Spend an evening with George and Martha

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," the 1966 movie directed by Mike Nichols. Taylor won an Oscar for Best Actress in her portrayal of the boozy wife of a college professor.

When I was in Air Force Basic Training in Texas in 1966, we were allowed one day to explore the city on our own. I am still somewhat leery about telling people what I did that day in San Antonio.

I went to see "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." Oh, sure, I took a look at the Alamo and had lunch in a Tex-Mex restaurant. But it was the movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that I wanted to see.

While the other trainees in my flight were touring San Antonio's bars and enjoying the city's seedier entertainment -- which was totally understandable after six weeks of confinement to an air base -- I sat in the dark and watched two great actors scream, yell and snarl at each other in a tour-de-force display of what acting is all about.

I've never regretted it.

Elizabeth Taylor died today in Los Angeles. Perhaps the most ravishing actress of the 20th century, she died -- peacefully, we are told -- of congestive heart failure.

As a child, I had heard about, but never seen, "National Velvet," the 1944 movie that starred Taylor at the age of 12. My Aunt Hazel took my sister and me to see "Giant" in 1956, and two years later I was impressed with Taylor's sultry performance opposite Paul Newman in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

When I was a teenager, I saw "Butterfield 8," the film adaptation of John O'Hara's story about a Manhattan call girl. I was too young to really understand the depths of the movie, but I did realize what a strikingly gorgeous actor the violet-eyed Taylor was.

But writer Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" blew me away on that hot August afternoon in Texas.

Gone were the good looks that had stood Taylor in such good stead. She was still a radiantly beautiful woman in 1966, but not in this film. For this role, her hair was streaked with gray, she was made up to appear much older than she was, and she was playing the frumpy, boozing wife of a college professor. For George and Martha -- Taylor played Martha opposite Burton as George -- there was only one pleasure left in life: attacking each other with words, the most vicious weapons they were equipped to use. And boy, oh boy, were they well equipped.

It was the first time that I appreciated what acting was all about. I wasn't watching Elizabeth Taylor up on the screen in that dark movie theater. Taylor was Martha. I was watching a woman who could act and yet never be caught acting. And she gave Burton as good as she got -- and then some, which was no mean feat.

There are many good Elizabeth Taylor movies available, but if you want to remember her at her finest, rent "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf." You'll appreciate as never before what a transcendent actress we've lost.

(You can watch the trailer from the movie by clicking here.)