Liz Taylor Ran a ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ Out of Her Home
Liz Taylor speaks at amfAR. Image by Getty Images
By John A. Oswald December 3, 2015
Elizabeth Taylor’s fierce commitment to the fight against AIDS was without question.
An outspoken advocate for people with HIV, she raised millions of dollars, and was one of the founders of amfAR (the American Foundation for AIDS Research).
A new report reveals she was even more hands-on than anyone knew: The violet-eyed Jewish siren was reportedly running a ‘Dallas Buyers Club’-like secret network out of her Bel Air mansion to get medication to people with the HIV virus.
Like Ron Woodroof, whose smuggling of experimental pharmaceuticals was enshrined in the movie’s Oscar-winning performance by Matthew McConaughey, Taylor opened up her home in the early 1990s to get yet-to-be-approved drugs to the sick and dying.
Taylor’s heroics were revealed by actress and model Kathy Ireland in an interview .
“Talk about fearless – at her home in Bel Air,” Ireland said. “It was a safe house. A lot of the work that she did, it was illegal, but she was saving lives. She said her business associates pleaded with her, ‘Leave this thing alone.’ She received death threats. Friends hung up on her when she asked for help. But something that I love about Elizabeth is her courage.”
RELATED: The groundbreaking AIDS reporting of Jeffrey Schmalz.
Taylor got involved in advocacy for AIDS research after the death of her friend and Hollywood icon, Rock Hudson, in 1985.
Taylor died in 2011 at the age of 79.
Ireland, an advocate for HIV awareness, made the revelation while discussing actor Charlie Sheen’s recent announcement that he is HIV-positive.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
