Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor died yesterday morning, aged 79.
The actress’ death comes six weeks after she was admitted to Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with congestive heart failure, a condition she had suffered from for several years.
She was surrounded by her children when she passed away and Michael Wilding, her eldest son, was quick to pay tribute to his famous mother.
“My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humour and love,” Michael said in a media release.
In pictures: Elizabeth Taylor’s amazing life
Elizabeth was born in London on February 27, 1932, and was evacuated to California with her American parents in 1939. She was quickly “discovered” at her father’s art gallery by the fiancée of the chairman of Universal Studios.
She made her movie debut aged just 10 in the 1942 film There’s One Born Every Minute and famously starred in National Velvet in 1944.
Elizabeth is widely considered to be one of the best actresses who ever lived. She was the first star to be paid US$1 million for a single movie appearance and won two Academy Awards for best actress. She starred in a string of hit films, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? but was almost as famous for her tumultuous personal life as she was for her professional career.
Elizabeth married eight times in her life, twice to her frequent co-star Richard Burton. Her first marriage was to hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton in 1950 when Elizabeth was just 18. The marriage ended after only 203 days.
She married Michael Wilding in 1952, but the union ended in 1956. Within days of the split, producer Michael Todd proposed and the pair were married until Todd was killed in a plane crash the next year.
She wed Todd’s best friend Eddie Fisher in 1959 but the marriage hit trouble when Elizabeth starred opposite Richard Burton in Cleopatra. Elizabeth and Richard started a passionate affair and married in 1964, once both of them had divorced their spouses.
Elizabeth and Richard split 10 years later but remarried in 1975, only to divorce again the following year.
In pictures: Elizabeth Taylor’s great loves
Elizabeth married US senator John Warner a few months later, but divorced him in 1982.
She spent time battling alcoholism and addiction to painkillers in California’s Betty Ford Center in the 1980s, before marrying husband number eight, construction worker Larry Fortensky, in 1991. The couple split up three years later.
Elizabeth was also known for her involvement in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The star raised millions of dollars for charities related to the illness. She was the founding international chairwoman for American Foundation for AIDS Research and the organisation was one of the first to pay tribute to her after her death.
“She leaves a monumental legacy that has improved and extended millions of lives and will enrich countless more for generations to come,” the foundation said in a media release.
Celebrities including Sir Elton John, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins, Barbra Streisand, Michael Caine and Kylie Minogue have also rushed to pay tribute to Elizabeth.
Perhaps the most moving tribute was made by the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd, who declared Elizabeth to be an “icon”.
“Her artistic contribution to the motion picture industry is immeasurable, her talent endured the test of time and transcended generations of moviegoers,” Dodd said. “She truly was an American icon.”
Elizabeth has been wheelchair-bound for a number of years and largely retired from the spotlight in the past decade. She was very close to Michael Jackson, and was devastated when he died in 2009, publicly attending his memorial service and funeral.
Related: Stars pay tribute to Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth is survived by her four children: sons Michael and Christopher from her marriage to Michael Wilding; daughter Liza from her union with Michael Todd; and Maria, the daughter she adopted with Richard Burton. She also has 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Elizabeth’s estimated US$600 million fortune is expected to be split between her descendants and her AIDS charity.
Your say: Will you remember Elizabeth Taylor for her beauty, her movies or all those marriages?
