Hollywood Icon Elizabeth Taylor Dies
News USA Arts & Culture Washington
Jeff Seldin
Veteran actress known for movies such as 'National Velvet' and 'Cleopatra' was suffering from congestive heart failure
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Voice of America
One of the most famous and most talked-about actresses to come out of Hollywood has died. Film legend Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at the age of 79.

Taylor's striking beauty demanded the attention of audiences from the moment she appeared on the silver screen.

Her role in National Velvet made Taylor a star at the age of 12, and the parts and the fame kept on coming.

Twice she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Butterfield Eight, about a call girl involved with a married man, and in 1966 as a constantly bickering wife opposite actor Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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Born in London to American parents, she moved to Los Angeles before World War II, and went from child star to Hollywood starlet. But she gained attention for more than just her beauty and acting talent.

Her stormy personal life and eight marriages - two to Virginia Woolf co-star Richard Burton - as well as her friendship with the late pop-icon Michael Jackson, made her a constant source of stories for the press.

She also introduced her own perfume and raised money for several causes, including money for medical research on AIDS.