Richard Burton’s ‘Shakespearean ambitions’ were shattered by Elizabeth Taylor, according to the author of a new book on their rollercoaster romance.
The duo struck up a scandalous affair while they were both married to other people, during the making of their 1963 epic Cleopatra.
Their tempestuous relationship became the stuff of Hollywood legend, with the pair getting married and divorced twice in a blizzard of alcohol-fueled passion.
Now, Welsh author Roger Lewis has penned a new book about them called Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton And Elizabeth Taylor.
Teasing the upcoming volume to People, Lewis argued that Burton’s career as a classical actor was dashed on the rocks of his relationship with Taylor.
Richard Burton’s ‘Shakespearean ambitions’ were smashed by Elizabeth Taylor, according to the author of a new book on their romance; pictured in 1965 on the set of The Sandpiper
In Roger Lewis’ telling, Burton was on the road to becoming a crowning ‘Laurence Olivier-style Shakespearean actor’ during the 1950s; pictured in 1955 in costume as Henry V at the Old Vic
In Lewis’ telling, Burton was on the road to becoming a crowning ‘Laurence Olivier-style Shakespearean actor’ during the 1950s.
That decade, Burton followed in Olivier’s footsteps and took on the role of Hamlet, winning plaudits for his run in the part at the Old Vic in London.
As his Hollywood career progressed through the 1950s – with two Oscar nominations for My Cousin Rachel and The Robe – so did his arc as a classical actor.
He starred in such Shakespeare plays as Coriolanus, The Tempest, King John, and Henry V, among others, and even did a run in Othello where he switched on separate nights between the title role and Iago.
‘By meeting Elizabeth Taylor, that destroyed him as a classical actor. On the other hand, all his roles in the movies he made, he’s still got that wonderful voice and that wonderful presence and that great swagger of his,’ said Lewis.
‘One of the big things that happened when Burton met Taylor was that was the end of his career on the stage,’ the biographer began, before amending his statement.
‘I know later on he did Camelot, he did Equus and then made the movie of Equus…but basically that was it as far as his Shakespearean ambitions went.’
Burton’s romance with Taylor took off at the dawn of the 1960s while he was still married to his first wife, Welsh actress Sybil Williams.
At the Old Vic in the 1950s, he once even did a run in Othello where he switched on separate nights between the title role and Iago; pictured as Iago in 1956
The pair struck up a scandalous affair while they were both married to other people, during the making of their 1963 epic Cleopatra (pictured)
Their tempestuous relationship became the stuff of legend, with the pair getting married and divorced twice in a blizzard of alcohol-fueled passion; pictured at the 1970 Oscars
Now, Welsh author Roger Lewis has penned a new book about them called Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton And Elizabeth Taylor; the couple are pictured in 1967
Taylor meanwhile was on her fourth husband, the crooner Eddie Fisher, whom she had stolen from his first wife Debbie Reynolds.
Burton and Taylor indulged in a torrid affair at the iconic Hotel du Cap in Cannes, which remains to this day a hot spot for celebrities.
When Fisher found out that Taylor was being unfaithful to him, he flew into such a rage that he pointed a gun at her as she lay in bed, according to a bestselling book called Furious Love about the Burton-Taylor romance.
However, with the firearm in his hand, Fisher assured his wife: ‘Don’t worry, Elizabeth. I’m not going to kill you. You’re too beautiful.’
Once their relationship went public, Burton and Taylor were flagrantly candid about the fact that they broken their marital vows in order to be together.
Their unabashed infidelity prompted the Vatican newspaper to predict they were on the road to ‘erotic vagrancy’ – hence the title of Lewis’ new book.
‘Everyone was behaving themselves in accordance to what the studios told them to do and told them how to behave, manufacturing their private lives for public consumption. Burton and Taylor just threw all that out,’ said Lewis.
As their offscreen love story unfolded, their acting careers also became intertwined – the couple wound up making 11 movies together.
