Richard Burton

Burton is sometimes erroneously referred to as "Sir Richard Burton", perhaps due to the similarity of his assumed name to that of Richard Francis Burton, but unlike the 19th century scholar, he never received a knighthood. He achieved immortality by appearing on one of a series of United States postage stamps portraying movie monsters, as the Wolf Man, in 1977. Burton appears in the 2002 List of "100 Great Britons" (sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public). He maintained a strong career in horror movies, playing all four of the classic horror roles -- the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), The Mummy in The Mummy's Tomb (1942) and (the son of) Dracula in Son of Dracula (1943). He was only 58 years old. In 1941 he starred in the title role of The Wolf Man, the characterization which would be his stereotypical role for the rest of his life. Burton died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Switzerland, where he is buried. He did not achieve stardom until the 1939 feature film version of Of Mice and Men, in which he played Lennie Small.

Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in 1974 for questioning the sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II--Burton reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese people on the planet. His first movie was an uncredited role in the 1932 film Girl Crazy. The film is reputed to have been similar to Burton and Taylor's real-life marriage. He did not take any movie roles until after his father's death. Burton and Taylor played opposite each other in Mike Nichols's film of the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests. But he also studied makeup under his father. An insomniac and notoriously heavy drinker, Burton was married five times - twice, consecutively, to Elizabeth Taylor. He worked menial jobs in order to make his own way.

In 1954, he took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of Under Milk Wood, a role he would reprise in the film version twenty years later. Chaney worked hard to avoid his father's shadow. In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to Hollywood star, appearing in My Cousin Rachel opposite Olivia de Havilland. Chaney was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and died in San Clemente, California. This was made possible only because it was wartime and he was an air force cadet. He was born Creighton Tull Chaney, and was first credited as "Lon Chaney, Jr." in 1935, as a studio marketing ploy. In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Richard Burton (who had now taken his teacher's surname), was allowed into Exeter College for a term of six months study. Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 - July 12, 1973) was an American character actor, well-known mainly for his roles in monster movies and as the son of his better-known father, Lon Chaney.

His former teacher, Philip Burton, recognising his talent, adopted him and enabled him to return to school. The facts, as recorded by Burton himself in his own autobiography and in Richard and Philip, which he co-wrote, are as follows: At the age of sixteen, he was forced to leave school and find work as a shop assistant. There is a widespread myth (perhaps encouraged or even believed by some members of his stoutly working-class family) that Richard Burton "won a scholarship to Oxford at the age of sixteen" but left after six months. It was at this time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his hallmark, having been encouraged by Philip (who sidelined as a BBC radio producer) to "lose his Welsh accent".

With the assistance of his inspirational schoolmaster, Philip H Burton (who legally adopted him), he excelled in school productions. He was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Port Talbot.
Richard Burton (November 10, 1925 - August 5, 1984) was a Welsh actor from the late 1940s through the 1980s. For the 19th-century explorer, scholar, and orientalist, see Richard Francis Burton..

This article is about the 20th-century actor. 1984 (1984) - (his final screen appearance) (see also: Nineteen Eighty-Four (novel)). Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
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