Were Elizabeth Taylor And Richard Burton Buried Next To One Another?

Elizabeth Taylor is remembered as a Hollywood legend, known for her acting, her beauty, her many, many marriages, and a highly publicized personal life that was at times both tragic and turbulent.

One of Taylor's husbands — who accounted for two of her eight marriages — was Welsh actor Richard Burton. Burton's film credits included appearances in films like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "1984." According to Biography, Taylor and Burton were married in 1964 after working together on the film "Cleopatra" which was released the year before.

Their relationship fell apart, was rekindled, and fell apart again, but there was still a rumor that the two of them were supposed to be buried next to each other upon their deaths. Burton died over two decades before Taylor, having suffered a brain hemorrhage in 1984 (via Britannica). According to Reuters, he was buried in Switzerland, but when Taylor died in 2011, she was buried thousands of miles away.

According to Biography, Elizabeth Taylor was one of Hollywood's biggest names for six decades. She was born in London in 1932 to American parents who were art dealers. When World War II broke out in Europe, she and her family returned to the United States.

Taylor's mother had been an actress until she was married, so it comes as no surprise that Taylor quickly found herself in that world, securing a contract with Universal Studios in 1942 when she was just 10 years old. Taylor's acting abilities helped her gain attention, especially as she moved into adulthood, but her personal life helped her keep the spotlight even off-screen.

When she was just 17 years old, Taylor started a relationship with eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. She eventually married her first husband, hotel heir Nicky Hilton, but it was short-lived, and by 1952, she was already on to her second husband, actor Michael Wilding.

Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. on ​​November 10, 1925, in Pontrhydyfen, Wales. He was the second youngest of 13 children and his dad was a coal miner (via Britannica). He managed to catch the acting bug and began studying under a schoolteacher named Philip Burton, who eventually helped get a scholarship to the prestigious University of Oxford. Burton made his stage debut in 1943, but seeing as it was right in the midst of World War II, his acting career had to go on pause while he served in the Royal Air Force as a navigator.

Burton returned to acting after the war and by 1949 he had already snagged his first film role in "​​The Last Days of Dolwyn" and struck it big on theater stages in "The Lady's Not for Burning," even appearing in the play's Broadway run.

In 1952, Burton made his American film debut and was met with immediate acclaim. His performance in "My Cousin Rachel" earned him an Oscar nomination.

Taylor's penchant for snagging headlines thanks to her personal life was on display when she met Burton on the set of 1963's "Cleopatra."

Taylor headlined the film's star-studded ensemble cast in the title role, while Burton took on the part of Mark Anthony, alongside a slew of other big names like Rex Harrison, Martin Landau, and Roddy McDowell.

The two struck up a relationship, but they were both married at the time, which garnered its fair share of attention (per Britannica). They each divorced their previous spouses and were married in 1964. Over their careers, the two appeared in 11 films together. Taylor and Burton remained together for quite some time but it wasn't always smooth sailing for the couple, and according to People, they were even given the nickname The Battling Burtons. In 1974, Their first marriage ended in a divorce. However it didn't last long, and they reconciled in 1975. They remarried, but it only lasted another year and they divorced for the second and final time.

According to Vanity Fair, Burton and Taylor were known for their lavish style which included buying properties all around the world. One of these was properties was in Switzerland, and that became Burton's adopted home even after the couple divorced. He was known to frequent the bars around Celigny, Switzerland and would chat with fellow patrons, even though he didn't speak French (via Reuters). Burton died in 1984 from a brain hemorrhage and was buried in a plot just steps from Lake Geneva.

Many thought that the plan was for Taylor to be buried alongside him, but upon her death in 2011, she was buried in Los Angeles. Some have suspected that Taylor hadn't fallen in love with Switzerland the way Burton had.

"She didn't come here much," Jaqueline Esseiva, a lifelong resident told Reuters. "It wasn't elegant enough for her. Too simple. Him though, he was friendly. No airs and graces."

Others have argued that the real reason Taylor wasn't buried there was that Burton's wife at the time of his death made his grave plot extra-large, in an attempt to prevent Taylor from being buried there because there wouldn't have been room.

However, it's was noted that there appeared to have still been enough room at the time of Taylor's death for her to have been buried there.