This is a wonderful footnote to the life of a world famous movie star.
Mel Gussow and Elizabeth Taylor
Taylor Outlived Her Times Obituary Writer by 5 Years
March 23, 2011Â |Â www.thewrap.com
Elizabeth Taylor’s life was remarkable, her legend enduring.
So enduring, in fact, Taylor outlived the writer of her New York Times obituary — by five years!
Mel Gussow, the bylined writer of the paper’s official obit, died in 2005.
Via a note appended to the version published online: Mel Gussow, the principal writer of this article, died in 2005.
According to the Times, William McDonald and the Associated Press “contributed updated reporting” to the 4,100-word obituary.
According to his own obituary published in the Times, Gussow, a longtime critic and cultural reporter for the paper, died of cancer at the age of 71.
Gussow was “long associated with Off and Off Off Broadway, the traditional home of experimental writers.” He “wrote more than 4,000 reviews and articles for The Times over 35 years at the newspaper, helped discover Kevin Kline’s talents when Mr. Kline was still a student, as well as those of Sigourney Weaver and Meryl Streep.”
A quiet man with a shy smile, he was often mistaken for being aloof, but he had a sly sense of humor that came through in his writing.
Taylor’s wasn’t the only obituary Gussow wrote post-humously. He shared a byline with Bruce Weber on one, published in January, about “Off Off Broadway Pioneer†Ellen Stewart.