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Richard Burton: A Life

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Melvyn Bragg's biography of Richard Burton (nee Richard Walter Jenkins) was absolutely top drawer, thanks not only to Mr. Bragg's wonderful, in depth writing style, but to the generosity of Burton's widow, Sally Hay, who gave the author unprecedented access to Mr. Burton's hitherto unpublished notebooks.

Burton was continually being discovered and mentored throughout his early days. Bragg deals with Burton's good fortune in being "adopted" by schoolteacher Philip Burton when he was a mere lad, and access to Philip's diaries show how Richard's native intelligence, passion and enthusiasm were harnessed and directed by Philip. The next mentor was the brilliant writer ("The Corn is Green"), director and actor, Emlyn Williams who first put the boy on the boards and got him to the BBC. Later Gielgud, Olivier, and Anthony Quayle would play a part in Burton's success.

If a man can be judged primarily based on the affect he had on other people, than Richard Burton was in that alone an absolute success. His well-documented generosity is evident from his earliest days as a reader of poetry and literature on BBC Radio, when he was lucky to garner 10 quid a reading and sent a portion of that back to the family (12 brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews). In his final days, when performing in a less than stellar mini-series with his magnificently talented daughter, Kate Burton, he passed on his civility and generosity to fellow actors, by teaching her to remain behind the camera during another actor's close-up so he/she would have a person to react to and with. He is beloved in his native Wales, whose tongue was his first language, whose sports teams he followed wherever he was in the world and in whose verdant green hillsides he built that voice that would echo across the stages of London, New York and on movie screens worldwide.

Richard Burton was no saint (unlike Becket, whom he played to perfection opposite Peter O'Toole). His appetite for wine, women and song remained with him throughout his life. In a strange and ironic quirk, Burton, who so revered family and womanhood/motherhood (idealized for him in his mother-sister, Cis) was flagrant in his infidelity to his first wife, Sybill Williams. Sybil Williams Burton in the best of British tradition had a stiff upper lip about he whole business, and maintained a solid homebase which Burton would inevitably return. And indeed for more than a decade this was the case; until he ventured to Rome for the filming of Cleopatra.

Bragg is even-handed in his portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor. She is neither villain or angel; but a woman of profound passions, a streetwise business sense and emotional life that may have brought on or at the very least greatly exasperated her numerous accidents and health issues. Their love was by all accounts like an earthquake. While Burton was mad for Taylor, he never expected this affair to end his marriage. Taylor, however was not just any conquest. Having lived through the machinations of a notorious stage mother, the heavy-handedness of Louis B. Mayer at MGM, the death of her other great love, Mike Todd and the public condemnation of he role in the Debbie-Eddie-Liz scandal and her notorious tough as nails negotiation of the first million dollar contract for Cleopatra, Elizabeth was a force to be reckoned with. Although she was known for the screaming and sometimes physically battering battles with Todd, Fisher and later with Burton, it was through her absolute acceptance in her role as Burton's Mistress, that she won her man. In fact, Taylor would play this role 2 years while Burton would traverse the Swiss Alps between his home in Celigny with Sybil and daughter, Kate and Taylor's home in Gstaad. Truthful, clever, a talented actress, a challenging partner, an endlessly exciting and loving lover, and in her salad days the most beautiful woman in the world; one can understand Burton's fascination with her. Sadly, their love story that was to begin like a meteor, would struggle to a sad and sloppy end. Taylor's utlimate tragedy, if we are to believe Bragg's account and that of other writers, is that she wouldn't or couldn't give up the ghost. Until his death, she was like Scarlett O'Hara thinking of new and different ways to get back her man.

Suzy Hunt the amazon, blond, model would be Burton's 3rd wife. He was unstinting in his praise of her, as she selflessly aided him as he was by the mid to late 1970's crippled with arthritis from years of hard living (rugby, drinking & a 5-pack a day cigarette habit). It can be noted that Suzy came along at just when he needed her, but being young (some 20 years his junior) would weary of her role as nursemaid and would leave Burton by the early 1980's. Like Sybil Burton, who has remained completely silent about her life with Richard, Suzy Hunt had done the same. She came and went, and other than an appearance at one of his memorial services, was not to enter his life again.

