Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010

Burton and Taylor

The love of Antony and Cleopatra was ill-fated in legend. For star-crossed paramours Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, it proved just as dramatic, if significantly less tragic. The two actors were married to others when they met on the set of Cleopatra, paired as the big-budget film's main attractions. Their affair stoked the tabloid press and played itself out in the public eye, leading to their own marriage in 1964. Taylor, the scion of American glitterati, and Burton, the 12th son of a Welsh coal miner, proved an irresistible celebrity couple. Both were famed for their powers of seduction. They parted ways in 1974, only to remarry a year later and then divorce once more a year after that. In total, Burton would marry five times; Taylor, seven.