Actress and AIDS Activist Elizabeth Taylor Dies at Age 79

Legendary actress, AIDS activist and LGBT icon Elizabeth Taylor died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles. She was 79.

Her death was confirmed to CBS Radio News and other outlets shortly after 9 a.m eastern time.

Taylor's publicist, Sally Morrison, told the Associated Press that the actress died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Taylor had been treated for symptoms of the condition in recent weeks.

Taylor's son, Michael Wilding, released the following statement as first reported by ABC News: “My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.”

The Academy Award winner for Butterfield 8, Taylor famously starred in National Velvet when she was an adolescent and later went on to become a darling of Tennessee Wiliams' classics that were made into movies, including inf  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Paul Newman and Suddenly Last Summer with Montgomery Clift and Katherine Hepburn. Hollywood legend has it that Taylor was the first Hollywood star, male or female, to $1 million for Cleopatra. She also famously sparred with one of the great loves of her life, Richard Burton, in the film adaptation of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. 

Taylor was one of the first stars in Hollywood to publicly address AIDS. She helped to start the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR) after the death of her friend Rock Hudson. She also started her own charity, the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Even in failing health, Taylor was a staple at various charitable fundraisers around the country to fight the disease.

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