Perhaps Sally Hay Burton fairs best in this biography due to her generosity and openess to the author, but in my opinion, she has at last been granted her due, as Burton's last love. Burton's own notebooks speak glowingly of this incredibly competent, hardworking and independent woman, who unlike Taylor and Hunt never expected herself to be in a relationship with a world-famous actor of Mr. Burton's stature. I was struck at how much sadder his untimely death was in regards to Sally, since by his own account and hers, they were quite happy and Burton had a last found a modicum of peace in this relationship. The press was unfair to Sally during the time of Burton's death. She was blamed for his Welsh family not being in attendance at his funeral in Switzerland (it was Burton's choice to be interred in the Swiss village he lived had in for some 25 years) which was due to a misunderstanding caused by Burton's brother Graham Jenkins, who showed up in Switzerland with BBC reporter in tow. Sally herself now sees it was a mistake to exclude Taylor from the ceremony, but quite rightly she knew that the dignity of the service would be destroyed by the onslaught of press jockying to get pictures of Taylor's last goodbye to Burton. In fact, there were numerous memorials in Wales, New York & London at which the various wives and family would have a chance to pay their respects. Taylor in fact would sit squarely in the middle of the Welsh at the Memorial in London.

Scholarship was what Richard Burton most revered above all things. He was notorious for never watching movies and for never being without a book in hand. Althought he enjoyed the odd thriller, he was quite the intellectual in his tastes; he was a man of the classics; Poetry and Shakespearean verse could be recited forwards and literally backwards. He was a renowned conqueror of languages and was fluent in French, Italian, Spanish. and had a go at some of the non-romance languages as well (Serbo-Croat). It is quite conceivable that Burton would have made an excellent Oxford don, and even had a memorable 6 month go of it in the mid-seventies as a visiting instructor. He would never go on location without first stocking up on volumes of reading materials and one of his great gifts (from Suzy Hunt) was to have his books put into specially built library shelves at his Celigny home.

A lad's lad, a natural aristocrat, a spirited athlete on the pitch, a natural student, world renowned lover, one of the greatest actor's of the 20th century. A man who insisted on living life on his own terms and doing it in great style. Truly a rich life.

This is a well-researched and thoughtfully-written biography of a man who was perhaps the most famous man in the world in the decade of the 1960's. Now, sadly, Burton's legacy and fame have dimmed considerably and he's remembered more as Elizabeth Taylor's fifth (and sixth) husband. He was much more than that. I have always thought Burton overacted miserably in most of his roles and I was chiefly intrigued with him because of his beautiful physicality and because was an erudite, deeply intelligent man. He was also a prodigious reader and a keen intellect, but this genius seemed utterly wasted on Liz, a woman with whom he shared a passionate sex life, but precious little else.

The highlight of this book is the inclusion of over 100 pages of Burton's diaries, kept meticuously from 1965 until his death. Burton writes candidly, wittily and brilliantly. It's devilishly exciting to read his words about Liz and his vicious put downs of others, including a visceral tirade against poor Lucille Ball. He also muses on occasion about his autistic daughter, Jessica, who was hidden by the Burtons and kept in an institution all her life.

Burton had a larger-than-life appetite for living, sex, booze... you name it. He was self-destructive, manic-depressive and difficult, but all of those things make for a compelling character and this book illuminates him like no other.

There's a photo of Richard Burton in this book that's probably my own personal favorite: he's sitting on the back step of his house and completely absorbed in a book, oblivious to everything else around him.
He loved to read and there's also a photo of the inside of his house--and it looks like a library! (In fact, the only thing he ever asked for in his divorces were his books).

But what really makes this biography worth reading is that the author quotes Burton's own "notebooks," his diary that he kept over the years. You definitely get a deeper look into this celebrity as a person than most show business books provide.

He was certainly a conflicted man. Here was someone who was starring in the biggest movie ever made (CLEOPATRA), having an affair with the world's most glamorous actress (he'd buy Liz the Hope Diamond as one gift), living on a yatch off Monte Carlo, and yet he would grouse in his diary: "The French, American and Russian revolutions have meant nothing--the rich still get everything!" (I'm paraphrasing a bit).
I believe his own personal demons brought out his best performances: his HAMLET (available on DVD), BECKET (still not on DVD!), WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, EQUUS. There was such a despair in his eyes that it rarely looked like acting at all.
There always seemed to be something haunting him: his poor Welsh upbringing and alcoholic father, his abandonment of the "legitimate British stage" for the "Hollywood quick buck," his guilt over failed marriages. Unfortunately, he turned to drink too often to numb himself.

Richard Burton was a great actor. Even if some of the pain and rage was real.

