Elizabeth Taylor, the sultry sex icon of the cinema, died Wednesday at age 79.

The three-time Oscar-winning actress, whose turbulent personal life sometimes overshadowed her career, died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks.

“All her children were with her,” publicist Sally Morrison said.

Taylor embodied the glitz and glamor of Hollywood and eventually became more famous for star-crossed romances, personal tragedy and health issues than for her work on screen.

“I think I’m becoming fatalistic,” she said in 1989. “Too much has happened in my life for me not to be fatalistic.”

She was married eight times — including twice to actor Richard Burton — and had lifelong battles with substance abuse, physical ailments and overeating, which made her a regular target of tabloids.

Taylor starred in more than 50 films, winning Oscars for her performances in “Butterfield 8” (1960) and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966).

Her third Oscar came in 1993 as part of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, which she won for her work as a spokeswoman for several causes, including AIDS research.