I can recall reports of Elizabeth Taylor’s impending demise spanning more than half a century, so news that the Oscar-winning actress, who survived dozens of health crises,  finally succumbed today at 79 seems almost surreal. An appreciation I wrote in 2007 will appear in Thursday’s print edition (and online).

All I have time to say now is that at her peak, Taylor was so stunningly beautiful and incredibly sexy, and so much drama surrounded her off-screen life, that there was a tendency to severely underrate her considerable gifts as an instintive actress (a lot of bad movies didn’t help).

But to look at her best work — “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly Last Summer,” “Giant,” “Raintree County” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” — as I did while researching the appreciation is to witness one of Hollywood’s greatest stars of all time at her peak. Perhaps no one has put it better than Paul Newman in this tribute that’s aired for years on Turner Classic Movies: 

Update: TCM has scheduled a 24-hour tribute to Taylor for April 10.