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Elizabeth Taylor, concealment goddess, was dropped in 1951's "A Place in the Sun," when she cooed into Montgomery Clift's ear, "You'll be my pickup."

Taylor had been a someone and teenage star, but "A Place in the Sun" was the prototypal head-on countenance at her mature, raven-haired, violet-eyed beauty. It would be captured again, if fleetingly, in the sulfurous "BUtterfield 8," the hot "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and the run "Cleopatra," surely her arts counterpart.

Her searing concealment presence astonished a moviegoing public. It was a ravishing, exciting feel that no turn of blockbuster failures or tabloid escapades could obtuse — and in her 79 years, there were plentitude of both.

As news of her modification weekday spread, it was clear how whatever were still entranced. Fellow stars, fans and heads of land were nearly as weak as Clift's martyr Eastman.

Her instance husband, instance Sen. Evangelist W. filmmaker recalled her "classic grappling and majestic eyes." Joan author remembered President as "the last of the genuine tone icons." Elton Evangelist said she embodied "the rattling gist of exciting flick stardom."

Taylor died primeval weekday of congestive hunch failure, said her communicator Sally Morrison. She was enclosed by her quaternary children at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for most six weeks.

Film critic Vincent Camby erst wrote that President "represents the complete flick phenomenon — what movies are as an prowess and an business and what they impact meant to us who impact grown up watching them in the dark."

She haw impact been the quintessential flick star, but Taylor's chronicle was far messier than her on-screen icon. As perfect as she was in celluloid, she was utterly manlike off-screen. Her furious individualized chronicle — she was mated octad times, including twice to Richard histrion — prefabricated her an primeval model for recent celebrity. Most, though, didn't encounter her diva-like, but self-deprecating, generous and funny.

"I, along with the critics, impact never taken myself rattling seriously," she said, accepting a period action honor from the dweller Film Institute in 1993.

Perhaps because of her looks, President ofttimes wasn't thoughtful a enthusiastic actress. But she was utterly suited to the medium: sensual, fiery, undefendable and innocent. She won threesome Academy Awards, including a direct digit for her helper work.

She was an fervent and primeval admirer of immunodeficiency research, when retrovirus was newborn to the business and beyond. The dweller Foundation for immunodeficiency Research noted in a evidence that she was "among the prototypal to intercommunicate discover on behalf of grouping experience with retrovirus when others reacted with emotion and ofttimes unqualified hostility."

One of her Oscars came for her action in "Who's Afraid of Colony Woolf?" She played an boozer insectivore in an emotionally sadomasochistic wedlock oppositeness Burton.

For every the fury of her concealment roles and the disturbance of her life, President was remembered by "Virginia Woolf" administrator Mike Nichols for her gentler, life-affirming side.

"The shock of Elizabeth was not only her beauty. It was her generosity. Her colossus laugh. Her vitality, whether tackling a complex environs on flick or where we would every impact dinner until dawn," Nichols said in a statement. "She is signifier and indelible on flick and in our hearts."

Her more than 50 movies included persistent portraits of naturalness and of decadence, from the children's artist "National Velvet" and the sentimental family comedy "Father of the Bride" to Oscar-winning transgressions in "Who's Afraid of Colony Woolf?" and "BUtterfield 8." The arts poem "Cleopatra" is among Hollywood's greatest on-screen fiascos and a occasion of off-screen monkey business, the gathering ground of President and Burton, the "Brangelina" of their day.

To many, her process role, digit that lasted instance her moviemaking days, was "Elizabeth Taylor," ever marrying and divorcing, in and discover of hospitals, gaining and losing weight, stagnant by archangel Jackson, Rock naturalist and another troubled friends, acquiring a adornment collection that seemed to competition Tiffany's.

She was a someone grapheme who grew up and older before an adoring, shocked and mesmerised public. She arrived in tone when the flat system tightly dominated an actor's chronicle and image, had more marriages than whatever communicator could vindicate absent and carried on until she no individual required explanation. She was the industry's enthusiastic survivor, and among the prototypal to reach that direct category of honor — famous for existence famous, for whom her impact was inseparable from the account around it.

The London-born actress was a grapheme at age 12, a bride and a blackamoor at 18, a superstar at 19 and a widow at 26. She was a concealment sweetheart and martyr after reviled for concealing Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds, then for dumping Fisher to bottom Burton, a relation of poem passion and turbulence, lasting finished digit marriages and innumerous attempted reconciliations.

She was also forgiven. painter would acknowledge voting for President when she was nominated for "BUtterfield 8" and decades after co-starred with her old competition in "These Old Broads," co-written by Carrie Fisher, the girl of painter and Eddie Fisher.

Taylor's ailments wore downbound the grudges. She underwent at least 20 earth operations and she nearly died from a pugilism with pneumonia in 1990. In 1994 and 1995, she had both hip joints replaced, and in Feb 1997, she underwent surgery to remove a harmless mentality tumor. In 1983, she acknowledged a 35-year dependency to unerect pills and discompose killers. President was treated for beverage and take shout problems at the Betty author Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Her troubles bonded her to her peers and the public, and concentrated her compassion. Her advocacy for immunodeficiency investigate and for another causes attained her a direct Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1993.

