Elizabeth Taylor, the iconic Hollywood star whose tumultuous romances and precarious health challenges often played out as larger-than-life Elizabethan dramas, died Wednesday March 23, 2011 of congestive heart failure. She was 79.

   Born in Hampstead, England, the second child of Francis Taylor, a timid American art gallery owner working abroad, and his highly assertive wife Sara Sothern, a former actress, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor moved with her family to Los Angeles in 1939.
   Ms. Taylor made her movie debut in 1942's "There's One Born Every Minute", and appeared with lifelong friend Roddy McDowall in 1943's "Lassie Come Home". But it was 1944's "National Velvet", with Mickey Rooney, that brought her stardom at age 12. Not only was she a natural before the camera, but also, even then, Technicolor – and movie audiences – just couldn't get enough of her remarkable violet-colored eyes. Her first recognition as a serious screen presence, however, came with 1951's "A Place in the Sun", in which she costarred with Montgomery Clift, who also would become a close friend. The drama, regarded as one of the best ever made in Hollywood, was a showcase for Taylor's erotic power as well as her maternal strength, even at her tender teen age. Her white party gown in the movie also inspired an entire generation of high-school prom dresses.
   With her showy role opposite Rock Hudson and James Dean in 1956's "Giant", the then-23-year-old Taylor cemented her place as an actress, and went on to be nominated for an Oscar three years in a row – 1958, 1959 and 1960 – before winning her first Academy Award in 1961 for "Butterfield 8". She would take home another in 1967, for her blowsy role as the drunken and unsatisfied wife in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", and a third, a special humanitarian award, in 1993.
   Just before turning 60 in 1992, she summed herself up for Life magazine, saying: "I've been lucky all my life. Everything was handed to me: looks, fame, wealth, honors, love. But I've paid for that luck with disasters. Terrible illnesses, destructive addictions, broken marriages." Eight marriages, in fact – though she was quoted as saying the two great loves of her life were producer Michael Todd and actor Richard Burton.
   Revered for her generous charity work but sometimes controversial for her turbulent personal life, the three-time Oscar honoree, fragrance and jewelry mogul and tenacious AIDS activist possessed many talents, including a remarkable gift for self-appraisal.