wrong for the role, Taylor originally attempted to deter the film’s producer, Walter Wanger, by asking for the previously unheard of salary of $1,000,000 together with a share of the film’s profits; in an effort to stay true to his vision for the motion picture, Wanger agreed to her demands and the rest is cinematic history…
Producing the film, over a number of years, in two countries: Italy and England, was a gruelling and expensive process, which almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox and, for Taylor, personally, the production resulted in a near-fatal illness, a very public, adulterous affair with her co-star, Richard Burton, whom she would go on to marry (and divorce) twice, and in her becoming one of the most internationally recognisable actresses of her generation.
Whatever the film’s artistic shortcomings, Taylor’s ‘look’ inspired artists and designers from Warhol to Quant for the remainder of the ’60s and fixed the public perception of Egypt’s last queen for the succeeding five decades. Whilst Cleopatra may not have been Taylor’s most capable screen performance, it was, nonetheless, her defining role.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor DBE 27 February 1932 – 23 March 2011, actor and cultural icon.
John J Johnston will be delivering the lecture ‘Infinite Variety’?: The Cinematic and Televisual Reception of Cleopatra VII and the Ptolemaic Dynasty' at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen on 24 May 2011.