Bowie and Taylor 1975.
Photo: Terry O’Neill

Singer David Bowie shares a cigarette with actress Elizabeth Taylor in Beverly Hills, 1975. It was the first occasion that the pair had met. Print size: 20 H x 16 W inches Frame size: 25 H x 21 W inches

This 1975 photo, of Elizabeth Taylor “feeding” David Bowie a drag off a cigarette is rather lovely.

It’s very intimate for a couple who had just met but maybe it’s different when one celebrity meets another. Especially when they’re as iconic as Bowie and Taylor.

Bowie is beautiful here. Beautiful but a tad frail. All cheekbones and angles and glowing with artistic vitality, yet…

Frail.

Of course, by 75 he was also a raging coke addict. This was the year of Young Americans…the Year of “Fame” and “Golden Years”.

It was also the year Bowie appeared on Cher’s show and they did that crazy medley duet.

It was Bowie’s first big American year.

Elizabeth (never “Liz”; she HATED to be called Liz) is a tad zaftig at this stage but it’s a healthy looking kind of voluptuous. She’s sort of a sexy maternal figure here as she “feeds” her “baby” the craving he so desires. There’s an earthy ribald quality here to Elizabeth Taylor…apparently, that was the “real” “Liz”.

She was 43 or so in this photo. The movie career was pretty much dead but she was still the Queen of Hollywood and the tabloids. 1975 was the year in between her marriages to Richard Burton. Divorce #1 was June of 74 followed by remarriage in October of 75 then Divorce #2 in July of 76. After that, she hooked up and eventually married Virginia politician John Warner and her weight ballooned; life as a “Real Housewife of D.C.” made her very unhappy.

Elizabeth Taylor died March 23, 2011 at the age of 79 of congestive heart failure. She also suffered from a lifetime of poor health and crippling accidents. Though she quit smoking in 1990, she was a heavy smoker for 40 years.

David Bowie died January 10, 2016 at the age of 69 from liver cancer. He was relatively healthy most of his life (other than issues with drug and alcohol abuse). He also smoked for many decades but apparently stopped in the early 2000s.

This photo is by famed photographer Terry O’Neill. He’s also known as the ex-husband of actress Faye Dunaway. Terry O’Neill was credited as a producer on the ill-famed Mommy Dearest, the cinematic biopic about Joan Crawford that was a huge bomb and a major blow to Dunaway’s career. O’Neill and Dunaway have a son, Liam. While Dunaway claims that Liam is her biological son, O’Neill has said that Liam was adopted.

You can own this photo. It’s only $2650. Go here to claim a piece of celebrity history.

Also:

Don’t smoke.

Yes, it does look hella cool. (really…it does)

But, it’s not worth it.

Wearing Ray-Bans is also hella cool…and, far cheaper and healthier.

Close-up: Bowie and Taylor.
Photo: Terry O’Neill

Tags: 1st Dibs, David Bowie, Elizabeth Taylor, Famous Photos, Smoking Kills, Terry O'Neill