Rich Fact
At Hollywood parties Burton used to silence guests by reciting speeches from Henry IV and V backwards or in Welsh.
At Hollywood parties Burton used to silence guests by reciting speeches from Henry IV and V backwards or in Welsh.
At the height of the Burton-Taylor publicity, Burton had to exercise his dogs on the roof of the New York building they were rehearsing Hamlet in.
The chairman of the House of Immigration Subcommittee asked the State Department to revoke Mr Burtons visa because he was detrimental to the moral youth of our nation.
Richard Burton was the youngest Henry V in Radio (1949).
Together with Peter OToole, Richard Burton holds the record for the most Oscar nominations (seven) without a single win.
In 1949, on £20 per week for The Ladys Not For Burning, Richard bought 42 seats for 42 Welsh miners and his family to watch the play.
He was given the only present he ever wanted - a complete edition of the Everyman Library. Five hundred volumes, all rebound in graduating shades of leather.
Richard was made an honorary fellow of St Peters College, Oxford in 1975.
He said of his talent: I dont know what it is. If I ever started to know I might lose it.
If you are going to make rubbish, be the best rubbish in it.
He said of Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Cleopatra: I didnt realize that she was so fucking famous.
Frank Rich, New York Times drama critic: The actor doesnt merely command the stage he seems to own it by divine right. Camelot revival, July 1980.
I rather like my reputation actually, that of a spoiled genius from the Welsh gutter, a drunk, a womanizer: its rather an attractive image..
My idea of a good living is to buy a mine in Wales. Ill get all my brothers to work for me and the money will roll in forever..
I live in Switzerland for the security.
Everybody should pay them (taxes) except actors.
A critic said of his 1964 Hamlet: One of the greatest actors in one of the greatest roles at the peak of his career.
When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didnt know how to play them when I was drunk.
Laurence Olivier to Richard at the height of the scandal surrounding his affair with Elizabeth Taylor: make up your mind, dear heart. Do you want to be a great actor or a household word? Both he replied.
Ive done the most awful rubbish in order to have somewhere to go in the morning.
I would rather have played for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at The Old Vic.
All great art comes from people who are either ugly or have a terrible inferiority complex. I know no one who is beautiful and produces art.
Two-and-a-half to three bottles of hard liquor a day... fascinating idea, of course, drink on that scale. Its rather nice to have gone through it and to have survived.
Richard Burton on Sybil Williams: Ive met this marvelous girl.
Richard Burton on Elizabeth Taylor: The most astonishingly self-contained, pulchritudinous, remote, removed, inaccessible woman I have ever seen.
Richard Burton on Susan Hunt: I turned around and there was this beautiful creature about nine feet tall. She could stop a stampede.
Richard Burton on Sally Hay: Dear Sally, or dearest Sally or most beloved Sally or undo-without-able-Sally or lovely Sally... dress up for me this evening or rather dress down and lets see what happens.
From a mining village in South Wales to the jet-set lifestyle of Hollywood, his beloved career in theatre and Oscar nominations. Rarely out the spotlight, Burton lived life at full throttle.
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Once Richard Burton realized his great ability to act he relentlessly exercised his talents in the mediums of stage, screen, television, radio and commercial recordings.
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This website is the definitive collation of the body of Burton’s work and is The Official Richard Burton Website. Acknowledgements and further reading supplement the information contained in this website.
Photo © Scope Features Ltd