LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (AFP) - Violet-eyed Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor is suffering from congestive heart failure and crippling spinal problems, but the movie icon says she is not afraid of death.
The star, 72, once hailed as the world's most beautiful woman and seen as the last great star of Hollywood's golden age, revealed in a rare interview that she was once again staring death in the face.
Taylor, who sprang to worldwide fame at the age of 12 in 1944's "National Velvet," has gone out in public only twice in the past year, has difficulty breathing and walking and has a nurse by her side, she told W Magazine.
The superstar said she was recently diagnosed with congestive heart failure, a condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body's other organs, resulting in fatigue, breathlessness and a slow decline.
The condition is "a bore," Taylor, dripping in her famous collection diamonds and spouting her famous wit, said during an interview at her mansion in Los Angeles' plush Bel Air district.
But when asked if she feared death, the actress, who nearly died of pneumonia while filming the epic "Cleopatra" in 1961 and then again several years ago, was unequivocal.
"No," the eight-times married icon said firmly. "Really I'm not, because I've been there."
Congestive heart failure, which affects around five million Americans, kills slowly as a shortage of blood causes organs to begin shutting down, medical experts said.
Taylor also suffers from scoliosis, a congenital disease that has twisted her spine so badly that she is in constant pain. Last month she underwent spinal surgery to repair seven compression fractures in her spine.
"My body's a real mess. If you look at it in the mirror, it's just completely convex and concave," Taylor said.
"I've become one of those poor little old women who's bent sideways. My X-rays are hysterical. The bone doctors just throw up their hands and say, 'Sorry, there's nothing we can do!' Which is so cheery," she said.
Despite her pain and failing heart, Taylor, who has given up acting to devote her energies to her crusade against AIDS, says she still has her legendary toughness, which helped survive against all odds.
"People must think, My God, she's still alive?" she said. "But there's some resilience in me that makes me keep fighting. It's the damnedest thing -- I just keep coming back."
Taylor recounted how she felt her spirit leaving her body when she was near death in London 43 years ago, and saw her third husband, film producer Mike Todd, who was killed in a 1958 plane crash.
"It's hard to talk about. I was in a tunnel. I saw Mike. He said, 'It's not your time.' I did fight, and I did come back. And I remember it all. It was quite a trip," Taylor told W magazine.
Taylor has run the gamut of life-threatening ailments, including a brain tumour, back ailments resulting from a fall during the filming of "National Velvet," and alcohol and drug addictions.
The star, who was born in Britain and made her first movie 62 years ago, is probably best known for her exotic love life, which kept her on the world's front pages for decades.
Following Todd's death, she had an affair with and later married his best friend, the singer Eddie Fisher, who was married to Taylor's pal Debbie Reynolds at the time.
"What do you expect me to do? Sleep alone?" she asked an interviewer who pointed out the wide-spread anger the affair provoked, which resulted in Taylor being publicly branded a home-wrecker.
But that marriage too fell apart in an unprecedented glare of publicity in 1962 when she began a torrid affair with her "Cleopatra" co-star Richard Burton in 1962.
The scandal saw Taylor condemned by the pope, but her relationship with Burton lasted for 13 years during which the couple were married and divorced twice.
Burton and Todd were the two great loves of her life, Taylor told W Magazine.
But after eight marriages and countless romances, all that is over for the diva, who was wearing the 33-carat Krupp diamond ring given to her by Burton in 1968 during the interview.
"I've learned to be alone," she told the magazine. "And being without a mate doesn't mean you're alone. I have great friends, and children and grandchildren. And memories -- wonderful memories."

11/19/2004 21:29 GMT - AFP