Furious love - Sam Kashner

He was a tough-guy Welshman softened by the affections of a breathtakingly beautiful woman; she was a modern-day Cleopatra madly in love with her own Marc Antony. For a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were the crme de la crme of Hollywood royalty. Their tempestuous, on-again off-again romance, which began on the set of the colossal flop Cleopatra, made headlines worldwide. In this addictively readable, first dual biography of these legendary personalities, veteran reporter Sam Kashner and noted biographer Nancy Schoenberger demonstrate how Taylor and Burton?s two marriages to each other represented much more than outlandish romance. Together, Elizabeth and Richard were a fascinating embodiment of the mores and transgressions of American culture, and even luminaries like Jacqueline Kennedy looked to them as a barometer of the times. The enduring glamour, grandeur, drama, and bravado embodied by this legendary duo in many ways gave rise to the rabid gossip and wide-eyed adoration that are the staples of today?s tabloid media. Kashner and Schoenberger draw upon brand-new research and interviews?including unprecedented access to Taylor herself, the Burton family, and Taylor?s extensive personal correspondence?to capture a time when the violet-eyed beauty and her robust British leading man were the true king and queen of Hollywood. Shocking and unsparing in its honesty, Furious Love probes Burton?s troubled past growing up the 12th of 13 children sired by a hardscrabble Welsh miner; of the crippling alcoholism that nearly destroyed his career and contributed to his early death; and the painful medical issues that plagued both him and his wife. It is also an in-depth look at this stunning couple?s notorious and jaw-dropping relationship that began while both were married to other people, including intimate details about their sexual escapades, stormy emotional battles, and bitter separations. The ultimate celebrity biography, Furious Love is the gripping real-life story of a fairytale couple whose lives were even grander and more outrageous than the epic films they made.