Richard Burton on stage, screen, radio and record



Richard Burton (10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor who had an extensive career primarily on stage and in film.

Known for his powerful presence and mellifluous baritone voice he starred in numerous notable films. He made his feature film debut in the British drama The Last Days of Dolwyn in 1949. Burton gained attention for his role as Philip Ashley, the protagonist in the romantic mystery My Cousin Rachel (1952) earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Burton's stardom grew earning Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for portraying a history professor in a troubled marriage in the Mike Nichols directed drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) opposite his wife Elizabeth Taylor. He also starred in 10 other films opposite Taylor including The V.I.P.s (1963), Cleopatra (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians (1967), Boom! (1968), Under Milk Wood (1971), Hammersmith is Out (1972).

Burton received further Oscar nominations for playing a Roman officer in the Biblical epic The Robe (1953), Henry II of England in the historical drama Becket (1964), a British MI6 agent in spy thriller The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), King Henry II again in historical drama Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), and a psychiatrist treating a young patient in psychological drama Equus (1977). During this time Burton also starred in Alexander the Great (1956), The Longest Day (1962), and The Night of the Iguana (1965). His final film role was in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984).

On stage, Burton gained prominence as a Shakespearean actor acting in numerous works of William Shakespeare. He portrayed roles such as Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1 (1951) and Henry IV, Part 2 (1951), Henry V of England in Henry V (1951), Ferdinand in The Tempest (1951), Prince Hamlet in Hamlet (1953), Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (1953), Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus in Coriolanus (1953), and Othello in Othello (1955). Burton originated the role as King Arthur in the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot from 1960 to 1961 acting opposite Julie Andrews on Broadway.