Dame Elizabeth Taylor, the Hollywood legend whose career spanned seven decades, five Oscar nominations and eight marriages, has died in Los Angeles at age 79.

She died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital surrounded by her four children after being taken to hospital six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, according to a statement from her publicist.

Her son Michael Wilding said: “My mother was an extraordinary woman who lived life to the fullest, with great passion, humor, and love. Though her loss is devastating to those of us who held her so close and so dear, we will always be inspired by her enduring contribution to our world.”

The violet-eyed Dame Elizabeth, who began her film career at age 10 and was often ranked in fan polls as the most beautiful woman on screen, was plagued by health problems for many years.

Later in life she became known for charitable work for Aids and other causes, as well as her friendship with Michael Jackson, who asked her to be godmother to two of his three children.

Dame Elizabeth acted in her first film at the age of 10, three years after her American parents had returned to the United States from London, where she was born in Hampstead in 1932.

After just one film, she was hired by MGM, and became a child star with National Velvet, starring opposite Mickey Rooney. One of the longest-surviving stars of the old studio system, she was widely acclaimed for her roles Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Raintree Country and Cleopatra.

Her two best actress Oscars were awarded for Butterfield 8 in 1960, and for her portrayal of a foul-mouthed alcoholic in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967.

Her personal life set a Hollywood standard for glamour and tumult. After the death of her third husband, film producer Mike Todd, in 1958, she found herself in a well-chronicled love triangle with singer Eddie Fisher and his wife actress Debbie Reynolds, before marrying Fisher.

While filming the lavishly produced Cleopatra in 1961, she started a torrid, tabloid-chronicled affair with Richard Burton, who played Mark Antony and who was also married at the time.

They wed in 1964 after she divorced Fisher, and Burton bestowed furs and diamonds, including a $1 million pear-shaped diamond, on Taylor while publicly praising her “wonderful bosom".

They divorced in 1974 but remarried the following year, before separating for a second time.

Always able to mock her excesses, she once said: “My mother says I didn’t open my eyes for eight days after I was born, but when I did, the first thing I saw was an engagement ring. I was hooked.”