LOS ANGELES – Legendary Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor, who captured hearts in “National Velvet” to launch a film career that spanned five decades, has died aged 79.
Taylor had been in hospital in Los Angeles for six weeks with congestive heart failure, a condition with which she had struggled for some years, and had recently suffered complications, a family statement said. “Legendary actress, businesswoman, and fearless activist Elizabeth Taylor died peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles,” said the statement by her publicist, quoting her son.
“She was surrounded by her children – Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton,” it added, noting that she was also survived by 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Taylor was the archetypal Hollywood movie queen, a violet-eyed beauty known equally for her stormy romances and eight marriages as her Oscar-winning performances.
