Richard Burton details
- Born Richard Walter Jenkins, November 10, 1925, Pontrhydyfen, Wales, UK.
- Died August 5, 1984, Céligny, Switzerland.
- Spouses: Sybil Williams, Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Miller (Suzy Hunt) and Sally Hay.
- Twelfth of 13 children, brothers and father were coal miners.
More bio data
- Awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1970 Queen’s
- Won a Grammy in the “Best Recording for Children” category for “The Little Prince”.
- Was to star in Dino De Laurentiis’ Waterloo as Napoleon, but was replaced by Rod Steiger, as was John Huston as director by Sergey Bondarchuk.
- Nominated 7 times for the Oscar, but never won.
Introduction
Richard Burton, his real name was Richard Walter Jenkins, was born on November 10, 1925, in Pontrhydyfen, Wales; died on August 5, 1984, in Céligny, Switzerland. He was a British actor nominated seven times for the Oscar that otherwise won innumerable other important awards.
Known and remembered for his deep voice and penetrating gaze, he initially started off as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s , he was known as “the natural successor of Laurence Olivier” a comparison he was very proud of, and gave an unforgettable performance of Hamlet on Broadway in 1964, directed by John Gielgud [1].
He managed to give his roles ease, force and enthusiasm and made his handling of things realistic.
He is considered one of the most important actors of his generation and film history.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor 1963
In the same way, you can’t think of John Lennon without Yoko Ono, we cannot remember Richard Burton without Elizabeth Taylor. This actor was the best option for incarnating male roles during the 50s and late 60s.
Richard Burton definitely left a great legacy for the next generations. Even today, he is a reference for all students of elocution due to his distinctive voice that became his hallmark.
He was born in Wales, United Kingdom, on November 10, 1925, and died in Switzerland on August 5, 1984.
His original name was Richard Walter Jenkins, but he changed his name in honor of Philip Burton, his guardian and foster parent.
Ava Gardner and Richard Burton 1963
Leonardo DiCaprio, at one time, seemed to share his unfortunate fate on filmmaking, because despite Burton’s 7 Oscar nominations as best actor, he failed to win any of them. However, this did not stop him from standing out in film history.
While acting was his profession, reading was his passion; a great lover of Shakespeare, as he proved with his brilliant interpretation of Hamlet at the Old Vic in 1953 [1].
As mentioned above, recapitulating the history of this actor, we can see the mention of Elizabeth Taylor on several occasions, who was his great love and whom he married and divorced on two different occasions.
The two of them met when they starred in the movie”Cleopatra”. Elizabeth Taylor epitomized the last queen of ancient Egypt, while Richard Burton had the role of Mark Antony, the friend of Julius Caesar and Queen Cleopatra’s lover.
Sue Lyon and Richard Burton 1963
Richard Burton & Puerto Vallarta
Being one of the greatest actors of the moment, John Huston invited Richard Burton to star in the movie “The Night of the Iguana” in which he would play Lawrence Shannon, a retired and alcoholic pastor, who after being accused of sexually abusing a minor, emigrated to Mexico, where he works as a tour guide; as the story develops, he ends up involved with three women, Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner) Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon) and Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr).
Burton with the cast of The Night of the Iguana
The film was shot in Mismaloya south of Puerto Vallarta in 1963, at the time an isolated coastal fishing village, but it captivated Richard and Elizabeth, who stood by his side throughout the filming despite not being part of the movie’s cast. Along with them, a horde of paparazzi arrived, who remained expectant for any opportunity to grab a photo of the happy couple and the supposedly inevitable scandals that would brew among all these stars.
Shannon, at the end of his rope
When Burton first heard Deborah Kerr and Sue Lyon say Mismaloya would be a “dry” set, he was horrified: “Whoever heard of a location site without a bar?” Assistant director Tom Shaw remembered him drinking beer at seven in the morning, and by the end of the day a case of it. He also discovered raicilla, the local agave spirit: “If you drink it straight down, you can feel it going into each individual intestine.” Huston’s explanation was that the distillery “left the needles in.”
Two on-set moments are worth retelling. During a scene on the town’s streets the bus driven by Skip Ward got too close to a crumbling cliff edge and the cast scrambled off. And for the climax, when Shannon frees the iguana, the reluctant reptile was wired with a mild electric charge to make it move; Burton happened to be stroking it at that moment and got the shock instead. (The iguana, as far as we know, was fine.)
A friend when it counted
The shoot nearly ruined Guillermo Wulff, who had signed to feed and house the production. When a crew balcony collapsed and Huston would not take his side, Wulff said, “The one who helped me was Richard Burton, he gave me up to 10 thousand dollars.”
