Elizabeth Taylor spoke of her marriage to Richard Burton while chatting with John Goodman on the set of The Flintstones in 1994.
John Goodman got some insight into Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s relationship
The late Hollywood icon, who died in 2011 at the age of 79, had a famously tumultuous relationship with the Shakespearean actor, who passed away in August 1984 at just 58. The pair married twice during their whirlwind romance.
They first tied the knot in 1964. That marriage lasted a decade. Then, just 16 months after their divorce, they said “I do” again in a private ceremony in Botswana, Southern Africa.
But it wasn’t meant to be – the second marriage ended in February 1976, less than a year later.
Goodman, 73, played Fred Flintstone opposite Taylor as his mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople, in the live-action adaptation of the animated classic. He recalled a moment when Taylor opened up to him about her and Burton after she suffered a fall on set.
Although he didn’t disclose what she said, Goodman said he was wowed.
He told PEOPLE for their Life in Pictures series: “Elizabeth Taylor was my mother-in-law in The Flintstones. She took a fall in the film, so we were just squatting around her, talking to her.
“I just got her talking about [Richard] Burton a little bit when she was on the floor, and it was wow.”
He added: “There’s old-school movie stars and then there’s Elizabeth Taylor. She was at the zenith in her life and in films. I never thought I’d ever get to meet her.”
Taylor was famed for her lifelong diva behaviour – and her partner for his wild living and boozing.
The 2024 tome Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis, laid bare their decades of decadence and traced the couple’s lives from their origins as actors to their famously troubled marriage.
Roger revealed in the book the pair had a massive entourage including an army of secretaries, butlers, nannies and tutors for their children – as well as lawyers, accountants and veterinarians for their exotic pets.
He penned: “They’d take over whole floors of grand hotels so all these people had accommodation.
“But what all this meant was that they never met ordinary people after that. They never mixed with anyone else. It was this very insulated life, rather like, I imagine, members of the royal family.”
They met at a party in the 1950s and co-starred in a string of films including 1963’s The V.I.Ps, Cleopatra and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
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