Richard
Walter Jenkins was born on the 10th November
1925 in Pontrhydyfen in South Wales. He was the son
of an alcoholic miner and the twelfth of thirteen
children. It was one of his teachers, Philip Burton,
who saw potential in Richard and helped him win a
scholarship to Oxford University when he was 16 years
old. He adopted his former teachers surname and began
acting as a professional in 1943. Few could have predicted
that a man from such humble beginnings would go on
to be one of the twentieth Centuries most renowned
actors and drinkers.
It's clear that Burton is a screen
legend. Films such as "Beckett", "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Wolf?", and "1984"
display Burton's acting prowess in all its majestic
glory. His marriage to Elizabeth Taylor demonstrated
his enormous powers as a consumer of alcohol. They
met in 1963 on the set of "Cleopatra" and
married in Montreal in 1964. During the sixties Richard
was drinking up to two bottles of vodka a day and
Liz was doing her best to keep up with him. The pair
had a very volatile relationship and the intensity
of their brawling matched that of their drinking.
By 1972 the fights and the booze had taken their toll.
They divorced in 1974 but remarried in 1975. With
the relationship back on the heavy drinking began
anew. The second stint at wedded bliss only lasted
a few months and by 1976 it was all over.
Burton died of a brain hemorrhage
in 1984 after sharing the silver screen with that
other drinking legend John Hurt in the film dramatization
of George Orwell's "1984". The irony here
is obvious. If only Orwell had called his book 1994.
Perhaps poor old Dickie might have lived another decade.
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