5 Things to Admire About Elizabeth Taylor Besides Those Violet Eyes

Certainly, there were things in the life of Elizabeth Taylor, who died this morning in Los Angeles at 79, that most people wouldn't want to emulate. There was her tumultuous personal life -- even her New York Times obituary couldn't help but slip in a dig about how her married name was Elizabeth Taylor Hilton Wilding Todd Fisher Burton Warner Fortensky -- and her problems with alcohol and drugs. She suffered decades of wretchedly poor health and was hospitalized 70 times for various ailments. She sometimes made ill-considered career choices (did the two-time Oscar winner really need to appear in soap operas in the 1980s?).

But let's stipulate to all that and focus instead on the greatness of Elizabeth Taylor -- not just her acting achievements, but how she helped others, and how she carried herself with grace and generosity. Here's what I think we can learn from her:

1. Make versatility your strong point.

Taylor became a star in large part because of sheer beauty, but she stayed in the spotlight and became an even bigger star because of her willingness to adapt to a wide range of challenging roles. She dared to obscure her figure with padding and donned a gray wig to play an aging, frumpy faculty wife in the 1966 film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and dug deep as an actress to convincingly portray an unattractively bitter, unhappy nihilist. She could easily have fallen flat, but instead she won an Academy Award.

2. Don't be afraid to do what you believe is right, even if it's controversial.

Back in 1985, when the HIV-AIDS epidemic was still enshrouded in shame and derision, Taylor made herself conspicuous by paying a hospital visit to her friend and Giant co-star, the long-closeted gay actor Rock Hudson, who was dying of the disease. Taylor was so moved by her friend's suffering that she became one of the first celebrities to raise money for AIDS research and recruit other big names -- including then-First Lady Nancy Reagan -- to the cause. Describing AIDS as "her personal war," she also used her fame to promote HIV prevention, even posing with a condom on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. As Entertainment Weekly recounts, Taylor explained, "So many people were frightened and doing so little about it. The silence was thunderous, and the only way to stop that is to speak out."

3. Don't lower yourself to hate people for what they say about you.

Taylor spent most of her long life in the public eye, where her every doing and indiscretion became fodder for supermarket tabloids and late-night comics. She loathed the unrelenting scrutiny and the caricature that people imagined her to be, but she never let it get to her. As her New York Times obit recounts, when Joan Rivers ridiculed her for "having more chins than a Chinese phone book," she shrugged off the insult, saying that such taunts "did not get me where I live." Even the catty Rivers was won over by her magnanimity. "From then on, I was crazy about her," Rivers later recalled.

4. Dare to branch out.

Taylor will be most remembered for her acting, but as Bizmology blogger Linnea Kirgan points out, she also was a successful entrepreneur. In 1987, Taylor started her own perfume line, Passion, the first celebrity-name fragrance, and followed it in 1991 with White Diamonds, a scent that remains a bestseller 20 years later. Forbes.com reports that her fragrance products business has earned an estimated $200 million in sales.

5. Don't take yourself too seriously, and be nice even when you don't have to.

In February, Harper's Bazaar published what turned out to be Taylor's last-ever magazine interview. It would have been understandable if Taylor, in failing health and seeing her career in the headlights, would been as bitter and cranky as, say, Robert Mitchum in his infamous 1983 Esquire interview. Instead, she chatted amiably and even commiserated with a celebrity du jour, model-socialite-reality-TV-star Kim Kardashian. "I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands," Taylor noted drolly. "For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone." When asked what great actors she would have liked to have worked with, instead of selecting some legend from Hollywood's past, she singled out the much younger Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell, whom she described as "both brilliant, nuanced actors with great range." She even consented to follow Kardashian on Twitter. To the last, Elizabeth Taylor never forgot how to be gracious and giving, and that's something we all should strive to emulate.

Turner Classic Movies will be airing a 24-hour-long tribute to Elizabeth Taylor on April 10, featuring a dozen of her films.