Unitarian Church in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Recalls 1964 Civil Wedding of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

The Unitarian Church of Montreal recalled the day in 1964 when actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor Richard Burton were married in a civil ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, following news of Taylor’s death at age 79. The congregation’s current minister, Rev. Diane Rollert, spoke about the event in an interview.

The Unitarian Church has roots dating to 1842 in Montreal and is the oldest Unitarian congregation in Canada. It became widely known on March 16, 1964, when its minister at the time, Rev. Leonard Mason, agreed to marry the couple at the hotel on Sherbrooke St. W.

Rollert said Mason had agreed to perform the ceremony on the condition that there be no publicity. “Leonard Mason had agreed to do it, but he had asked that there be no publicity at all,” she said. She added that “there was no such thing as civil marriage in Quebec at the time,” and that the no-publicity agreement was broken the same afternoon by the couple’s publicity agent.

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