Richard Burton was much more than just another actor who married Elizabeth Taylor. He was an acting prodigy at a young age. He attended Oxford to study acting. He was a good enough rugby player to get a tryout with one of the English rugby leagues better clubs. He was a prolific reader who read books by the dozen, sometimes two or three a day. He was very generous to his large extended family. He was loyal to them and they loved him in return. I picked this book up in a newstand in Singapore in 1996. I read it as I traveled north by rail to Bangkok via Butterworth and Kuala Lampur. I finished it in a day. It is a well written account about a fascinating literary man who grew up poor in Wales, his father a coal miner. Burton knew early on that he had to work hard in school to get out of the misery of that future. This is the first Melvyn Bragg book I have read. I was impressed with the book and can't think of any criticisms. If you can find the book, read it! You'll be glad you did. Also check out some of the movies that Burton did. Some were dogs, but many were very good. It would be worth it to just see him act. He was a master. Underrated and scripted for many mediocre films. Taming of the Shrew is one I would recommend highly. He and Elizabeth Taylor are superb.

As noted by this review's title, there are countless newer biographies of Richard Burton, and many of them have also been purchased and made it onto my bookshelves. But I continue to replace copies of this specific bio by Melvyn Bragg because it is so superbly researched and written, and it also makes generous use of Richard's own notebooks, journals and letters, which were supplied to the author by Burton's widow, Sally. Other reviews note so much of the actor's life, and of course, we all know of his importance to both stage and film; how does one add her own two cents when a subject has been covered so thoroughly and splendidly by fellow reviewers? Well, I will say that what I liked so much about this book is that - knowing as much as I do about Richard's movies, and recognizing his amazing voice to this day on a classic movie channel without even having to turn around and look: That's Richard Burton -, this book is written in a tone that could almost be mistaken for the actor himself regaling the stories, talking into a 1970s' or early '80s' microphone and recorder, with the author Bragg taking notes and making certain he didn't run out of batteries or tapes. There is such an easy feeling to the text, as though it came naturally from the start, and I was quite surprised to see that another reviewer had noted it to be heavy going. Perhaps it matters if the reader himself understands many of the things brought up throughout the book - that is meant in no way to be disparaging, but if you haven't had family from the mines, people who have spent their lives in two foot of water and looking for a seam of promise and hope, perhaps all the talk of Richard's father and other family members toiling away in the Welsh mines is a bit foreign, and what in the world does any of that have to do with a man who became one of the highest paid actors in the world? But I liked it, because my family comes out of Harlan, Kentucky, and I can appreciate the odds that Richard beat, and just how much that fact must have danced with his mind, for both good and bad, at times. The author also details to an astonishing degree each and every one of Richard's family members, many of his friends, all of his mentors, dozens of his fans, lovers and so forth, and yes, it is a great deal of information, and we're not even into the movies, the drinking, and...Elizabeth, yet, but it is necessary. I loved reading how dearly he loved his elder sister, Cis, with whom he went to live with at the age of two years, after losing his mother to a premature death. That the author also took the time to note that Richard could never recall his own mother, having lost her at such a young age, and that it was something that "...greatly saddened and disturbed (Burton) to no end", told me more about one of my favorite actors. This was a deep thinking man, whom, had he not been welcomed by stage and cinema, would have had no trouble becoming one of the writers of substance that he so admired. I love knowing that this man may not so much have been impossible to 'keep' by the women in his life, or that he did not think them worthy of him (he, in fact, never spoke ill of his exes, wording even barbs traded with E.T. more humorously than bitterly), but that this was a man, motherless at two, technically fatherless in so many ways (if you think Richard himself was a handful, you need to read about his father, Dic), who may well have set off on a path of looking for an impossible amount of replacement love at a very young age. He idolized his older brother, Ifor - this relationship, too, would be filled with pain, guilt, and mourning. Burton had an autistic daughter, Jessica, with his first wife, Sybil, and in an era when such children were institutionalized without so much as a blink, Richard became an absent father to an irretrievable daughter. It is impossible for the reader not to acknowledge that these many psychological and emotional events in his life did not lead, in some way, to the later brawling, carrying on and raising hell Richard Burton whom is so recalled to this day. (My own son is autistic, and to know that as little as forty years ago, there was assumed to be no promise or hope for these children whatsoever is heartbreaking). The author follows this extremely detailed path through 600 pages (yes, 600), and we learn of the beforementioned early life as the son of a miner, the beginning of Burton's acting career, the women (yes, including E.T.), the movies, the drinking, the health issues - both his and Taylor's -, the diamonds, the money, my god, this man had one hell of an interesting karma, didn't he? I love that entire excerpts from Richard's own journals are reprinted in this bio, entries discussing Elizabeth's hospital stays, the fact that he knows he'll be screwed out of the Oscar yet again (Richard Burton NEVER won an Acadeny Award, that tells you right there how seriously you can take those things), and even his opinion of whatever play he was in at the moment and the audience's reaction (he seemed genuinely surprised to be receiving nightly standing ovations for "Camelot")... these are fascinating to read. And, thinking man that he was, beneath all the brawling and boozing, I find something very poetic in that, when Richard's time here came to a sudden end at the age of 58, the curtain came down so suddenly and so finally for this man that his note taking was literally stopped mid-word: "...Our revels now are ended...Cap a pi -". And then the brain hemmorhage hit, and that great, deep voice was silenced, forever. I loved this book, and learning so much about one of my very, very favorite actors; I think that anybody reading up on Richard would want to add this to their armload of books on him, because it truly is perfect, and a wonderful study of a man whom, dead almost three decades now, continues to be considered one of the greatest actors, ever. Put that legacy up next to the flavors of the month cranking out what we're being told is entertainment now, and and you'll be grateful that we had Richard for the brief time that we were allowed.

