‘Last great glamour star’ dies

ELIZABETH TAYLOR, the child actor who became a Hollywood icon, known for her dazzling beauty and turbulent off-screen life, passed away at the age of 79.

Hailed as “a Hollywood giant” and “the last of the great glamour stars” by friends and admirers yesterday, the star even managed to outlive the New York Times theatre critic Mel Gussow, who had penned an obituary for Taylor before his own death in 2005.

The star of films such as Cleopatra, Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles yesterday morning from congestive heart failure. She had been plagued by ill-health for a number of years and had been in hospital for the past six weeks with heart problems.