Elizabeth Taylor dies of congestive heart failure

11:13 AM, Mar 23, 2011 | comments

Christopher Collette

Elizabeth Taylor, seen here in this photo from 2007, died Wednesday. The actress was 79.

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Elizabeth Taylor, the legendary actress famed for her beauty, her jet-set lifestyle, her charitable endeavors and her many marriages, has died, her publicist told CNN Wednesday. She was 79.

Photo Gallery: Elizabeth Taylor pictures

Taylor died "peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles," said a statement from her publicist Sally Morrison. She was hospitalized 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 stabilized and it was hoped that she would be able to return home. Sadly, this was not to be."

Taylor first gained stardom as a child and appeared in more than 50 films.

Though a two-time Oscar winner -- for "Butterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) -- Taylor was more celebrated for simply being Elizabeth Taylor: sexy, glamorous, tempestuous, fragile, always trailing courtiers, media and fans. She wasn't above playing to that image -- she had a fragrance called "White Diamonds" -- or mocking it.

"I am a very committed wife," she once said. "And I should be committed too -- for being married so many times."

In later years, she was a spokeswoman for humanitarian causes, notably AIDS research. That work gained her a special Oscar in 1993.

10 News, CNN and The Associated Press

Sphere: Related Content