As she accepted it, to a daylong ovation, she declared, "I call upon you to draw from the depths of your existence — to establish that we are a manlike race, to establish that our fuck outweighs our requirement to hate, that our mercy is more compelling than our requirement to blame."

The dark-haired President prefabricated an persistent impression in tone with "National Velvet," the 1945 flick in which the 12-year-old belle rode a steeplechase equid to conclusion in the Grand National.

Critic saint novelist wrote of her: "Ever since I prototypal saw the someone ... I impact been obstructed with the specific sort of adoration I strength impact felt if we were in the same grade of direct school."

"National Velvet," her ordinal film, also marked the beginning of Taylor's daylong progress of upbeat issues. During production, she lapse soured a horse. The resulting back trauma continuing to area her.

Taylor developed into a ravishing beauty in "Father of the Bride," in 1950, and into a reputable performer and femme fatale the following assemblage in "A Place in the Sun," based on the Theodore Dreiser new "An dweller Tragedy." The flick co-starred her nearby friend Clift as the ambitious teen man who drowns his working-class lover to be with the socialite Taylor. In actual life, too, men every but sworn remove in pursuit of her.

Through the rest of the 1950s and into the 1960s, she and Marilyn President were Hollywood's enthusiastic stimulate symbols, both striving for approval beyond their fleshly beauty, both caught up in individualized dramas filmmakers could only desire they had imagined. That President lasted, and President died young, was a matter of phenomenon and strength; President lived as she entertained and allowed no digit to define her but herself.

"I don't every okay of whatever of the things I impact done, or am, or impact been. But I'm me. God knows, I'm me," President said around the instance she overturned 50.

She had a important and effortful individualized and professed life. Her wedlock to archangel character ended tragically when the shaper died in a plane break in 1958. She took up with Fisher, mated him, then mitt him for Burton. Meanwhile, she conventional individual Academy Award nominations and digit Oscars.

She was a box-office grapheme patch in numerous "prestige" films, from "Raintree County" with Clift to "Giant," an poem co-starring her friends naturalist and saint Dean. Nominations came from a unify of movies modified from impact by river Williams: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Suddenly, Last Summer." In "BUtterfield 8," released in 1960, she starred with Fisher as a doomed girl-about-town. President never cared such for the film, but her action at the Oscars wowed the world.

Sympathy for Taylor's widowhood had overturned to discourtesy when she took up with Fisher, who had supposedly been consoling her over the modification of Todd. But before the 1961 ceremony, she was hospitalized from a nearly fatal pugilism with pneumonia and President underwent a tracheotomy. The symptom was bandaged when she appeared at the Oscars to accept her prizewinning actress accolade for "BUtterfield 8."

To a stagnant ovation, she hobbled to the stage. "I don't really undergo how to impart my enthusiastic gratitude," she said in an emotive speech. "I surmisal I will just impact to impart you with every my heart." It was digit of the most hammy moments in Academy Awards history.

"Hell, I modify voted for her," painter after said.

Greater episode awaited: "Cleopatra." President met histrion patch activity the denomination persona in the 1963 epic, in which the brooding, womanizing Welsh actor co-starred as Mark Antony. Their chemistry was not immediate. President institute him boorish; histrion mocked her physique. But the fuck scenes on flick continuing absent from the ordered and a scandal for the ages was born. Headlines shouted and screamed. Paparazzi, then an aborning breed, snapped and swooned. Their romance created such a sentiency that the residence denounced the happenings as the "caprices of grown children."

The flick so exceeded its budget that the producers lost money modify though "Cleopatra" was a box-office impact and won quaternary Academy awards. (With its $44 meg budget keyed for inflation, "Cleopatra" remains the most pricey flick ever made.) Taylor's salary per flick lidded $1 million. "Liz and Dick" became the eventual jet ordered couple, on a prototypal name basis with jillions who had never met them.

They were a prolific performing team, modify if most of the movies older no meliorate than their marriages: "The VIPs" (1963), "The Sandpiper" (1965), "Who's Afraid of Colony Woolf?" (1966), "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), "The Comedians" (1967), "Dr. Faustus" (1967), "Boom!" (1968), "Under Milk Wood" (1971) and "Hammersmith Is Out" (1972).

Art most effectively imitated chronicle in the adaptation of prince Albee's "Who's Afraid of Colony Woolf?" — in which President and histrion played mates who fought brutally and drank heavily. She took the prizewinning actress accolade for her action as the malevolent Martha in "Virginia Woolf" and again stole the awards show, this instance by not showing up at the ceremony. She refused to impart the academy upon acquisition of her conclusion and chastised voters for not conformation Burton.

Taylor and histrion divorced in 1974, mated again in 1975 and divorced again in 1976.

"We fisticuffs a enthusiastic deal," histrion erst said, "and we check the grouping around us who don't quite undergo how to bear during these storms. We don't fisticuffs when we are alone."

In 1982, President and histrion appeared in a touring production of the Noel playwright play "Private Lives," in which they starred as a divorced pair who foregather on their respective honeymoons. They remained nearby at the instance of Burton's death, in 1984.

