Richard Burton

ELIZABETH TAYLOR & RICHARD BURTON: A symbol of studio excess, 20th Century-Fox's 1963 epic, "Cleopatra," triggered mounting speculation for its over-the-top production costs, which nearly sank the legendary studio. Yet budget overruns and Cyclopean sets soon were eclipsed by the... more more scandalous details of the real-life affair between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, playing Marc Antony and the movie's titular queen. Both stars were in high profile marriages, but their dalliance bloomed into a grand passion worthy of a brooding stage actor and a Hollywood diva who had "stolen" fourth hubby Eddie Fisher from erstwhile pal Debbie Reynolds. Burton and Taylor's attraction was evidently immediate and would prove stormy indeed, its turbulence fueled by the Welsh actor's alcoholism and played out in public. Married in 1964, they divorced a decade later only to re-marry in 1975. Ironically, the reconciliation fizzled a year later when Burton's efforts at moderation apparently invited Taylor's scorn.

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