I always blog about green celebrities on my Green Living blog. After all, people like Bono, Darryl Hannah, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Redford all lead humanitarian and environmental efforts. But, it never once crossed my mind to blog about the late Elizabeth Taylor – what an oversight!
Taylor became lifelong friends with Rock Hudson when the two starred together in the film Giant. Before Hudson became sick with AIDS, Taylor said of the disease “We all heard of it and nobody was doing anything about it.?” She said, “And it made me so angry that we all sat around the dining room table, ‘Isn’t this awful, isn’t this tragic? Oh, my god.’ But nobody was doing anything. And that really angered me so much.”
Of course, once Hudson’s illness became known, Taylor sprang into action. She was one of the first celebrities to take up the HIV/AIDS cause. She and Dr. Michael S. Gottlieb founded the National AIDS Research Foundation. That joined with the AIDS Medical Foundation to form amfAR. AmfAR was founded to support AIDS research, education, HIV prevention, and AIDS related public policy. AmfAR has gone international with adult and pediatric sites as part of it’s TREAT Asia program.
Taylor also started AIDS fundraisers, which helped AIDS Project Los Angeles. All in all, she helped raised more than $100 million dollars since 1984. She also helped increase public awareness in addition to expanding research and education the public.
In 1993, Taylor founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF) to provide critically needed services for those with HIV or AIDS. She donated $40,000 to the NO/AIDS Task Force after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
For her work, she won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a special Academy Award in 1992. President Bill Clinton was quoted as saying, “Elizabeth’s legacy will live on in many people around the world whose lives will be longer and better because of her work and the ongoing efforts of those she inspired.”
In addition to her AIDS support, Taylor, who converted to Judaism in 1959, helped raise money for the Jewish National Fund.