Film legend Liz Taylor dies in Los Angeles - but her memory will live on

Considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age, Elizabeth Taylor has passed away

Yes, it's true. Movie star Liz Taylor has died in Los Angeles at the age of 79. For many people a byword for Hollywood and glamour on the silver screen, the Oscar-winner was also famous for her complicated personal life including series of husbands.

Born in London to an art dealer and an actress in 1932, Taylor moved to Los Angeles before she was 10 years old as WWII loomed.

Winning early success in family favourites like Lassie Come Home and National Velvet, Taylor seamlessly moved into adult roles such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

She was nominated four years running for an Oscar, finally winning for the role of prostitute Gloria Wandrous in Butterfield 8.

Liz Taylor with Malcolm Forbes

In 1960, Taylor became the highest paid actress up to that time when she signed a one million dollar contract to play the title role in Cleopatra. She starred opposite, and began an affair with, future husband Richard Burton on that film. She would marry him twice.

In her final years she battled various illnesses, which confined her to a wheelchair. The flamboyant Taylor responded by keeping to the style of her younger days, commissioning a gold and jewel-covered version.

This had been typical of her style during her life. She was a close friend of the exuberant Malcolm Forbes, who gave her a Harley Davidson and considered her one of his fellow 'Capitalist Tools'.

Elizabeth Taylor memorabilia is already coveted - including the most valuable item of her memorabilia to have so-far appeared on the markets...

Last summer Christie's sold Andy Warhol's Elizabeth Taylor portrait ('Silver Liz') for £6.7m (just under $11m). The portrait was created during Taylor's heyday in the early '60s, and Warhol is supposed to have been childishly obsessed with the star.

Andy Warhol's Silver Liz

Some collectors have got closer still. Specialists in affordable memorabilia www.asmallpieceofhistory.com are currently offering a limited amount of the star's hair for sale.

Taylor is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon, and her legacy will live on in her collectibles.