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Welsh Celebrities & Personalities

Burton, Richard (1925-1984)

British actor, noted for his Shakespearean stage performances and for his collaborations with Elizabeth Taylor, whom he married twice. Born Richard Walter Jenkins in Pontrhydyfen, Wales, he attended Oxford University and served in the Royal Air Force. Burton had great success on the stage and in films. He was particularly noted for his performances between 1953 and 1954 at the Old Vic Theatre in London in such Shakespearean plays as Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, and Othello. Other stage performances included his début in Emlyn William's Druid's Rest (1944) and later roles in The Lady's Not for Burning (1949) and The Boy with a Cart (1950). Burton's films include My Cousin Rachel (1952), Alexander the Great (1956), Look Back in Anger (1959), Becket (1964), and The Night of the Iguana (1964). He was married five times, twice to Elizabeth Taylor (1964-1974, 1975-1976), with whom he appeared in such films as Cleopatra (1963), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). In 1983 Burton made his final appearance on the New York stage in a revival of Private Lives, co-starring with Taylor. His last film role was in 1984 in the screen version of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell.