Richard Burton 1925 – 1984

Biography

Richard Burton was a Welsh actor celebrated as one of the great stage performers of his generation and a magnetic film star. Born Richard Jenkins in the mining village of Pontrhydyfen in 1925, he was adopted by his schoolteacher mentor and took the name Burton. He made his name in Shakespeare, notably as Hamlet, and became a leading actor with the Old Vic and on Broadway. His film career brought seven Academy Award nominations, for roles in My Cousin Rachel, The Robe, Becket, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Anne of the Thousand Days, and Equus. His tempestuous marriages to Elizabeth Taylor, his co-star in Cleopatra, made him a fixture of celebrity culture. He died in Switzerland in 1984 at the age of fifty-eight.