Richard Burton Biography Quotes 16 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. on 10 November 1925 in the coal-mining village of Pontrhydyfen, near Port Talbot, Wales. The twelfth of thirteen children of miner Richard Walter Jenkins Sr. and Edith Maude (née Thomas), he grew up in a tight-knit, working-class Welsh community steeped in chapel culture and rugby. His mother died when he was very young, and he was largely brought up by his elder sister Cecilia ("Cis") and her husband, Elfed James, in nearby Taibach. At Port Talbot Secondary School he met the charismatic schoolmaster Philip Burton, who recognized the boy's formidable intelligence and musical, resonant voice. Philip became mentor, coach, and later legal guardian, shaping the young actor's diction and intellectual ambitions and eventually lending him the surname by which he would become famous.

Training, War Service, and Stage Beginnings
As the Second World War intensified, Burton left school and, encouraged by Philip, pursued acting alongside odd jobs and early BBC radio work. In 1944 he entered the Royal Air Force as a navigator trainee, spending time in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. He read voraciously during his service, cultivating a lifelong love of poetry, especially Dylan Thomas, and history. Demobilized in 1947, he returned to the stage with new discipline and a commanding presence. Early theatrical engagements included work with Emlyn Williams, who also cast him in Burton's film debut, The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), and stints with the Old Vic, where he began building a reputation as a Shakespearean actor of rare power.

Breakthrough on Stage and Screen
Burton's West End and Broadway breakthroughs arrived in quick succession. In 1951 he co-starred in Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning, opposite John Gielgud and Claire Bloom, attracting immediate notice for his wit and vocal authority. Film success followed with My Cousin Rachel (1952), opposite Olivia de Havilland, earning him his first Academy Award nomination, and The Robe (1953), Hollywood's first CinemaScope epic, which brought him international fame and another Oscar nomination. Even as he embraced film, Burton remained a formidable stage presence, alternating Shakespeare (Hamlet, Henry V, Coriolanus) with modern plays, and drawing praise from figures such as Gielgud, who would later direct him in a celebrated Broadway Hamlet.

Hollywood Stardom
By the early 1960s Burton was among the world's most bankable stars. He balanced art-house prestige with popular adventure: Becket (1964), with Peter O'Toole, confirmed his strength in historical drama; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), directed by Martin Ritt, showed his capacity for weary, layered subtlety and won him a BAFTA; and the visceral war thriller Where Eagles Dare (1968), alongside Clint Eastwood, cemented his appeal to mass audiences. He achieved a rare trifecta, stage, art cinema, and blockbuster films, without losing the sonorous, rhetorical style that made him unique.

Partnership with Elizabeth Taylor
Burton's most famous and tumultuous partnership was with Elizabeth Taylor, whom he met while filming the extravagant Cleopatra (1963), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Their romance, beginning while both were married to others, became an international spectacle. Married in 1964, they formed a legendary acting duo, appearing in The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, directed by Mike Nichols), The Taming of the Shrew (1967, directed by Franco Zeffirelli), and Boom! (1968), among others. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? remains a towering achievement: Taylor won an Academy Award; Burton received a nomination for his ferocious, wounded George. The couple adopted a daughter, Maria, and Burton was stepfather to Taylor's children from previous marriages. Their first marriage ended in 1974; they remarried in 1975 and divorced again in 1976. Their relationship, marked by extravagant gifts (including the famed Taylor-Burton diamond), yachts, travel, and very public quarrels, helped define the era's celebrity culture.

Stage Triumphs: Camelot and Hamlet
Though Hollywood made him a global star, Burton cherished the theater. He originated King Arthur in the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot on Broadway in 1960, opposite Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet, shaping the role with melancholy nobility and renewing interest in the Arthurian myth for a new generation. In 1964 he returned to Broadway as Hamlet, in a modern-dress production directed by John Gielgud. The run became a sensation and was preserved in a rare "theatrofilm" recording, introducing Burton's searching, introspective prince to a vast audience. He later revisited King Arthur in a hugely successful late-career revival and tour around 1980, 81.

