Legendary Actress Elizabeth Taylor Dies at Age 79

Actress Elizabeth Taylor poses in an old film still. Ms. Taylor died Wednesday in Los Angeles at age 79. Getty Images

Two-time Oscar Award winner Elizabeth Taylor has died of heart failure at Cedars–Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The 79-year-old’s publicist said that Taylor passed away in the company of her children at 1:28 a.m. PDT on Wednesday.

The British-born American actress has not appeared on-screen since 2001, and in 2004, it was announced that she suffered from congestive heart failure. She had heart surgery in 2009, and since early February this year, she was again hospitalized for the disease.

Taylor was famous for her titular role in the 1963 historical drama Cleopatra. She won Oscars for best actress in 1960 for Butterfield 8 and 1966 for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.

She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1993 and Screen Actors Guild in 1997. The last award she received was the 2005 BAFTA Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in International Entertainment.

Taylor was also an advocate for AIDS research and received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her efforts in 1992.

The London-born actress was married eight times to seven husbands, twice to actor Richard Burton. She has four children and nine grandchildren.