This Monday, November 10, marks the centenary of the birth of the Welsh star, with the BBC paying a well-deserved tribute by premiering the movie Mr. Burton, starring Toby Jones and Harry Lawtey, and the documentary Richard Burton: Wild Genius. This latter would not have been possible without the generous contribution of his family, especially from his daughter Kate (68) -from his first marriage to actress and entrepreneur Sybil Williams, whom he left to live his tumultuous relationship with Elizabeth Taylor- and from his widow and fourth wife, Sally Hay (77).
This new film document offers an unprecedented account of Richard Burton, showcasing home video recordings, letters, photographs, interviews, and excerpts from his exclusive diaries read by some friends and colleagues like Sîan Phillips (92), Claire Bloom (94), or Gabriel Byrne (75).
Before coming of age, Burton also sold newspapers that neighbors saved for him to the shops that used them to wrap fish and chips, and at 14, as Burton himself confesses, he worked in a haberdashery: "I hated it. It was a job for women. Discouraging. I sold underpants and T-shirts."
He never studied acting; in his early days, he focused on theater, and from a mentor, Philip Burton, he took his last name (his real name was Richard Walter Jenkins). Philip guided him towards success, thus avoiding the hard work his father and some of his brothers did in the mines of Pontrhydyfen (Wales). His close friend, actor John Neville, recalls that when Burton became famous, "he was obsessed with getting them out of the mine, which he eventually did. It was the goal he had set for himself. He wanted to earn money to get them out of that situation." And he bought a house for each of his 11 siblings. His mother could not enjoy the benefits, as she passed away when he was two years old.
He made his theater debut in 1943, but it wasn't until the early 1950s, thanks to the Old Vic in London and his Shakespearean works, that he achieved stardom. During that time, another good friend, the legendary British actor Sir John Gielgud, began to notice his magnetism: "He had several romances with people involved in the play. It was evident that he had tremendous charm. Just by turning his head to the audience and looking at them with his blue eyes, they were immediately captivated."
One of his nieces, Rhianon, highlights that "Rich never got into any fights. He was impatient, always correcting us." He never forgot his roots. He frequently visited his small village and loved meeting with childhood friends at the pub.
His most glorious period was with Elizabeth Taylor, the most famous woman of the time, whom he married twice. Both were unfaithful to their respective partners during the filming of Cleopatra (1963), sparking one of the most intense love stories in cinema. They couldn't live together, but they couldn't be apart either.
This was a tough blow for Burton's first wife, Sybil Williams, from whom he divorced 60 years ago. In the documentary, his daughter Kate expresses that for her mother, "that part of her life was over and she saw no point in continuing to be friends or trying to maintain a civilized friendship."
The director of this classic film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, revealed that he sensed something strange between them. Elizabeth earned a million dollars per film, while he earned 75,000 dollars, and suddenly, Burton told Mankiewicz, "She will make me a lot of money." And indeed, she did.
In the volcanic Taylor-Burton marriage, filled with alcohol and fights, reconciliations were always the best part. Taylor managed to get Burton to also earn a million dollars per film, allowing him to treat her like a queen. The actor bought her the 33.19-carat Krupp diamond for 307,000 dollars in 1968; a year later, he outbid Onassis in an auction for a 69.42-carat pear-shaped diamond for 1.05 million dollars and also purchased the Peregrina pearl, which had belonged to the Bourbons and was auctioned for 11.8 million dollars in 2011 after the death of the actress with violet eyes.
That obsession and display of luxury - yacht and private plane, mansions on several continents, an army of bodyguards - were harshly criticized by his colleague, Lauren Bacall: "It seems obscene to me. There are people dying in the world. Who the hell lives like that and buys all that? It seems outrageous (...) I think he didn't understand how friendship, love, or affection worked."
After five marriages and various theatrical and film jewels like Henry V, The Tempest,Private Lives, The Robe, or Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Richard Burton passed away in 1984 at the age of 59 in Celigny, Switzerland, due to a cerebral hemorrhage.