Actress Elizabeth Taylor dies of congestive heart failure

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen roles were often upstaged by her stormy personal life, died today aged 79.

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, the violet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen roles were often upstaged by her stormy personal life, died today aged 79.

She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles where she had been for about six weeks, her publicist Sally Morrison said.

She was surrounded by her children- Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton. In addition to her children, she is survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Wilding released a statement, saying: “My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour and love.

“Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.

“Her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a businesswoman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV and AIDS, all make us all incredibly proud of what she accomplished.

“We know, quite simply, that the world is a better place for mom having lived in it. Her legacy will never fade, her spirit will always be with us, and her love will live forever in our hearts.”

A private family funeral later this week. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that contributions be made to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (http://elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org).

Taylor had extraordinary grace, fame and wealth, and won three Oscars, including a special one for her humanitarian work. But she was tortured by ill health, failed romances and personal tragedy.

"I think I'm becoming fatalistic," she said in 1989. "Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic."

Her eight marriages - including two to actor Richard Burton - and a life-long battle with substance abuse, physical ailments and overeating made Taylor as popular in supermarket tabloids as in classic film festivals.

Taylor disclosed in November 2004 that she had congestive heart failure. But she still periodically dismissed reports that she was at death's door, saying she used a wheelchair only because of chronic back problems that began at age 12 when she fell from a horse.

"Oh, come on, do I look like I'm dying?" she said in May 2006 in a rare television interview on CNN's "Larry King Live."

"Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer's?" Tabloids report such things "because they have nothing else dirty to write about anybody else," she said.

When she turned 75 the following year, she was asked about the secret to her longevity and quipped: "Hangin' in."

The London-born actress was a star at age 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18, a screen goddess at 19 and a widow at 26.

She appeared in more than 50 films, and won Oscars for her performances in "Butterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), in which she starred opposite Burton.

In later years, she was a spokeswoman for several causes, most notably Aids research. Her work gained her a special Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.

As she accepted it, she told a worldwide television audience: "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being - to prove that we are a human race, to prove that our love outweighs our need to hate, that our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame."

She accepted her many health problems with a stoic attitude.

"My body's a real mess," she said in 2004. "If you look at it in the mirror, it's just completely convex and concave."

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