PICTURES: When Elizabeth Taylor and Washington Met

In 2002, Taylor was one of the Kennedy Center Honors recipients, along with musician Paul Simon, actor James Earl Jones, actress Chita Rivera, and conductor James Levine. Taylor was recognized as a "humanitarian who is credited with raising more than $100 million in the crusade against AIDS," according to the Kennedy Center website, but also as a "thrilling film actress, the last brilliant star to emerge from the great Hollywood studio system, the heart of nearly 60 motion pictures, the muse of some of the movies' most revered film directors... and the screen's finest interpreter of the works of two giants of the American theater -- Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee." (Photo by Shawn Thew/AFP/Getty Images)