Short Biography

Richard Burton, CBE (10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh multiple award-winning actor. He was at one time the highest-paid actor in Hollywood.

Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen, Wales, UK, near Port Talbot. He grew up in a working-class, Welsh-speaking household, the twelfth of thirteen children. His father was a short, robust coal miner, a “twelve-pints a-day man” who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks. Burton later claimed, by family telling, that “He looked very much like me...That is, he was pockmarked, devious, and smiled a great deal when he was in trouble. He was, also, a man of extraordinary eloquence, tremendous passion, great violence”.

Burton`s mother, Edith, died after the last birth, before he was two years old. In 1927, his sister Cecilia `Cis` and her husband Elfed, in nearby Port Talbot (an English-speaking steel town) took him into her mining family where he was raised a Presbyterian and remained for many years. Burton said later that his sister became “more mother to me than any mother could have ever been...I was immensely proud of her…she felt all tragedies except her own”. His father would make occasional appearances at the homes of his grown sisters but was otherwise absent. Also formative in his early life was his older brother Ifor, nineteen years his senior, who became Burton`s idol and protector. A miner and rugby star, Ifor would continue to be a close companion later in Burton`s life.

Burton showed a talent for English and Welsh literature at grammar school, and demonstrated an excellent memory, though his consuming interest was sports—rugby, cricket, and table tennis. He later said, “I would rather have played for Wales at Cardiff Arms Park than Hamlet at Old Vic”. He earned pocket money by running messages, hauling horse manure, and delivering newspapers. He started to smoke at age eight and drink regularly at twelve. With the inspiration of his schoolmaster, Philip H. Burton, he excelled in school productions, his first being The Apple Cart. Philip could not legally adopt Burton because their age difference was one shy of the minimum twenty years required. Burton early on displayed an excellent speaking and singing voice and won an eisteddfod prize as a boy soprano. Burton left school at sixteen for full-time work. He worked for the local wartime Co-Operative committee, handing out supplies in exchange for coupons, but then considered other professions for his future, including boxing, religion, and singing. When Burton joined the Port Talbot Squadron of the Air Training Corps as a cadet, he re-encountered Philip Burton, his former teacher, who was the commander. Richard also joined a youth drama group led by Leo Lloyd, a steel worker and avid amateur thespian, who taught him the fundamentals of acting.

Philip Burton, recognizing Richard`s talent, then adopted him as his ward and Richard returned to school, and, being older than most of the boys, he was very attractive to some of the girls. Philip Burton later said, “Richard was my son to all intents and purposes. I was committed to him”. Philip Burton tutored his charge intensely in school subjects and also worked at developing the youth`s acting voice, including outdoor voice drills which improved his projection. 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

Miscellaneous Information

Friends and Family

Philip H. Burton [Father]

David Niven [Friend]

Peter O`Toole [Friend]

Richard Harris [Friend]

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