Elizabeth Taylor had an early dinner at The Abbey, a gay and lesbian bar, lounge, and restaurant in West Hollywood today.

The 76-year-old screen legend seemed in high spirits as she left the restaurant in a wheelchair surrounded by her friends and assistants, but it was a sad sight to see the once vibrant and youthful actress struggle to stand up from her seat. She was eventually lifted gently and placed into an awaiting car by her assistants.

Taylor, who was a leading Hollywood star by the tender age of twelve, is considered to be the last of the great screen legends to have come out of the old Hollywood Studios. Her health has been on the decline in recent years, although she has cheated death on more than one occasion.

She’s broken her back at least five times, had three bouts of pneumonia, of which one, in 1961, required a tracheotomy, and another, in 1990, nearly killed her. Then there were the two hip-replacement operations and surgery to remove a benign golf ball-sized brain tumour, plus two stints at the Betty Ford clinic. By all estimates, she’s been hospitalized at least 30 times during her lifetime.

The actress was most recently hospitalized for a period this summer, although her publicist denied rumours that she was on life support.

[Fame]