Later Career: Risks, Misfires, and Enduring Highlights
Burton's later filmography is eclectic. He delivered acclaimed performances in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) as Henry VIII and in Equus (1977), directed for the screen by Sidney Lumet, earning further Academy Award nominations. He also embraced popular fare, from adventure pieces like The Wild Geese (1978), with Richard Harris and Roger Moore, to supernatural thrillers such as The Medusa Touch (1978). Not all choices were successful, Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) was widely panned, but he continued to seek challenging roles, notably portraying the composer in the epic miniseries Wagner (1983) and, in his final film, O'Brien in Michael Radford's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), opposite John Hurt. That last, austere performance, cold, elegant, and chilling, appeared posthumously.

Personal Life and Relationships
Before his marriages to Elizabeth Taylor, Burton married actress Sybil Williams (later known as Sybil Christopher) in 1949; they had two daughters, Kate (who became a successful actress) and Jessica. After his second divorce from Taylor, he married the model Suzy Miller in 1976; they divorced in 1982. In 1983 he married Sally Hay, who remained with him until his death. Around him, a constellation of colleagues and friends shaped his life and art: mentor Philip Burton; fellow Welshmen like actor and producer Stanley Baker; directors John Gielgud, Martin Ritt, and Franco Zeffirelli; and co-stars including Peter O'Toole, Claire Bloom, Clint Eastwood, and Julie Andrews. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970.

Voice, Craft, and Character
Burton's hallmark was his voice: a dark-honey baritone capable of both oratorical thunder and intimate confession. He read widely, quoted poetry with ease, and brought a scholar's curiosity to roles ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary drama. His diaries, later published, reveal a restless, self-critical mind, affection for books, and ambivalence about fame. Though he could seem regal on screen, he never shed the sensibility of a Welsh miner's son, championing Dylan Thomas and returning often to Welsh material, notably narrating and later appearing in Under Milk Wood (1972) with Taylor and Peter O'Toole.

Health, Final Years, and Death
Years of heavy drinking, shared by a cohort of hard-living contemporaries, took a toll on Burton's health. He continued to work frequently, maintained homes in Switzerland (partly for privacy), and tried periodically to moderate his habits. On 5 August 1984 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Céligny, Switzerland, aged 58. He was laid to rest in the local cemetery, his grave marked with a simple headstone and a spray of red roses, an austere ending for a life lived at operatic pitch.

Honors and Awards
Burton received seven Academy Award nominations without a win, among the most for any actor: My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Robe (1953), Becket (1964), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), and Equus (1977). He won a BAFTA for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and earned multiple Tony Award honors during his stage career. Even when awards eluded him, peers and critics recognized the authority, intelligence, and magnetism of his performances.

Legacy
Richard Burton stands as one of the 20th century's definitive actors, an artist whose Welsh roots, classical rigor, and cinematic charisma combined to create a singular presence. He bridged stage and screen with rare assurance; helped redefine celebrity through his partnership with Elizabeth Taylor; and left indelible interpretations of Shakespeare, modern classics, and historical figures. For later generations, actors such as Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis among them, Burton's legacy is a reminder that a great actor's instrument is not only face and body but also language: shaped, savored, and spoken with conviction.

Our collection contains 16 quotes who is written by Richard, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Wisdom - Truth - Writing - Work.

Other people realated to Richard: Edward Albee (Dramatist), Alan Jay Lerner (Dramatist), Jean Anouilh (Playwright), Peter Shaffer (Playwright), Anthony Hopkins (Actor), John Huston (Director), James Earl Jones (Actor), Red Buttons (Comedian), Oliver Reed (Actor), Liz Smith (Journalist)

• Richard Burton children: Kate Burton (biological); Maria Burton (adopted)
• Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor: Married twice (1964–74, 1975–76); frequent co-stars, including Cleopatra and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Richard Burton cause of death: Cerebral hemorrhage (1984)
• Richard Burton movies: Cleopatra; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Becket; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; The Lion in Winter; Equus; 1984
• Richard Burton spouse: Sybil Williams; Elizabeth Taylor (twice); Susan Hunt (Suzy Miller); Sally Hay (Sally Burton)
• How old was Richard Burton? He became 58 years old

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