Not long ago was the 40th anniversary of the passing of Richard Burton, who died in 1984. Acclaimed as an outstanding actor on stage and screen he had 79 screen credits and at one time jointly held the record with Peter O’Toole for the number of Best Actor Oscar nominations without winning. Burton was nominated for My Cousin Rachel 1952 (won Golden Globe), The Robe 1953, Becket 1964, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1965 (won BATFA), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf 1966 (won BAFTA), Anne of the Thousand Days 1969, Equus 1977 (won Golden Globe), had an Emmy nomination for Ellis Island 1984, and also BAFTA nominations for Look Back in Anger 1959 & The Taming of the Shrew 1967, with six other Golden Globe nominations amongst the foregoing; also known for Alexander the Great 1956, The Longest Day 1962, Cleopatra 1963, Hamlet 1964, Where Eagles Dare 1968, The Wild Geese 1978 & 1984 - in 1984! He is of course also renowned for his two marriages and divorces with Elizabeth Taylor, the top celebrity couple of their time. Born in Pontrhydyfen [later frequented Miners’ Arms PH], Afan Valley, Neath Port Talbot as Richard Jenkins, he grew up Taibach, Glamorgan, Wales [lived Caradoc Street] brought up by his eldest sister; educated at Port Talbot Secondary School, a teacher Philip Burton became his mentor, whose name he took as he started out. Was a staunch rugby fan and in his early years a promising wing-forward, and with that distinctive voice often showed his love for poetry; he gained a scholarship to Oxford University for a 6-month wartime short course at Exeter College, [also training as a navigator RAF in Torquay & Canada but war ended before any active service, though served in Norfolk, Gloucestershire & Wiltshire] but did not return on demob (though through career supported St Peter’s College) instead began acting, in early career coming to London and lived in South Kensington, then Lyndhurst Road, Belsize Park, Hampstead, Camden from 1949-57 during first marriage, having great critical successes in Shakespeare roles at the Old Vic, being remembered too onstage as part of the “British New Wave” and in 1961 won a Tony for King Arthur in Camelot. [Early 60s bought house in Squire’s Mount, on edge of Hampstead Heath for first wife & children; 1963 on divorce she took children to New York]; 1965 Burton/Taylor lived Carolwood Drive, Holmby Hills, Bel Air filming Woolf; 1966 filming Shrew had a villa on Via Appia Antica in Rome. He was made a CBE in 1970; was the Narrator for Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds 1976; he had two homes at different times in [Casa Kimberley] Puerto Vallarta, Mexico [loved beach Mismaloya; in the province of Jalisco] but from 1957 his home [Le Pays de Galles, Wales in French] was in Céligny, Geneva, Switzerland [apart from temporarily Chalet Ariel, Gstaad in the early stages of affair with Taylor], where he passed aged 58 and he is interred at the Protestant churchyard there. Regular visitor South & North Moreton, Oxon; also lived for periods in Evian, France; Monte Carlo; Hawaii; Beverly Hills; Malibu; San Felipe; 1971 for films Fishguard, Pembrokeshire (UnderMilkwood) & Cuernavaca, Mexico (Hammersmith is Out); early years Sunset Towers apartment hotel, Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles; 1973 Dubrovnik & Sarajevo (The Battle of Sutjeska); 70s lived Quogue, Long Island, then for The Voyage (filmed Sicily) with Loren at their estate near Marino, Lazio; remarried Taylor in Serendella, Chobe, Botswana, Southern Africa; married Susan Hunt in Arlington, Virginia 1976, they bought a property in Antigua; 1983 bought Habitation Courvoisier, l’Etang du Jone, Petionville in Haiti. A Burton Taylor studio was added to the Oxford University Playhouse. We hope you accept a match and if the numbers or ratings do not suit, then please make contact.
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