Liza Minnelli Comments on Elizabeth Taylor's Passing

Dame Elizabeth Taylor has passed away this morning at the age of 79 due to heart failure. According to ABC News, all four of her children were with her when she passed.

She was the star of more than fifty-five films, among them National Velvet, A Place in the Sun, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Little Night Music and Cleopatra.

Her Broadway credits included The Little Foxes, Private Lives and The Corn is Green. She also appeared in a 2007 reading of Love Letters at the Paramount Theatre in Hollywood, alongside James Earl Jones and other stars in honor of World AIDS Day.

Says Liza Minnelli on her passing, "She was a true star, because she not only had beauty and notoriety; Elizabeth Taylor had talent. As a friend she was always, always there for me. I'll miss her for the rest of my life, but I was so lucky to have known her."

For nearly two decades, she was been a leader in AIDS activism, including her founding role in the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and establishment of The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation (ETAF).

She has also been a successful businesswoman with her bestselling line of fragrances, including "White Diamonds," "Passion," and "Gardenia."

The recipient of numerous honors and awards, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in the year 2000. In 1987, France bestowed upon her its most prestigious award, the Legion d'Honneur, and in 2001 President Clinton recognized her with the Presidential Citizen's Medal. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, and in 1993 she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her work on behalf of AIDS. She also received the BAFTA Fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, as well as the Lifetime Achievement award from the American Film Institute.

Elizabeth Taylor lived in Bel Air, California. She is survived by four children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos