Roger Lewis on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s Passionate, Glamorous, and Sometimes Ridiculous Love Story

When it comes to women I find totally compelling, Elizabeth Taylor tops the list for me. Why, you may ask? Well, her Academy Award-winning career and her talent onscreen, for starters. Her beauty, specifically her violet eyes. Her work with AIDS, and her White Diamonds perfume. And, yes, her lifestyle, specifically her eight marriages. But there’s only one man she married twice, and that love story, the love story between Elizabeth and Richard Burton, is what we’re talking about on the show today. Joining me today is Roger Lewis, the endlessly compelling author of Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, which came out March 26. It took Roger 13 years to write this book, which clocks in at the juiciest 608 pages imaginable. It, in a word, is delicious. Elizabeth knew celebrity well, and by the time she met Richard on the set of Cleopatra in 1961, she had transitioned from a child star to a Hollywood icon. Meanwhile, we have Richard, who is a legend in the theater and a truly brilliant actor, nominated for seven Academy Awards, though he didn’t win any. He is much, much more averse to fame than his wife Elizabeth, who essentially helped define modern celebrity. Their two lives converge in Rome, and both are married to other people at the time; they can’t resist one another, and in come the private jets, the jewels, the yachts, the furs, and the vodka—so much vodka. Though Roger calls the two the loves of one another’s lives, it all goes wrong, with alcoholism, violence, recrimination, and two divorces. Richard is dead at just 58 in 1982; Elizabeth will live another 29 years before dying in 2011. Elizabeth and Richard were better known as “Liz and Dick” by the media, and ultimately starred in 11 films together and were married the first time from 1964 to 1974, and then remarried in 1975; their second marriage once again ended in divorce in 1976, just one year later. Together, in the 1960s the supercouple earned a combined $88 million. Their relationship has been referred to as the “marriage of the century,” and here to escort us on this rollercoaster ride is Roger Lewis, who, in addition to this masterpiece, also wrote The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which was made into a Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning film by HBO starring Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron. I would expect some type of screen adaptation for Erotic Vagrancy, as well—just saying. He has also written a number of other biographies, including one on Laurence Olivier. Prepare through this conversation to be transported to the lavish, almost unbelievable world of Liz and Dick, and strap yourselves in, because it’s going to be a bumpy, wild ride.

Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor by Roger Lewis