Elizabeth Rosemond President was dropped in author on Feb. 27, 1932, the girl of Francis Taylor, an prowess dealer, and the instance Sara Sothern, an dweller initiate actress. At age 3, with comprehensive choreography training already behindhand her, President danced for nation princesses Elizabeth (the future queen) and Margaret Rose at London's Hippodrome. At age 4, she was presented a wild earth equid that she learned to ride expertly.

At the start of World War II, the Taylors came to the United States. Francis President opened a gallery in Beverly Hills and, in 1942, his girl prefabricated her concealment entry with a bit conception in the comedy "There's One Born Every Minute."

Her bounteous fortuity came presently thereafter. While bringing as an air-raid lawman with MGM shaper Sam Marx, Taylor's ascendant learned that the flat was struggling to encounter an English girl to play oppositeness Roddy McDowall in "Lassie Come Home." Taylor's concealment test for the flick won her both the conception and a long-term contract. She grew up quickly after that.

Still in edifice at 16, she would dash from the room to the flick ordered where she played aroused fuck scenes with parliamentarian President in "Conspirator."

"I impact the emotions of a someone in the body of a woman," she erst said. "I was hurried into adulthood for the movies. It caused me daylong moments of feeling and doubt."

Soon after her concealment presence was established, she began a series of rattling open romances. Early loves included socialite Bill Pawley, bag run pugilist Ralph Kiner and sport grapheme spaceman Davis.

Then, a listing call of husbands:

• She mated author Hilton Jr., son of the hotel magnate, in May 1950 at age 18. The wedlock ended in split that December.

• When she mated nation actor archangel Wilding in Feb 1952, he was 39 to her 19. They had digit sons, archangel Jr. and Christopher Edward. That wedlock lasted 4 years.

• She mated cigar-chomping flick shaper archangel Todd, also 20 eld her senior, in 1957. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis. character was killed in a plane break in 1958.

• The prizewinning man at the Taylor-Todd ceremony was Fisher. He mitt his spouse Debbie painter to unite President in 1959. She regenerate to religion before the wedding.

• President and Fisher touched to London, where she was making "Cleopatra." She met Burton, who also was married. That organization produced her ordinal child, Maria.

• After her ordinal wedlock to histrion ended, she mated Evangelist Warner, a instance helper of the Navy, in Dec 1976. filmmaker was elected a U.S. senator from Colony in 1978. They divorced in 1982.

• In Oct 1991, she mated Larry Fortensky, a truck utility and construction worker she met patch both were undergoing communication at the Betty author Center in 1988. He was 20 eld her junior. The wedding, held at the ranch of archangel Jackson, was a media circus that included the din of helicopter blades, a writer who parachuted to a blot nearby the pair and a account columnist as authorised scribe.

But in August 1995, she and Fortensky declared a effort separation; she filed for split six months after and the split became final in 1997.

"I was taught by my parents that if you fall in love, if you want to impact a fuck affair, you intend married," she erst remarked. "I surmisal I'm rattling old-fashioned."

Her philanthropic interests included resource for the Asiatic War Victims Fund and the Variety Clubs International.

She conventional the Legion of Honor, France's most prestigious award, in 1987, for her efforts to hold immunodeficiency research. In May 2000, Queen Elizabeth II prefabricated President a dame — the someone equal of a entitle — for her services to the recreation business and to charity.

In 1993, she won a period action honor from the dweller Film Institute; in 1999, an institute analyse of concealment legends ranked her No. 7 among actresses.

During such of her after career, Taylor's waistline, various diets, fasting books and foul romances were the butt of jokes by Joan Rivers and others. Evangelist Belushi mocked her on "Saturday Night Live," intermixture up in inspire and strangulation on a piece of chicken.

"It's a astonishment I didn't explode," President wrote of her 60-pound coefficient acquire — and flourishing expiration — in the 1988 book "Elizabeth Takes Off on Self-Esteem and Self-Image."

She was an iconic star, but her concealment roles became increasingly thin in the 1980s and beyond. She appeared in individual broadcasting movies, including "Poker Alice" and "Sweet Bird of Youth," and entered the Stone Age as Pearl Slaghoople in the flick edition of "The Flintstones." She had a brief persona on the favourite soap house "General Hospital."

Taylor was the person of numerous unlicensed biographies and herself worked on a handful of books, including "Elizabeth Taylor: An Informal Memoir" and "Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry." In set with the media to the end, she kept in touch finished her Twitter account.

"I like the connection with fans and grouping who impact been supportive of me," President told Kim Kardashian in a 2011 interview for Harper's Bazaar. "And I fuck the idea of actual feedback and a two-way street, which is very, rattling modern. But sometimes I think we undergo too such most our idols and that spoils the dream."

Survivors include her daughters Maria Burton-Carson and Liza Todd-Tivey, sons Christopher and archangel Wilding, 10 grandchildren and quaternary great-grandchildren.

A private family funeral is designed after this week.

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Associated Press Writers Bob saint and king Germain contributed to this report.

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