Elizabeth Taylor Dead at 79

ABC News is reporting that Elizabeth Taylor died earlier today at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.

"She was surrounded by her children -- Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd and Maria Burton," Taylor's publicist, Sally Morrison, said in a statement.

I don't know how you can be shocked that a 79-year-old woman in poor health -- who has come this close to dying on countless occasions -- has died, yet someone I am. I audibly gasped in the newsroom when I saw the flash. Truly the end of an era. As much as I adored Taylor's work on the silver screen -- "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Suddenly, Last Summer" are my faves -- it was her willingness (and fearlessness) to fight against AIDS when doing so wasn't fashionable that I will remember about her most. She was the anti-Reagan -- and there will never be another star that shines this bright.

RIP, Liz. We miss you already.

By Kenneth M. Walsh