Elizabeth Taylor, the epitome of glamour and wealth, was the ultimate film star.
She married eight times - twice to the same man, Richard Burton - and was hailed as the most breathtakingly beautiful woman in the world.
Her life, always in the fast lane, was tempestuous and volcanic, strewn with tragedy and, in later years, dogged by ill-health. She fell in and out of love with astonishing regularity.
At the height of her powers, she was frequently involved in scandal, some of it self-inflicted. She was the darling of the tabloid press, which avidly pursued and recorded virtually her every move.
And towards her death she became reclusive, although not totally so. By then she was without a husband and, instead, lavished her love on her dogs.
Taylor was a screen legend - the first star to receive 1,000,000 dollars for a film - with an irresistibly breathy voice and an unforgettable presence, who started out as a child actress and was playing adults while still in her teens.
It was the Welshman Richard Burton, by far her greatest love, who showered her with diamonds, furs, homes and even a luxury yacht, and who summed her up superbly: "Elizabeth and I lived on the edge of an exciting volcano. I'm not easy to be married to or live with.
"I exploded violently about twice a year with Elizabeth. She would also explode. It was marvellous, but it could be murder."
Taylor's tumultuous career spanned some half a century, and involved more than 60 films and TV shows.
With her lush black hair, her striking violet eyes, her heart-shaped face and dark eyelashes she was the unchallenged sex symbol of her generation.
Her death marks the end of an era: she was the last of the great screen goddesses.
Elizabeth Taylor was born in Hampstead, north London, but with US nationality, on February 27, 1932. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a retired actress. The girl who was to become a child star before she was 10, had begun taking ballet lessons at the age of three.
When Britain entered the Second World War, her parents decided to return to the United States to avoid hostilities, and settled in Los Angeles.
She appeared in her first picture at the age of nine, for Universal. But they let her contract drop, and she was signed up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Her first movie with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), which brought her favourable attention.
After a couple more movies, she appeared in her first leading role, at the age of 12, playing Velvet Brown, a young girl who trains a horse to win the Grand National, in National Velvet (1944).
She starred with Mickey Rooney, and this film grossed more than 4,000,000 dollars at the box office. Taylor was signed on a long-term contract. It was the start of an incredible career.
The films she starred in, from 1942 right through until the next century, included Jane Eyre, Courage Of Lassie, Life With Father, A Date With Judy, Julia Misbehaves, Little Women, Quo Vadis?, A Place In The Sun, Ivanhoe, The Girl Who Had Everything, Rhapsody, Beau Brummell, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, Cleopatra, Butterfield 8, The Sandpiper, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, The Taming Of The Shrew, Doctor Faustus, The Comedians, Anne Of The Thousand Days, Under Milk Wood, That's Entertainment!, A Little Night Music, Get Bruce, and These Old Broads.
After studying on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot, she received a diploma from University High School, Los Angeles in 1950, the year, at the age of 18, when the first of her eight marriages took place.
On May 6, that year, she married hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr. The marriage ended in divorce less than two years later. Within 20 days, she married actor Michael Wilding. That marriage lasted nearly five years before ending in divorce in 1957. They had two sons.
