A nod to the greatest..

Dame Elizabeth Taylor died today, aged 79 years, after a long fought illness.

She was arguably one of the silver screen's most recognisable and iconic faces - not to mention the original Hollywood glamourpuss. She was the woman who embodied Cleopatra, falling in love with her real-life Anthony (even if she did divorce him twice) and who made everyone in Hollywood gawp at her astounding beauty.

But not only that, Elizabeth Taylor was an ambassador for the American Foundation for AIDS Research - she helped create the foundation after the death of her close friend and co-star Rock Hudson, and remained an avid supporter of AIDS-related charities and fundraising events throughout the rest of her life. Many regard Taylor as single-handedly doing more for AIDS/HIV charities than anyone else in the world - she even created her own foundation: The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, and by 1999 it was estimated that she had helped to raise $50 million to fight the disease. She was truly a humanitarian and a role model for many people throughout the world.

I've always been a bit envious of people who lived through the Hollywood Golden Age, where stars like Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, James Dean and Rock Hudson actually existed. Taylor outlived all of them of course and was actually a prominent figure during my lifetime as well, but looking back at photos of her as a young woman at the peak of her career in the 1950s & 1960s is like looking at a different person. She oozed elegance and grace, and was breathtakingly beautiful in the most classic, feline way. She even handled her illnesses and brain tumour with grace and poise - a true lady in every sense of the word.

Regrettably I've not seen every movie Taylor ever made - there's simply too many - but I'll make it my mission to get through them all some day. They stretch back all the way to 1942 when she starred in her first motion picture There's One Born Every Minute at the tender age of nine, until her last movie These Old Broads in 2001. I've got a lot of catching up to do.

In true female form, Liz Taylor wanted to relive her special day over and over (and over and over) again. So much so that she married seven men (not at the same time of course) and one of them was special enough to get her down the aisle twice. And that unique man was Richard Burton - the one man you truly associate with Taylor. The Anthony to her Cleopatra. And you can see why she married him twice, he was kinda handsome in his younger days. He was also her longest marriage - spawning over 12 years of partnership which, in Hollywood years, is practically a lifetime. I wonder if the reason behind their long (ish) marriage was the amazing Taylor-Burton Diamond that Richard Burton purchased for his lovely bride in 1969... 69.42 carats of fabulousness. I'm just speculating.

Over the past decade Taylor has battled ill health, including a brain tumour, congestive heart failure, skin cancer and life threatening bouts of pneumonia. She was also forced to use a wheelchair in the final years of her life as a result of crippling osteoporosis. And yet through it all she still maintained a dignified front, living up to her reputation as being one of the world's most graceful women.

The last survivor of the Hollywood Golden Age passed away peacefully, surrounded by her family - Elizabeth Taylor 27/2/1932 - 23/3/2011 - R.I.P

That diamond...