Elizabeth Taylor was the ultimate Hollywood It girl, starring in 56 movies and 10 made-for-TV movies in the span of 60 years. But compared to letting her fame be defined by her movies and her seven marriages, the Oscar winner decided to use her celebrity status for a good cause. Back when there were few celebrity activists, we have to give Taylor her props for her unapologetic fight against the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s.
When AIDS made its way to previously healthy men in the ‘80s, there was another epidemic that followed. According to the biography, Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon (via Vanity Fair), humans were afraid to touch each other for fear of contracting the disease. Those with AIDS were denied jobs and life insurance, with their health battle called “the gay plague.”
