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Richard Burton CBE (November 10, 1925 – August 5, 1984) was a Welsh actor. He
was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. Known for his vocal style, he
was nominated seven times for Academy Awards for acting yet never won.
 Background and
education
He was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Port
Talbot and grew up in a poor, Welsh-speaking household, the 12th of 13 children.
His father was a coalminer, and his mother died after the last birth, before he was
2 years old; thenceforth a sister in Port Talbot took him into her family where he
was raised a Presbyterian.
He showed a talent for English literature at grammar school, though his consuming
interest was sport. With the assistance of his inspirational schoolmaster, Philip
H. Burton (who mentored him), he excelled in school productions. Philip could not
legally adopt Burton because their ages were too close together. . It was at this
time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his
hallmark, having been encouraged by Philip (who sidelined as a BBC radio producer)
to "lose his Welsh accent". To this day, many aspiring actors study Burton's style
of elocution which has been hailed by critics worldwide. His official website
claims that he was the highest paid actor in Hollywood during his heyday on and off
screen collaborations with fellow icon Liz Taylor and he is often ranked among the
greatest actors of all time.
There is a widespread myth (perhaps encouraged or even believed by some members of
his stoutly working-class family) that Richard Burton "won a scholarship to Oxford
at the age of sixteen" but left after six months. The facts, as recorded by Burton
himself in his autobiography and in Richard and Philip, which he co-wrote, are as
follows: At the age of sixteen, he was forced to leave school and find work as a
shop assistant. His former teacher, Philip Burton, recognising his talent, adopted
him and enabled him to return to school. In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Richard
Burton (who had now taken his teacher's surname), was allowed into Exeter College,
Oxford, for a term of six months study. This was made possible only because it was
wartime and he was an air force cadet.
Early acting
career
In the 1940s and early 1950s Burton worked on stage and in cinema in the United
Kingdom. Before his war service with the RAF, he had made his professional debut in
Liverpool, appearing in a play called Druid's Rest, but his career was interrupted
by conscription in 1944. While making his first film, The Last Days of Dolwyn in
1947, he met his future wife, the young actress Sybil Williams, and they married in
February 1949. They had two daughters, but divorced in 1963, after Burton hit the
big time. In the year of his marriage to Sybil, Burton appeared in the West End in
a highly successful production of The Lady's Not For Burning, alongside Sir John
Gielgud. He had small parts in various British films: Now Barabbas Was A Robber;
Waterfront (1950) with Robert Newton; The Woman With No Name (1951); and a bigger
part as a smuggler in Green Grow The Rushes, a B film. In the 1951 season at
Stratford , he gave a critically acclaimed performance as Prince Hal. This prompted
Alexander Korda to try to get Burton to sign a contract with him, and in 1952
Burton signed a five year contract with Korda at £100 a week.
Hollywood and later
career
In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star; on the
recommendation of Daphne du Maurier, he was given the leading role in My Cousin
Rachel opposite Olivia de Havilland. 20th Century Fox negotiated with Korda to
borrow him for this film and a further two at $50,000 a film. The film was a
critical success, and established Burton as a Hollywood leading man. In 1954, he
took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of
Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, a role he would reprise in the film version twenty
years later.
In terms of critical success, his Hollywood roles throughout the 1950s did not live
up to the early promise of his debut; however, he alternated film work with more
successful Shakespeare seasons at the Old Vic in London. Then in 1958, he was
offered the part of Jimmy Porter in the film version of John Osborne's play Look
Back in Anger, a gritty drama about middle-class life in the British Midlands.
After playing King Arthur in Camelot on Broadway, he replaced Stephen Boyd as Mark
Antony in the troubled production Cleopatra (1963). This film proved to be the
start of his most successful period in Hollywood; he would remain among the top 10
box-office earners for the next four years. During the filming, Burton met and fell
in love with Elizabeth Taylor, although the two would not be free to marry until
1965, when their respective divorces were complete. Their private lives turned out
to be an endless source of curiosity for the media, and their marriage was also the
start of a series of on-screen collaborations.
He played Taylor's tycoon husband in The V.I.P.s, an all-star film set in the VIP
lounge of London Airport which proved to be a box-office hit. After playing the
martyred archbishop of Henry II in the title role of Becket, he and Taylor had a
great success in Mike Nichols's film of the Edward Albee play Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf?, in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious
barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests, played by George Segal and
Sandy Dennis. Although all four actors received Oscar nominations for their roles
in the film, only Taylor and Dennis went on to win.
He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award - six times for Best Actor and
once for Best Supporting Actor - but never won. From 1982, he and Becket co-star
Peter O'Toole shared the record for the male actor with the most nominations (7)
for a competitive acting Oscar without ever winning. In 2007, Peter O'Toole was
unsuccessfully nominated for an eighth time, for Venus.
Late in his career, he played himself in an episode of the Television Show The Fall
Guy.
His last role in film was as the villain O'Brien in the critically acclaimed 1984
film adaptation of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In 1997, archive footage of Burton was used in the first episode of the television
series Conan.
Personal
life
Burton was married five times - twice, consecutively, to Elizabeth Taylor (15 March
1964 – 26 June 1974 and 10 October 1975 – 29 July 1976). Their second marriage
occurred sixteen months after their divorce, in the Chobe National Park, Kasane,
Botswana. The relationship between them portrayed in Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? is reputed to have been similar to Burton and Taylor's real-life
marriage.
He was an insomniac and a notoriously heavy drinker. His reputation as drinker may
have been well-earned. However, ongoing back pain and a dependence upon pain
medications have been suggested as the true cause of his misery.
His father (known as Dich Bach) also a heavy drinker, refused to acknowledge the
son's talents, achievements and acclaim. In turn, Richard declined to attend his
funeral, in 1957.
Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in 1974 for questioning the
sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II – Burton
reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese
people on the planet. Ironically, Burton had got along well with Churchill when he
met the former Prime Minister at a play in London, and kept a bust of the great
wartime leader on his mantlepiece. Burton courted further controversy in 1976 when
he wrote a controversial article about his late friend and fellow Welsh thespian
Sir Stanley Baker, who had recently died from lung cancer at the age of 49.
Burton's fourth marriage was to Suzy Hunt, ex-wife of motor racing driver James
Hunt, (maiden name Suzy Millar, whose father was a judge in Kenya) and his fifth
was to Sally Hay, a make-up artist who later became a successful novelist. While
married to Sally, he died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in
Switzerland, where he is buried. He was only 58 years old. Burton was buried in a
red suit, a tribute to his Welsh roots. He claimed in a TV interview that he had an
ongoing bet with Richard Harris that both men would wear at least one item of
clothing a day in their respective national colours (green for the Irish Harris).
In fact, his film contracts always contained the clause that he would not work on
March 1, St David's Day, the national saint's day in Wales.
Burton is sometimes erroneously referred to as "Sir Richard Burton", perhaps due to
the similarity of his assumed name to that of Sir Richard Francis Burton, but
unlike the 19th century scholar, he never received a knighthood. He was made a
Commander of the British Empire in 1970, but this honour did not entitle him to the
honorific "Sir."
The actor Brook Williams remained Burton's best friend through most of his
life.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com
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Richard Burton
CBE - Reflector - Biography
