Elizabeth Taylor - scoliosis

[Pooka1]

I didn't know where to post this... I didn't realize she was in a wheelchair due to scoliosis.

Liz Taylor (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/09/liz.taylor.outing/index.html)

[Ballet Mom]

Elizabeth Taylor is still a lovely lady. I applaud her. I ran across this article over a year ago about her when I was doing my exhaustive research on scoliosis. It's quite interesting as it says she was apparently born with scoliosis. You would have never known it in her movies.

http://www.askmen.com/celebs/entertainment-news/elizabeth-taylor/elizabeth-taylor-battles-heart-and-spine-problems.html

[LindaRacine]

Her scoliosis is de novo scoliosis. She may have had a small scoliosis when she was younger, but the real damage has come from degeneration.

--Linda

[loves to skate]

Linda, you are correct about her scoliosis. My scoliosis is the same as Elizabeth Taylor's. I always wondered why she didn't choose to have surgery. Maybe she was not a good surgical risk. I know she has been in wheelchair for several years.
Sally

[mamamax]

In an interview with Larry King - Ms. Taylor states that she has had scoliosis from birth (double curve). I can recall several reported hospitalizations throughout her career, for back surgery. While the details of those surgeries were never released, the fact that she had a major spinal fusion in 1957 does appear in her biography.

[LindaRacine]

In an interview with Larry King - Ms. Taylor states that she has had scoliosis from birth (double curve). I can recall several reported hospitalizations throughout her career, for back surgery. While the details of those surgeries were never released, the fact that she had a major spinal fusion in 1957 does appear in her biography.
Thanks for pointing that out. ;-)

I believe the scoliosis she was born with was very minor. Because I have a Google Alert for scoliosis, I've been following this issue for a long time. Rent some of her movies. There are plenty of shots of her back when she's bending over, and there is no obvious curve. The problems she's been having for the last 5 years or so are due to degeneration. She did have a 3 or 4 level fusion in the 50's, but it was thought to be due to an injury, not scoliosis.

[Ballet Mom]

Mamamax,

I happened to see the transcript for that Larry King interview when I was hunting for my original article. Here is the link to the transcript and the interesting comments:


KING: The story about health. There must be -- I mean you are -- you're in a chair, right?

TAYLOR: Yes.

KING: In a wheelchair.

TAYLOR: Yes.

KING: What's the reason for that?

TAYLOR: My back, which has been chronically bad since I was a teenager.

KING: You had that at national velvet time, right?

TAYLOR: Before that.

KING: Before that?

TAYLOR: I was born with scoliosis. But not too many people -- you know now.

KING: Are born with scoliosis, which is?

TAYLOR: Curvature -- double curvature of the spine and osteoporosis.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/30/lkl.01.html

[mamamax]

Thanks for pointing that out. ;-)

I believe the scoliosis she was born with was very minor. Because I have a Google Alert for scoliosis, I've been following this issue for a long time. Rent some of her movies. There are plenty of shots of her back when she's bending over, and there is no obvious curve. The problems she's been having for the last 5 years or so are due to degeneration. She did have a 3 or 4 level fusion in the 50's, but it was thought to be due to an injury, not scoliosis.

Welcome. Lord knows i think i've seen every movie she's ever made and i agree, one sure can't tell. Of course, Hollywood is famous for shooting at just the right angles, right lighting, etc. Also - the human body does have an amazing ability to compensate. That's what my doctors have said anyway, looking from my xrays .. to .. me ;-) Hollywood circa her time - may have been prone to hide such things.

[titaniumed]

Liz Taylor has passed away, she was a scoliosis survivor as we all are.

May she rest in peace.
Ed

[skevimc]

Rent some of her movies. There are plenty of shots of her back when she's bending over, and there is no obvious curve.

She had a back double. :>

[mamamax]

Liz Taylor has passed away, she was a scoliosis survivor as we all are.

May she rest in peace.
Ed

yes she was (a survivor) ... echo the sentiment, rest in peace dear Liz.

[Singer]

She had a lot more than scoliosis going on in her life -- a lot more maladies and certainly a lot more fame, money, and husbands than the rest of us!! haha

I loved her movies and admired her talent and spunk.

[loves to skate]

yes she was (a survivor) ... echo the sentiment, rest in peace dear Liz.



Did you know she hated being called Liz?

[mamamax]

uh no - didn't know that. Trust she forgives me & Ed :-)

Did anyone come across her obituary? I think she may of disliked the first sentence even more.



With her timeless beauty, on-screen dramas and off-screen theatrics, Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of Hollywood excess.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10881322

[titaniumed]

Maxine
She does! lol

I have looked at hundreds of pics, and even watched a few movies on you tube, and I cannot see any evidence of scoliosis....(years ago) Its obvious in her later “wheelchair” years.

She probably could have benefitted from a full fusion about 20 years ago.

Is it possible to use a double for every movie she made? Seems like a ton of work just to hide a rib hump...

Between Hollywood, all the husbands, the booze, the smokes, she lived a complex life....her 1957, 3 level fusion surgery might have acted as a catalyst. By the time she was in her 50s, she must have progressed quickly. Her pain must have been brutal, and alcohol really is of little benefit. She quit smoking in 1974 when she thought she had cancer.

Ed

[Ballet Mom]

Taylor was still smoking in 1986...who knows when she actually quit?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE1D8173AF930A15756C0A960948260

http://1800ecigarette.com/blog/electronic-cigarette/congestive-heart-failure-linked-smoking-cigarettes

[jrnyc]

i believe she did a lot of damage to her spine when she fell off a horse while filming National Velvet...i don't remember...i think she may have "broken" her back then....
i do know it added to the complications!

i would bet she quit smoking...few people continue to age 79 with a cigarette in their hands...
i quite 23 years ago....one of the hardest things i ever did!

jess

[mgs]

My husband and I watched "Giant" over the weekend. At one point, he asked, "Didn't you say ET had scoliosis?" and I told him what I knew (from what I read here) and he said that in the scene that had just been on the screen, he could tell, in that dress she was wearing, she wasn't straight.

[titaniumed]

Oh no! Now I have to watch “Giant” again.....

I read that she had some sort of cancer or TB back in 74, and it mentioned that she quit, which is logical. She could have re-started, but then again, reporters need better news than ET starting smoking again....Who knows?

I knew a man who was 96 in 1965 who was a daily smoker and drinker. I was only 7, and I would sit and talk to him about things like when the car was invented. He was born in 1869.
I went back to NJ last Sept, and stopped by to chat with neighbors and asked about Mr White. He lived to 108, and the neighbors would call the police on him pretty much on a daily basis. Apparently, he had a large garden, and would fall asleep out back and of course they always thought he was dead back there. He felt it wasn’t worth the effort walking back to the house for a nap, when he could just take one in the garden.

Nobody knows what he died from, either it was his smoking, drinking, or the exercise from walking back to the house for a nap. Hard to say. When its your time, its your time.

In her later wheelchair years you could just see the pain in her face, the pain from scoliosis. She was ready. RIP
Ed

[jrnyc]

gee, Ed, i've got a couple of worn out knees now...
i cannot imagine how many body parts are worn out by age 108, including the heart and lungs!
am always amazed hearing about the few folks with really bad habits, like smoking, who live to a ripe old age!

jess