LEGENDARY actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose violet eyes, tumultuous love life and passion for diamonds epitomized Hollywood glamour, died Wednesday at age 79. The star died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles surrounded by family after a long battle with a congestive heart condition that sent her to the hospital six weeks ago. In a career spanning seven decades, Taylor first gained fame in 1944’s “National Velvet” at age 12 and was nominated for five Oscars. She won the best actress award for “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Taylor’s eight marriages, health problems, prescription drug addiction and ballooning weight often overshadowed her career, but she overcame adversity and used her fame to advocate causes such as AIDS education and research. Her son, Michael Wilding, called his mother, “an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love.” “Her artistic contribution to the motion picture industry is immeasurable,” said Chris Dodd, head of the Motion Picture Association of America. “Her talent endured the test of time and transcended generations of moviegoers.” Taylor was the first to command the symbolic US$1 million for a film, when she made “Cleopatra” in 1963. The number of stars still alive from the era when Hollywood produced masterpiece after masterpiece seems to dwindle with each passing month. Women of his generation and the next who worked in Hollywood in the 40s, 50s and 60s, are increasingly few in number: the oldest is Olivia de Havilland, 94, and then Lauren Bacall, 86, Julie Andrews, 75, Doris Day, 88, and 78-year-old Debbie Reynolds. But there was only one Elizabeth Taylor. | 