The “Falcon Crest” actress appeared in the miniseries “North and South” alongside Taylor

Morgan Fairchild uses one word to describe Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor

The "Falcon Crest" actress appeared in the miniseries "North and South" alongside Taylor

By Rance Collins

July 2, 2026 7:00 p.m. ET

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Morgan Fairchild; Elizabeth Taylor in 1986. Credit:

Jon Kopaloff/Getty; Maureen Donaldson/Getty

- In an interview with EW, Morgan Fairchild described Elizabeth Taylor as "distant."

- The actresses worked together on the 1985 miniseries *North and South*.

- Both would become heavily involved in advocacy for HIV/AIDS research.

Morgan Fairchild can say more with a word than most people can say with paragraphs of dialogue.

When asked about the Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor, the *Falcon Crest* actress tells ** that the *Cleopatra** *actress was "distant." Fairchild declined to elaborate.

Fairchild and Taylor worked together in 1985's *North and South*, the epic TV miniseries that was the highest-rated in history at the time, ultimately garnering two sequel series. Fairchild appeared in both the first series as well as its 1986 follow-up, *North and South: Book II*. Both actresses were billed in the initial installment as "special guest stars." Taylor was far from the only classic Hollywood actor to appear in *North and South*, which also boasted Johnny Cash, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Robert Guillaume, and Jean Simmons. *Book II* added James Stewart, Olivia de Havilland, Lloyd Bridges, and Linda Evans. The primary cast included Patrick Swayze, Terri Garber, Genie Francis, Lesley-Anne Down, David Carradine, Forest Whitaker, and Kirstie Alley, among a score of other recognizable names.

Elizabeth Taylor in "North and South".

Warner Bros. Television/Courtesy Everett

Hal Holbrook portrayed President Abraham Lincoln in both *Book I *and *II*. Holbrook, who would eventually be nominated for an Oscar at age 82 for *Into the Wild*, was best known then for appearing as the ominous Deep Throat in *All the President's Men*, and he required special makeup to transform into Lincoln for the film. Fairchild tells EW that she traveled to the location shoot with Holbrook and Taylor.

"I remember David Walker flew Elizabeth and me in with Hal Holbrook and his makeup man to turn him into Abraham Lincoln — famous makeup man, Dick Smith, I think who turned him into Mark Twain and also into Lincoln for *North and South*," she says. "Flying in on the private jet with everybody, and getting off in Charleston, and coming down in full drag with all the corsets and the thing. And coming down on the street, and they put dirt down on the street, and I mean it looked perfect. And then Hal comes down as Lincoln, and it was just ... you just felt like you were transported back in time. "

Fairchild has spoken more extensively about Taylor in the past, including in an interview not long after her death on CNN, in which she recalled a flight with the *Giant* actress.

"I was used to having a lot of the paparazzi, a lot of media attention, but I mean, we opened the door to the plane, and it was madness, absolute madness. And she took it all with great equanimity, and she was lovely to be around on the set," Fairchild said.

While she did not share any scenes with her in *North and South*, Fairchild had never forgotten the first time she saw Taylor in person many years earlier.

Morgan Fairchild in "North and South: Book II".

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

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"[Richard] Burton was doing *Equus* on Broadway, and I'd gone to see it, and that murmur went through that Elizabeth was in the audience," Fairchild recalled. "Finally I saw this turban — she was wearing turbans a lot back in the '70s — and she turned, and *that face*. I have to say, she was the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen in person. The screen did not do her justice. Just gorgeous. Gorgeous coloring, the profile, everything about her was just drop dead gorgeous."

Perhaps the greatest commonality between Fairchild and Taylor, however, was their work during the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 90s. Taylor was a co-founder of the American Foundation for AIDS research and later established the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Fairchild was an early advocate for those struggling with HIV/AIDS and has been a supporter of both Taylor's namesake foundation and amfAR. Each were personally touched by the sudden illness and 1985 death of Rock Hudson, the first prominent celebrity to die of the disease.

"I heard Rock wasn't looking well on *Dynasty*, so I knew immediately what it was," Fairchild tells EW, appearing at the Lead With Love telethon for Project Angel Food, an organization that helps critically ill individuals receive medically tailored meals. "America didn't know Rock was gay, but everybody in Hollywood knew Rock was gay. And I knew how great he looked when I'd seen him just a few months before [at an Actors Fund of America event], so I knew immediately what it was."

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As "one of [her] weird hobbies" was researching "emerging viruses and epidemiology," Fairchild knew it was important for her to speak out about the cause. "I knew it would hurt my career, which it did, to speak out ... but I also knew I was the only famous face they were going to have that could go on *Nightline* and explain what a retrovirus is and how it works and how you do and don't get it."

In 1985, at the very first major gala for AIDS Project Los Angles, Taylor spoke to the importance of helping those afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

"All we can do at this point is help our friends who have AIDS and the only way can do that is by doing what you're doing by giving — giving by support, money and love," Taylor said at the event, according to Variety.

The disease, which initially primarily affected gay men, also brought out Taylor's advocacy for LGBTQ+ equality. In an 1992 interview with Whoopi Goldberg, Taylor credited gay men with making Hollywood what it was.

"You what really cheesed me off was, that homophobia, because without homosexuals, there wouldn't be this town," Taylor said. "The creativeness of homosexuals —this town, the arts, are built on that. You take homosexual input out, and there is no Hollywood."

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