Elizabeth Taylor, one of Hollywood’s most iconic beauties, died today aged 79.
One of the brightest stars in the history of American cinema, she starred in a string of hit movies including Cleopatra, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Giant – and became an international sex symbol and object of tabloid fascination.
Her most iconic role was for the 1963 epic Cleopatra, one of the most expensive movies of all time when it was filmed. She starred opposite her future husband Richard Burton, who she married twice for a total of 11 years. The actress, famous for her relationships with leading men, married eight times in total.
After spending two months in a Los Angeles hospital for treatment of congestive heart failure, she died in the early hours of the morning surrounded by her four children – Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton.
She was nominated for three Academy Awards, for Raintree Country, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer, before finally winning for her performance in Butterfield 8 and then again for her role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
She was born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor in London on February 27, 1932, to American parents. She left England with her family on the eve of World War II and relocated to Los Angeles. She was cast in her first film at age 10, There’s One Born Every Minute. She followed with movies such as Lassie Come Home and Jane Eyre and continued working steadily throughout the late 1940s and 50s, known for her piercing violet-coloured eyes and alluring gaze.
As well as being a movie legend, she was also a fashion icon, perfume mogul, and one of the leading advocates for victims of AIDS, raising millions of pounds for research and treatment of the disease in the wake of the 1985 death of her good friend and actor Rock Hudson.
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