Burton is pictured on Broadway in 1960, playing King Arthur to Julie Andrews’ Queen Guinevere in the musical Camelot from the writers of My Fair Lady
Taylor, pictured pre-Burton in the 1944 movie National Velvet, became a more highly regarded actress during her relationship with the Shakespearean thespian
Lewis brought up Burton and Taylor’s 1963 movie The VIPs (pictured), in which, said he: ‘She’s the one that becomes, in a way, a more serious actress’
As their offscreen love story unfolded, their acting careers also became intertwined – the couple wound up making 11 movies together; pictured for The VIPs
Burton’s image was dragged down-market by his turbulent romance with a kitschy pop culture icon, a splashy drama that turned him into a tabloid figure.
Laurence Olivier sent him a telegram demanding: ‘Make up your mind – do you want to be a great actor or a household word?’ to which Burton shot back: ‘Both.’
Meanwhile, Taylor went in the opposite direction, becoming a more highly regarded actress during her relationship with Burton.
Lewis mentioned Burton and Taylor’s 1963 movie The VIPs, in which, said he: ‘She’s the one that becomes, in a way, a more serious actress.’
He added: ‘You can see Taylor is a really good actress now. She’s not just beautiful in profile, wearing lovely furs or swimming costumes. She now has presence. She has command and depth. And just whatever it is that’s sort of going on in her mind, you can kind of feel that through her presence as an actress. She gets to be really good.’
Perhaps the most admired movie Burton and Taylor made together is the searing 1966 drama Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, based on a play by Edward Albee.
Burton and Taylor play a miserable married couple who get progressively drunker over the course of a cocktail party at their house and viciously air out all their grievances with each other, in full view of their horrified guests.
The movie marked the feature directorial debut of Mike Nichols, who went on to helm such pictures as The Graduate, The Birdcage and Postcards From The Edge.
Perhaps the most admired movie Burton and Taylor made together is the searing 1966 drama Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, based on a play by Edward Albee
They were first married from 1964 until 1974, then briefly remarried in 1975 and wound up divorced once again the following year; pictured 1975
In a 1969 diary entry written aboard their yacht, the Kalizma, Burton offered a glimpse into the electrifying sexual chemistry between him and Taylor; pictured on the Kalizma in 1967
Referring to Burton and Taylor in the film, Lewis said: ‘I think they did learn from each other, and maybe detract from each other a bit, and added a bit to each other.’
He explained: ‘They’re in real harmony as artists…it’s like their marriage there we’re watching [in the film], but sort of in a stylized way. It’s turned into art.’
During one of their on periods, Burton presented Taylor with a whopping 68 carat rock that became known as the Taylor-Burton diamond.
He also gave her the world-famous 33.19 carat Krupp Diamond, which she referred to as ‘my baby’ and which has been rechristened the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond.
In a 1969 diary entry written aboard their luxury yacht, the Kalizma, Burton offered a glimpse into the electrifying sexual chemistry between him and Taylor.
‘Elizabeth is an eternal one-night stand,’ he wrote. ‘She is my private and personal bought mistress. And lascivious with it. It is impossible to tell you what is consisted in the act of love. Well, I’ll tell you: E is a receiver, a perpetual returner of the ball!’
‘I don’t want to be that much in love ever again,’ Taylor confided in a friend: ‘I gave everything away…my soul, my being, everything’; pictured 1965
However, Burton’s diaries also lay bare the explosive, booze-soaked fights that had a habit of erupting between them, sometimes to the point of violence.
One row started over a matter as trivial as the fact Taylor wanted to use her own towels in a hotel and Burton preferred to use those provided by the establishment.
‘Well, I went mad, which ended up with Elizabeth smashing me around the head with her ringed fingers,’ Burton wrote. ‘If any man had done that, I’d have killed him. I still boil with fury when I think about it.’
They were first married from 1964 until 1974, then briefly remarried in 1975 and wound up divorced again the following year.
‘I don’t want to be that much in love ever again,’ Taylor confided in a friend. ‘I gave everything away…my soul, my being, everything.’
After their final split, Burton and Taylor each married two other people – bringing his total up to four wives and hers up to a whopping seven husbands.