Liz and Disneyland Are Aglow for Her 60th Birthday Bash

Elizabeth Taylor, the Oscar-winning actress whose life has been more dramatic than many of her movies, celebrated her 60th birthday Thursday night with friends, fireworks and fantasy in a Hollywood-style extravaganza at Disneyland.

Searchlights swept the sky and costumed Disney characters paraded along the streets to greet hundreds of guests--including movie stars Richard Gere and Shirley MacLaine, singers Elton John and David Bowie, and friends Roddy McDowall and Carole Bayer Sager.

Park officials imposed extraordinary security inside and outside the grounds. Hundreds of media personnel wore distinctive wristbands and were escorted by Disney representatives. Guards patrolled the park’s perimeter while helicopters circled.

Her husband, Larry Fortensky, seated beside her, Taylor rode in an open carriage drawn by a single horse to the entrance of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, which was ablaze in light from special spotlights.

She told the hundreds of news media representatives awaiting her arrival that she came to Disneyland “for the child in me.”

“It’s going to be the best party of my life,” she said, her voice almost drowned out by the blare of trumpets sounding a fanfare. “I’m dying to get inside.”

Trumpet fanfares and strobe lights greeted the celebrities who preceded her to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Disney characters escorted everyone from Henry Winkler to Cheryl Tiegs and Gregory Peck to Tom Selleck. A blond Delta Burke, accompanied by her husband, Gerald McRaney, called Taylor “strong and soft . . . witty and clever, intelligent . . . a fighter.”

Disneyland officials barred the news media from the event, but beamed their own videotape of the festivities onto satellite for waiting television stations.

Times columnist Liz Smith attended the party, however. “Disneyland was just spectacular. Vintage cars carried the guests. Trumpets sounded. . . ,” she said. “Security was rigid but the atmosphere was warm.”

The festivities gave the public another glimpse of the woman who starred in “National Velvet” at age 12, won two Oscars and married seven men, one of them twice. Along the way, she battled a host of illnesses and addictions to painkillers.

“This is a private party and the sky is the limit,” said a Disney spokeswoman. No one would say how much it cost to fete the 1,000 invited guests, but the normal $8,000 charge to rent the park after hours clearly was only the starting point. Although corporations have staged parties at Disneyland, Taylor was the first individual to rent it, a park spokesman said.

Songwriter Sager, one of the party organizers, said she “wanted to just throw a party where Elizabeth could have fun. She has brought a lot of love into my life.”

Jon Voight, wearing a white Laker jacket, said: “I remember her when ‘National Velvet’ came out and I fell in love with her. She means so much to us.”

Actor John Forsythe said the gift from him and his wife was a donation to the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the charity for which Taylor has raised money.

Taylor has not made a featured motion picture since 1980, nor a television movie since 1989. In recent years she has been known for her line of perfume, her work on behalf of AIDS patients, and her latest marriage--in October to construction worker Fortensky, 20 years her junior.

Times staff writers Ann Conway, Kevin Johnson, Nieson Himmel and correspondent Bill Higgins contributed to this report.