I approached this book simply as a comprehensive biography of Richard Burton and instead found it to be the most well-written and very detailed. It draws heavily on Burton's own Notebooks, his diary, and while "Rich" may have taken the mickey out of journos over the years, he is candid and blunt in his personal writings.

I enjoyed this book very much, and found it difficult to put it down once I began reading it. It makes me wish I had a moment to converse with Burton himself, a true bookworm and erudite man who was still down-to-earth enough.

Let's be honest about this, Ok? Biography is history. Plain and simple. It may be handled subjectively or objectively, but at its roots it remains history.

Richard Burton: A Life covers the life and career of a staggeringly talented boozer, actor, womanizer, romantic genius who was one of the truly household names of his time. His liasion and ultimate marriages to and divorces from Elizabeth Taylor are inevitably a part of that life.

In this volume the co-conspiracy of E.T. (as she is frequently abbreviated) often becomes almost overwhelming -- and yet that may not be so inappropriate, for it was her influence and her obsessive love for him that motivate a great deal of his creative life. We have extensive extracts from his own (previously unpublished) notebooks, and those of his father and mentor Philip Burton who adopted him as a teenager.

But as many histories do, the book is so replete with detail that it has a tendency to plod. It is not a page turner. Rather it is a volume that one feels duty bound to finish mostly so that one may move on to one's next reading.

I have been in theatre myself for almost 60 years, so I have an affinity for things theatrical, yet this is not a theatrical volume. It is more of a literary National Enquirer with the feeling that the normal N.E. made up parts have been expunged.

Make no mistake about it, the book is well written in the sense that the prose is of good quality. However, unless you are a total unrequited flaming Richard fan for whom any written word is pure gospel, be forwarned -- you may find this a bit of work to read!

Richard Burton makes today's tabloid celebrities out to be rank amateurs. Burton smoked a hundred cigarettes, and drank up to four bottles of vodka, a day. A rugby enthusiast and public brawler, injuries crippled him, necessitating prescription pain killers. There were five marriages, countless hookups, and at least three lovers attempting suicide. If there is any justice, the CDC will christen a newly-discovered social disease in Burton's honor.

But Burton was so much more than a tabloid spectacle. Riveting green eyes, chthonic intensity, a one-of-a-kind voice that could roar a beast's growl or sing an angel's hymn, and his innate instinct for language ensured his dominance over the Shakespearean stage as well as more popular fare like the DeMille-style epic "The Robe" and the Broadway musical, "Camelot." Women fell in love with him. Men fell in love with him. Servants, drinking buddies, costars, and even critics fell in love with him. Kenneth Tynan wrote that Burton "brought his own cathedral with him." Director Tony Palmer said, "It never occurred to you to ask whether or not you liked this man because you just knew. . . that you were in the presence of greatness."

