Elizabeth Taylor was my first crush.

Watching her in National Velvet, the movie she made in 1944 with Mickey Rooney about a horse entering England's biggest steeplechase race, I fell in love simultaneously with Elizabeth and horse racing.

She was cool before thee word was invented, hip before it was ever contemplated, sexy before you could ever speak about it .

She was beautiful in that English Rose way and her closest role to life was surely Cleopatra, like her a woman who tamed powerful men and created her own empire.

Her passionate years with Richard Burton defined her of course, if ever a pair lit the screen on fire it was those two British thespians.

The remorseful drunk and the first lady of screen made sweet music together and predictably it all ended in ruin.

Yet they leaped off the screen unlike the wishy-washy 'celebrities' of nowadays.These two were people with great substance,

She was married seven times yet never overstayed her welcome in Hollywood's eyes. As an older woman she carried herself
beautifully, her embrace of AIDS patients and her support for Michael Jackson marked her as a fearless woman, unafraid to embrace unpopular causes as both were at the time.

Now she is gone but we still have those glorious memories.

Sleep well Elizabeth, you brought great joy to the world