John Huston and Richard Burton 1963
Elizabeth and Richard stayed at a place called Casa Kimberly, which was bought years later by Burton and presented to Elizabeth as a birthday present. The couple lived the best moments of their relationship in this charming Mexican house.
Elizabeth Taylor sold Casa Kimberly in 1990, together with all her belongings, including furniture, pictures, and clothes (she said it was too painful to keep them), and for a while was a museum largely left in the same conditions as when it was sold by the actress, it has since then been remodeled and is currently is a luxurious boutique hotel.
Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor’s villa in Puerto Vallarta
Richard Burton stayed connected to Puerto Vallarta through his life and even though his second marriage to Taylor abruptly ended when he, then a married man, started having an affair with (history repeats) Susan Hunt, that at the time was married (ex-wife of the F1 Champion James Hunt). He did return in 1977 to Puerto Vallarta, this time purchasing a beautiful villa, Casa Bursus, for his new bride.
It has now become the well-known Hacienda San Ángel, one of many villas administered by Janice Chatterton who bought it from Susan, who had kept it after her divorce from Burton.
Richard Burton and Susan Hunt (1978)
The Villa’s name, you can imagine, is a combination of Burton and Susan’s names. He bought the house as a Valentine’s Day gift for his wife and is just a few blocks from Casa Kimberly in the Gringo Gulch. It exudes Vallartan coastal charm and is faithful to the local Mexican architectural tradition and houses infinity of stories and affairs… if only walls could talk.
On March 13, 1978 Burton and John Huston were named “Amigos distinguidos de Jalisco” on the Main Square; see Tribute to John Huston and Richard Burton in 1978 [2].
Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and an iguana 1963
Surely Puerto Vallarta is full of memories, its history blends with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, who decided unconsciously to establish a reference for international tourism.
Sergio Toledano, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
Casa Kimberly
If you stroll along the cobblestone streets until you reach Zaragoza St. you’ll find a pink bridge standing across the street linking two houses, which are actually two parts of the same property. It’s like going back in time, to a glamorous and romantic era where two stars decided to give free rein to their love.
Anyone who has visited Puerto Vallarta and passed by Casa Kimberly can boast that they visited the love nest of the most famous couple of the 20th Century.
A note on the name: the house was originally Casa Kimberley. In the early 2000s it became Casa Kimberly. I was monitoring things at the time and my guess is that domain squatters had taken casakimberley.com, though that remains my speculation rather than confirmed fact.
Life on Zaragoza Street
Burton told a reporter in November 1963, “Here in Puerto Vallarta we can be ourselves,” and described a Sunday on a “deserted” beach where local families came down the hill, ignored the stars, fussed over Taylor’s daughter Liza and invited them up for tortillas, beans and their local brew.
He later bought the house across the street from Casa Kimberly and built a pool house there, and the two houses were linked by a bridge. Neighbors called the pool house his poker den or “the dog house” when Taylor locked him out, and the bridge “El Puente de Reconciliación,” the bridge for making up. He kept a journal on a typewriter on the upper terrace there, later used in Melvyn Bragg’s biography Richard Burton: A Life.
The couple took Sergio Toledano, the 12-year-old nephew of their neighbor, designer Xavier de la Torre, under their wing after he lost his mother; they were godparents at his first communion and took him on trips abroad. Toledano became an award-winning photographer.
Even the shops benefited. Ramón de la O, at Guillermo Wulff’s men’s store, made the shirts that became known as “Burton” shirts, and sold them by the thousands.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor married on March 15th, 1964, in Montreal’s Church of the Messiah, Canada.
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in between shots
Puerto Vallarta was not just an occasional stop in the life of the actor but was also his refuge, his oasis in the desert, the town that offered everything that Richard and Elizabeth needed to live their turbulent, but passionate love and intense life.
Select filmography
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
- Becket (1964)
- Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
- My Cousin Rachel (1952)
- Equus (1977)
- Hamlet (I) (1964)
- The Robe (1953)
- Look Back in Anger (1959)
- The Night of the Iguana (1964)
- The Taming of The Shrew (1967)
- 1984 (1984)
- Where Eagles Dare (1968)
- Bitter Victory (1957)
- The Longest Day (1962)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- Alexander the Great (1956)
- Prince of Players (1955)
- The Desert Rats (1953)
- The Wild Geese (1978)
- The Comedians (1967)
- The V.I.P.s (1963)
- Villain (1971)
- Under Milk Wood (1971)
- Doctor Faustus (1967)
Sources
- 1. Wikipedia, Richard Burton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Burton
- 2. PuertoVallarta.net, John Huston and Puerto Vallarta: https://www.puertovallarta.net/fast-facts/john-huston/
More info & references
- Richard Burton on Wikipedia
- Richard Burton on IMDB
- The Night of the Iguana
- Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
- Gringo Gulch
- Mismaloya Beach
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