She died of congestive heart failure. Almost all of her medical problems were caused by her inherited lymphedema-distichiasis syndrome. This rare genetic disease caused: Eyelashes growing inward to irritate and damage her eyes.
While filming National Velvet in 1944, then 12-year-old Taylor was thrown off a horse and hurt her back. However it was not that injury but scoliosis, or a curvature in her spine that she was born with, that was responsible for the chronic back pain she faced throughout her life.
And it turns out that 7 percent of people with lymphedema-distichiasis syndrome also suffer from congenital heart disease. Taylor had a history of heart problems; she had surgery in 2009 to repair a leaky valve, and her death on March 23, 2011, was caused by congestive heart failure.
We did a little digging to answer these questions and here's what we found: Her eye color was actually natural — for the most part. Colored contacts weren't commercially available until 1983, so Taylor wasn't faking it. However, she was born with a very specific and rare amount of the pigment melanin.
The Sad Truth About Elizabeth Taylor's Struggles With Addiction
What is the rarest eye color in the world?
Red and violet are the rarest eye colors. When they do occur, they're generally found in people with albinism, a rare genetic disorder that prevents the body from producing melanin. Since there is no melanin (or pigmentation) in the eyes, the blood vessels in the eyes become visible.
What illness did Elizabeth Taylor have during Cleopatra?
Elizabeth Taylor's most dramatic health moment occurred half a century ago. While filming the epic flop “Cleopatra” in Rome, she contracted pneumonia and underwent an emergency tracheotomy so she could breathe.
Over the years, her catalogue of ailments included a brain tumour, skin cancer, pneumonia and she underwent three hip replacements. One of the most debilitating of her ailments was scoliosis, or curvature of the spine. Taylor was born with the condition and suffered back problems all her life as a result.
All other terms of Taylor's revocable living trust have remained private, as intended. It's rumored that the trust passed the majority of her assets to her children, grandchildren, and to various charities. Taylor's AIDS work saw her address the General Assembly at the United Nations.
Later, while under sedation for a caesarean section, she was given a tubal ligation without her knowledge. As a child actress and product of the MGM studio system, Elizabeth was given pills to pep her up and pills to calm her down – starting her on a path that would see her in and out of rehab in later years.
Taylor also had a rare genetic defect that resulted in her having two layers of eyelashes, which really helped give her colorful eyes that dramatic pop.
The late Elizabeth Taylor was famous for her double eyelashes. She had a medical condition that causes a person to develop a greater than normal number of eyelashes. Some people like Taylor are born with a full second row of eyelashes due to this genetic mutation called distichiasis.
And, well, she must have loved playing that part, because Liz would infamously walk down the aisle eight times (to seven husbands, marrying Richard Burton twice) over the next 40 years. Her first wedding took place in 1950, at the age of 18, and she didn't stop until her last stint as bride in 1991, at the age of 59.
Not only had Taylor's spinal curve worsened to 53°, but she was also experiencing back pain so severe at times it would cause her to fall to the ground.
Larry Fortensky (January 17, 1952 – July 7, 2016) was an American construction worker known for being the last husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor. They were married in 1991 at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch and divorced five years later. Stockton, California, U.S.
One thing these survey results have in common is that light-colored eyes — green, gray, blue, and hazel — are named as the most attractive eye colors in the world. In one large survey of more than 66,000 people, green was chosen as the most attractive eye color.
The rarest skin color in the world is considered to be white due to albinism, which is a genetic condition that causes a lack of melanin production in the human body. Albinism affects 1 out of every 3,000 to 20,000 people.
Although the deep blue eyes of some people such as Elizabeth Taylor can appear purple or violet at certain times, "true" violet-colored eyes occur only due to albinism. Eyes that appear red or violet under certain conditions due to albinism are less than 1 percent of the world's population.
What is the rarest hair and eye color combination?
According to an article by evolutionary biology professor Mark Elgar, PhD, of the University of Melbourne, blue-eyed redheads are the absolute rarest, with 0.17% of the population having that combination of hair and eye color. So if that describes you, you're most likely one in a million—or more!
