Elizabeth Taylor: Violet-eyed movie queen

Elizabeth Taylor, who has died at the age of 79, was the archetypal Hollywood movie queen, a violet-eyed beauty known equally for her stormy romances and eight marriages as her Oscar-winning performances.

Over a five-decade career she won two Academy Awards for best actress, including in the 1966 classic "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" one of many films where she played opposite her two-times husband Richard Burton.

In later years as her health failed she retired from the public gaze, although she notably attended the 2009 funeral of her long-time friend Michael Jackson, while she remained active in raising funds to battle AIDS/HIV.

Born in London February 27, 1932, she was evacuated to California with her American parents in 1939, where she was soon discovered at her father's art gallery by the fiancee of the chairman of Universal Studios.

She debuted in 1942 in "There's One Born Every Minute," and by 1944 had become a child star with "National Velvet," the story of a girl who rides her horse to victory at the Grand National disguised as a boy.

"Before men, my great love was for animals, which I still have," Taylor would later say.

via ca.news.yahoo.com