John Goodman Reveals Elizabeth Taylor Talked About Epic Hollywood Love Affair on Movie Set
John Goodman revealed that Elizabeth Taylor talked about her tumultuous romance with Richard Burton when they worked together in the 1994 film, The Flintstones. The Hollywood legend played Wilma Flintstone's mother, Pearl Slaghoople, in the 1994 live-action comedy, marking her final film role in an iconic 60-year career.
According to Taylor’s official website, the famed actress spent five days shooting The Flintstones, where she “navigated the set like the pro she was.” “She made final touches to her own makeup, received daily gag gifts from the crew, and made light of stressful situations,“ the site teased.
Goodman, who played Fred Flintstone in the film adaptation of the classic 1960s cartoon series, told People magazine that he was starstruck when Taylor spoke to him about Burton during a filming break. "Elizabeth Taylor was my mother-in-law in The Flintstones," the actor recalled. "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."
"There's old-school movie stars and then there's Elizabeth Taylor,” Goodman added. “She was at the zenith in her life and in films. I never thought I'd ever get to meet her."
Taylor and Burton were the most iconic celebrity couple of the 1960s and ‘70s. They met on the set of Cleopatra in Rome in 1961 when they were both married to other people (him to Sybil Williams and her to Eddie Fisher). The two made 11 films together, including The Taming of the Shrew and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? They married for the first time in 1964.
Taylor and Burton’s legendary romance ultimately ended in two divorces—one in 1974 and another in 1976
In the 2010 book Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century, Taylor told authors Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger that Burton was her greatest love and continued to send her passionate letters up until his death at age 58. Burton’s final love letter to Taylor was sent to her Bel-Air, CA, home three days before he died in Switzerland on August 5, 1984.
“In my heart, I will always believe we would have been married a third and final time,” Taylor reflected in the book. “From those first moments in Rome, we were always madly and powerfully in love.”
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