Elton John and Michael Caine lead Hollywood tributes to eight-times married Oscar winner, 79
Hollywood is mourning Elizabeth Taylor, arguably the last great female star of the studio system, who has died at the age of 79.
"We have just lost a Hollywood giant. More importantly, we have lost an incredible human being," said Sir Elton John, who last month accepted an award on the ailing star's behalf from an HIV/Aids charity – a cause Taylor had championed since the death of her friend Rock Hudson.
Taylor's publicist, Sally Morrison, said the actor died peacefully in Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. She was taken to hospital six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, "a condition with which she had struggled for many years. Though she had recently suffered a number of complications, her condition had stabilised and it was hoped that she would be able to return home. Sadly, this was not to be", said Morrison.
The publicist said Taylor's children were at her side at the time of her death.
Her son Michael Wilding said: "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."
Famed for her luminous beauty and stormy personal life, Taylor appeared in more than 50 films. She won Oscars for BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and gained critical and popular acclaim for roles in films including Giant (1956) with Hudson and James Dean, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) opposite Paul Newman and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) with Montgomery Clift.
Mike Nichols, who directed her in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, said: "The shock of Elizabeth was not only her beauty. It was her generosity. Her giant laugh. Her vitality, whether tackling a complex scene on film or where we would all have dinner until dawn. She is singular and indelible on film and in our hearts."
Debbie Reynolds, whose husband , the singer Eddie Fisher, left her for Taylor, said: "It was a long productive career and she was the most glamorous and sexual star of our generation. No one else could equal Elizabeth's beauty and sexuality. Women liked her and men adored her, and her love for her children is enduring. She was a symbol of stardom. Her legacy will last."
The tributes came thick and fast. Among other tributes, Sir Michael Caine, who starred with Taylor in 1972's Zee and Co, said: "So sad to hear about my beautiful friend Elizabeth Taylor. She was a great human being."
In 1963 Taylor started an affair with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra. At the time she was the highest paid female actor in the world, commanding $1m for the title role in Cleopatra. The relationship with the married Burton triggered a paparazzifeeding frenzy.
The Vatican felt compelled to comment, charging Taylor with "erotic vagrancy". "I really don't remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on," she said.
Taylor and Burton married twice and she married eight times in total. "I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too – for being married so many times," she once said.
She underwent at least 20 major operations, broke her back five times, nearly died from pneumonia, had both hip joints replaced and underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumour. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year addiction to sleeping pills and painkillers. Taylor was probably the most famous star to be treated for alcohol and drug abuse problems at the Betty Ford clinic in California.
She also championed charitable causes, notably the fight against Aids. After Hudson's death she founded the Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation and spoke out at a time when many were afraid to.
Taylor was born on 27 February 1932, in London, the daughter of two wealthy American art dealers, Francis and Sara Taylor. The family moved to America just after the second world war began and settled in Los Angeles where her mother, a former actor, encouraged her daughter's career.
It was a career that made her a star at 12, a bride and a divorcee at 18 and a widow at 26. Wilding said: "Her remarkable body of work in film, her ongoing success as a businesswoman, and her brave and relentless advocacy in the fight against HIV/Aids, all make us all incredibly proud of what she accomplished."
Asked in 1999 what she would like to see written on her gravestone, Taylor replied: "Here lies Elizabeth. She hated being called Liz. But she lived."