Pockmarks rutted his skin. He made no attempt to resist his lifestyle's devastation of his looks; "I abhor mere prettiness" (483). Other actors exhibited superior physical form; toward the end, Burton could barely move his arms, his injuries were causing him so much pain. And, yet, theatergoers who saw him in a minor role in one of his first plays, "The Lady's Not for Burning," report that when the skinny, young, unknown was onstage, you could not take your eyes off him. Long after it was assumed that, through humiliatingly bad choices, Burton had terminally ruined his once promising career, he made a comeback in "Equus." Walter Kerr and Clive Barnes praised Burton afresh: "Equus" exhibited Burton's best work; he was the best English-speaking actor his age in the world, they reported (529). Burton followed that triumph to receive standing ovations in a revival of "Camelot."

He had so much going for him . . . and yet, popular wisdom goes, Burton threw it all away. He divorced his supportive, Welsh wife, Sybil, and married superstar Elizabeth Taylor, as famous for her scandalous multiple marriages, melodramatic brushes with death, and cleavage as for her art. Burton and Taylor lived large: expensive jewelry, public fights; a couple of good movies; too many stinkers.

In 1988, Tony Palmer, who had directed Burton in "Wagner," made a BBC documentary, "In from the Cold," that depicted Burton as a deeply tragic, sensitive, small-town Welsh artiste kidnapped by squalid Hollywood-Babylon fame and debauchery. Palmer told the New York Times, "I believe that the source of his tragedy is that he was given away, effectively sold, by his father when he was 14...[this] left Richard with a deep emotional scar which he spent most of his life trying to heal."

Through sheer accumulation of detail, Melvyn Bragg's biography of Burton offers some insight, but doesn't rise above the style or substance of a People magazine article. With a figure as complex as Burton, one wants more depth than is provided by observations like "Richard was a terrible boyo but he always came home" (185) or Bragg's insertion of himself into a text that should be all about Burton: "It is that last sentence, I think, which counts for most" (197) or Bragg's attempt to sound breezy by writing in sentence fragments: "Then took on Cleopatra and Rome" (185).

What makes this book indispensable for anyone interested in plumbing the Burton mystery is Bragg's access to, and extensive quotes from, Richard Burton's own diaries. Burton's widow Sally deserves gratitude for allowing their publication.

These diaries are not valuable because they are full of juicy, scandalous tidbits. Burton was born with the kind of ear for language, eye for detail, commitment to truth and the craving to get it all down in lovely, idiosyncratic prose that makes for a great writer. One mourns the novels Burton planned, but never wrote.

The diaries reveal that Burton very much loved Taylor, and was genuinely happy with her for many years. Sadly, they also reveal both their deep dysfunctions, largely fueled by alcohol and self-indulgence, and Burton's losing interest, and turning to a young, statuesque blonde, as Taylor, a short, curvy, brunette, aged. As often as Bragg emphasizes Burton's open-handed generosity and deep love for his many extended family members, I can't like this Burton; he often treated women shabbily, and I never got a sense that he ever figured out what love really is, beyond the passion of a moment.

I thought that reading this book would elucidate the Burton mystery for me, that I'd come away knowing how and why, in his best movies, he is so gripping and moving. I don't have that answer. Lots of us are born to alcoholic fathers, have rough childhoods, and play on the dark side, and yet actors with Burton's gifts are rare flashes of lightening.

One thing is clear, though, and it's an area Bragg does not plumb. Burton was in pain, not just chronic physical pain. You don't smoke and drink as Burton did without some inner dragon gnawing away at your viscera. Tony Palmer was on to something. You have to wonder, if this book depicts things accurately, why none of Burton's many loved ones ever took him aside and said, "Rich, get some help. Stop killing yourself."

I enjoyed this biography immensely, especially being as there
are generous quotes and insights from Burton's personal
journal and writings over a period of two decades and more.
Richard Burton was one of the most famous and remarkable
actors, celebrities, and 'genius's' of the past century.
He lived his life adventurously, ... even wrecklessly at
times. But he was never boring (as a man or as an actor)!
He was a 'one of a kind' person. Few people would disagree
with that accessment.
I highly recommend this book/biography. It is filled with
fascinating facts and insights on a man who remains on of
the most enigmatic and charismatic personality of our era.

I always admired Richard Burton as an actor but it was only when I read his biography by M. Bragg that I realized how vast his acting repertory really was. What I wouldn't give to have all of his recordings too! This is conveniently listed in the book for further research by the dedicated few. One can appreciate the personal glimpses into his life and background, his family ties and his final years. The author has done considerable work in compiling so much information which is much appreciated by lifelong fans such as myself.