Did Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra Casting Almost Bankrupt Fox?
By Jeremy Smith/July 13, 2022 4:13 pm EST
Prelude to a calamity
The scandal of 1962
The affair hardly came out of nowhere. Taylor had been taken with Richard Burton since catching him on Broadway as King Arthur in “Camelot.” The studio considered numerous actors for the role of Marc Antony, but Taylor only had eyes for Burton, so the studio bought out his “Camelot” contract and Taylor got her man.
Love means never having to cough up $50 million to Fox
United Archives/Getty Images
Taylor wasn’t entirely blameless for the production’s difficulties, but the notion that her spoiled-brat behavior single-handedly undermined “Cleopatra” is total bunk. Skouras was the genius who tried to save the studio by throwing a ludicrous amount of cash — $31 million then, $300 million now — at one movie, and stood by as the project drifted aimlessly into production without anything close to a finished screenplay. So the next time you have the pleasure of visiting the concrete paradise of Century City, think of “Cleopatra,” sure, but spare a thought for Spyros Skouras and more than a little sympathy for Elizabeth Taylor.
