Taylor among star honoured for career achievement
Academy Award-winning actress Elizabeth Taylor and Grammy-honoured singer Paul Simon were among five stars from the world of performing arts being honoured for their career achievements.
Joining them at a White House reception tonight before a gala at the nearby Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts were actor James Earl Jones, actress-singer-dancer Chita Rivera and conductor James Levine.
President George W Bush and first lady Laura Bush planned to attend the 25th annual programme where the careers of those to be honoured this year were being celebrated.
The Kennedy Centre’s chairman, James A Johnson, called Taylor “a luminous film actress who for nearly 60 years has been a Hollywood icon treasured by millions throughout the world.”
Taylor, 70, became a child star with “National Velvet” in 1944 and later won Oscars for “Butterfield 8” in 1960 and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” in 1966.
More recently, she has helped raise millions of dollars to fight AIDS.
Simon, 51, was added to the line-up in August when, a few weeks after the official announcement, former Beatle Paul McCartney withdrew because of a personal obligation.
The Kennedy Centre said McCartney would be on the 2003 list and that Simon would have been honoured in the future.
Simon first became known as part of a duo with Art Garfunkel. “Sound of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” were among their most popular numbers. The songwriter helped shape several generations of young Americans, Johnson said. “More recently, his work has encompassed an awareness of and concern for international art and artists,” he said.
The others being honoured are:
:: James Levine, 49, long-time musical director of the Metropolitan Opera and now leader of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was credited with bringing “one of the world’s foremost opera companies to unsurpassed artistic excellence.”
:: Chita Rivera, 69, “a musical theatre star of the highest magnitude.” She is a two-time Tony Award winner.
:: James Earl Jones, 71, “an actor whose extraordinary range and power have made him an American institution.” The voice of the evil Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” his long and varied career has produced two Tonys and four Emmys.
