Line #60 Creator/RichardBurton


1	[[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/z_burton_9077.jpg]]
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3	->''"I'm a reader, you know. I was corrupted by Faust. And Creator/WilliamShakespeare. And Creator/MarcelProust. And Creator/ErnestHemingway. But mostly I was corrupted by Creator/DylanThomas. Most people see me as a rake, womaniser, boozer and purchaser of large baubles. I'm all those things depending on the prism and the light. But mostly I'm a reader. Give me Creator/AgathaChristie for an hour and I'm happy as a clam. The house in Celigny some day will cave in under its own weight from the books. I hope I'm there when it does. One hundred and six years old. Investigating the newest thriller from Creator/JohnLeCarre or a new play from Creator/TennesseeWilliams."''
4	-->-- '''Richard Burton'''
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6	Richard Burton [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever CBE]] (born Richard Walter Jenkins JR.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. He was nominated for seven UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s without ever winning (His old drinking buddy Creator/PeterOToole takes the gold with ''eight'' nominations). On stage, he played Arthur in the original production of ''Theatre/{{Camelot}}'' and won high acclaim from critics and audiences for his performances of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's plays, particularly his ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' and ''Theatre/{{Coriolanus}}'' at the Old Vic Theatre in the 1950s.
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8	In addition to his stage and screen roles, he's also known for providing the voice for The Journalist in Jeff Wayne's musical version of ''[[Music/JeffWaynesMusicalVersionOfTheWarOfTheWorlds The War of the Worlds]]''.
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10	Burton was also famous for his marriages to Creator/ElizabethTaylor. They met on the set of ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' and engaged in an affair, which resulted him in leaving his first wife Sybil Williams, for Taylor. They married in 1964, divorced in 1974, remarried in 1975, and divorced again in 1976. After his second marriage to Taylor ended, he later married twice more, to Suzy Hunt (1976-1982) and Sally Hay (1983-1984).
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12	His daughter Creator/KateBurton is also an actress, they appeared together in two made for television movies.
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14	On August 5, 1984, after years of alcoholism, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 58.
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16	He's often mistakenly referred to as Sir Richard Burton, although he was never knighted. This could partly be due to confusion with (the unrelated) Sir Richard Francis Burton, the 19th Century British explorer and author.
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18	No relation with Creator/TimBurton.
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20	He ended at #96 in ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''.
21	----
22	!!His film roles included:
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24	* Philip Ashley in ''Film/MyCousinRachel1952'' (1952)
25	* "Tammy" [=MacRoberts=] in ''Film/TheDesertRats'' (1953)
26	* Marcellus Gallio in ''Film/TheRobe'' (1953)
27	* Alexander in ''Film/AlexanderTheGreat1956''
28	* Heathcliff in ''Literature/WutheringHeights'' (1956 TV)
29	* Jimmy Porter in ''Film/LookBackInAnger'' (1959)
30	* Caliban in ''Theatre/TheTempest'' (1960 TV)
31	* Richard Campbell in ''Film/TheLongestDay'' (1962)
32	* Mark Antony in ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' (1963)
33	* Paul Andros in ''Film/TheVIPs'' (1963)
34	* Thomas Becket in ''Film/{{Becket}}'' (1964)
35	* Rev. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon in ''Film/TheNightOfTheIguana'' (1964)
36	* Narrator in ''Film/{{Zulu}}'' (1964)
37	* Hamlet in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (1964 - Filmed Stage Play)
38	* Alec Leamas in ''Literature/TheSpyWhoCameInFromTheCold'' (1965)
39	* George in ''Film/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf'' (1966)
40	* Brown in ''Film/{{The Comedians\|1967}}''
41	* Petruchio in ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' (1967)
42	* Maj. Jonathan Smith in ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'' (1968)
43	* Henry VIII in ''Film/AnneOfTheThousandDays'' (1969)
44	* Baron Kurt von Sepper in ''[[Film/Bluebeard1972 Bluebeard]]'' (1972)
45	* Breck Stancill in ''Film/TheKlansman'' (1974)
46	* Father Philip Lamont in ''Film/ExorcistIITheHeretic'' (1977)
47	* Dr. Martin Dysart in ''Theatre/{{Equus}}'' (1977)
48	* Father Goddard in ''Film/{{Absolution}}'' (1978)
49	* Col. Allen Faulkner in ''Film/TheWildGeese'' (1978)
50	* John Morlar in ''Film/TheMedusaTouch'' (1978)
51	* Music/RichardWagner in ''Series/{{Wagner}}'' (1983 TV)
52	* The White Knight in ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' (1983 TV - Broadcast Stage Play)
53	* O'Brien in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' (1984)
54	----
55	!!Tropes:
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57	* TheAlcoholic: Famously one of the drinking foursome with Creator/PeterOToole, Creator/RichardHarris and Creator/OliverReed.
58	* AlcoholicParent: He described his father as a "twelve-pints-a-day man" who sometimes went off on drinking and gambling sprees for weeks, and that "he looked very much like me".
59	* BaritoneOfStrength: He had a truly magnificent voice that helped in his portrayals of both heroic or overbearing and menacing characters. Burton's voice became deeper as he got older, due in no small part to his excessive drinking and smoking.
60	* TheCasanova: Tended to play these, and was one in real-life especially during his younger days.
61	* CreatorCouple: Appeared in many films with his wife Creator/ElizabethTaylor.
62	* MoneyDearBoy: The seven-time Oscar nominee, and most acclaimed Shakespearean actor of his era, also starred in the following second-rate movies: ''The Sand Pipers'', ''Boom!'', ''Staircase'', ''Hammersmith is Out'', ''Candy'', ''The Assassination of Trotsky'', ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'', ''Film/Bluebeard1972'', ''Film/TheKlansman'' and ''Film/ExorcistIITheHeretic''. Presumably Burton just did many of these roles for the paycheck, though he also once claimed that doing a film, no matter how bad, gave him something to do in the morning other than drink. On the other hand, Burton had a tendency to [[TookTheBadFilmSeriously take even bad films seriously]], which decidedly invoked {{Narm}}y results.
63	-->'''Burton''': [[HamAndCheese If you're going to make rubbish, be the best rubbish in it]].
64	* RagsToRiches: He grew up in poverty in a Welsh mining village. Acting saved him from working down a coal mine.
65	* ShakespearianActors: Quite an accomplished one, though almost exclusively on stage. He only made two Shakespeare films: ''Film/{{Hamlet}}'' (1964), essentially a recording of his Broadway performance in that role, and ''Theatre/TheTamingOfTheShrew'' (1967) opposite his then-wife Creator/ElizabethTaylor. He also appeared as Caliban in a highly abridged made-for-television production of ''Theatre/TheTempest''.
66	* {{Typecasting}}: Burton appeared in several films as a troubled priest struggling with his faith and with morality, e.g. ''Film/{{Becket}}'', ''Film/TheNightOfTheIguana'', ''Film/ExorcistIITheHeretic'', and ''Film/{{Absolution}}''. His role in ''Theatre/{{Equus}}'', while a psychiatrist rather than a priest, is of a similar nature, since his character makes an explicit analogy between the role of psychiatrists today and that of holy men in ancient times.

Context Creator / RichardBurton