Posts Tagged ‘Richard Burton’

Further to the articles I published last week, a video has surfaced from Press Association where Michael Sheen was interviewed at the installation of the Burton Plaque. A copy of the video has been added to the Video Library.

A blue plaque was installed by English Heritage at the London home of the late Richard Burton, and was unveiled by Michael Sheen. Michael revealed that Burton was an inspiration to him growing up, and that he would dearly love an opportunity to play the fellow Port Talbot thespian.

Please click on the thumbnail below.

Original Article: WalesOnline – 11/11/11

Michael Sheen hinted today that he may one day play Richard Burton as he celebrated the life of his fellow Welsh Shakespearean actor at the house where Burton lived when he rose to stardom.

The Cleopatra actor, who married Elizabeth Taylor twice and died in 1984 aged 58, was commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at the house in Hampstead, London, which is now owned by an actor and voiceover artist.

Sheen is currently playing Hamlet at the Young Vic – a role Burton played at the Old Vic in the 1950s. And the actor, who has a daughter with Hollywood star Kate Beckinsale, wouldn’t rule out playing his fellow countryman on screen in future.

“I think it would be very daunting to play someone like Richard Burton but it would be very interesting and there’s a wonderful story there to be told. Maybe in a few years,” he said, at the house Burton shared with fellow Welsh thespian Sybil Williams between 1949 and 1956.

Comparisons have been drawn between the two actors due to where they come from and the fact that they have played the same character on a number of occasions, such as Hamlet and Jimmy Porter in Look Back In Anger.

“I’ve grown up with the spirit of Richard Burton in my life. By coming from Port Talbot – he’s a god of the place – I’ve always been in his shadow, but it’s not a cold place to be, it’s a very lovely place to be.

“If I’m asked to do anything that’s associated with him then I always will,” said Sheen, who has played Tony Blair and David Frost on the big screen.

The star reckons that his rise to fame from modest Welsh roots is very similar to Burton’s journey as an actor.

“I think anyone who comes from an area which is a very working class area, you’re coming from a particular kind of stock and to find yourself in the rarefied atmosphere of the West End, Broadway and Hollywood can make you feel a bit uprooted.

“I think because of where you come from it can make you feel not altogether comfortable, and by the same token when you go back you’ve been forever changed by it and it’s hard to feel completely comfortable where you came from again,” he said.

The current owner of the house is actor and voiceover artist Nadine Shenton who had no idea Burton lived in the house until recently.

“It’s strange. I bought it 18 years ago and I didn’t know. I was delighted when I heard he lived here. I thought it was a lovely following on of continuity that I’m an actor and live here now.

“I’m incredibly drawn to this extraordinary handsome man and his undertones of accent. He has incredible eyes – eyes that don’t come around often.

“He was obviously doing well in order to have lived here. I think Hampstead is very arty and creative,” said Ms Shenton.

The blue plaque, which was installed at 6 Lyndhurst Road earlier this month, is part of a scheme which has been running for 140 years.

Blue plaque historian Susan Skedd said: “Richard Burton was undoubtedly one of the greatest stage and screen actors of the 20th century and we are delighted to be able to commemorate him at his former home in Hampstead.

“While living here, he established his reputation as a Shakespearean actor on the London stage and as a film actor in Hollywood, and also made the renowned radio recording of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood.”

Original Article: BBC 11/11/11

If walls could talk, then few would have a more interesting tale to tell than those at 6 Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead NW3, the London home of Richard Burton and his first wife, fellow Welsh thespian Sybil Williams.

While countless thousands of column inches were devoted to Burton’s two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor between 1964 and 1976, relatively little has been written about his equally-tempestuous relationship with the girl from Tylorstown, Rhondda.

But now this chapter of Burton’s life is to be revisited, as English Heritage are dedicating a blue plaque at the house which saw Burton transformed from ambitious newcomer in 1949 to millionaire superstar forced to flee to tax exile in Switzerland by 1957.

Fittingly, the plaque is to be unveiled by fellow Port Talbot actor Michael Sheen, currently reprising one of Burton’s favourite roles, Hamlet, at the Young Vic.

During his time on Lyndhurst Road in the early 1950s, Burton wrestled with his conflicting loves for the stage and silver screen.

But Sheen is proud to be following in at least some of Burton’s footsteps.

“It has always been an honour for me to be associated with the wizard of wild Welsh magic that was Richard Burton,” he said.

“And it gives me great pleasure to help mark one of the spots from where he cast his brooding spells over London and the world.”

Tensions

Burton and Williams met in 1948, on the set of The Last Days of Dolwyn, just his second leading role. They married a year later and moved into their London home.

But while Sybil’s acting career stalled, Burton’s continued to grow from strength to strength, causing tensions from the outset.

Spending more and more time in Hollywood gave him the opportunity to begin the showbiz lifestyle which would characterise his popular image for the next three decades.

Burton and Williams moved out of Lyndhurst Road to Switzerland in 1957, shortly before the birth of their first daughter, Kate.

‘Affairs’

But while the move into exile from 90% income tax should have been a fresh start, Gethin Matthews – author of Seren Cymru, the only Welsh language biography of Richard Burton – believes that the marriage was doomed as soon as Elizabeth Taylor came onto the horizon in the early 1960s.

“He had a certain amount of latitude to carry on with his affairs,” said Mr Matthews.

“We can only speculate as to how much Sybil realised what was going on: it’s possible that she was blinded by her devotion to Richard, or perhaps she chose not to find out what he was up to.

“All you can say for certain was that she was utterly besotted by Richard; sacrificing her career to try and advance his as far as possible.”

All the evidence suggested that they made a very good couple, said Mr Matthews.

But Burton’s move to Switzerland removed him from the social network which had supported him in his rise to stardom. Then events took their toll.

“All the evidence suggests that the autism of their second child Jessica led to a lot of guilt and grief, which put further strain on the marriage,” said Mr Matthews.

“But ultimately it appears that they split simply because Richard’s love for Liz Taylor engulfed everything else in his life… Sybil just couldn’t compete any longer.”

They divorced in 1963, following an unsuccessful attempt at reconciliation.

‘Diamonds and glamour’

While Burton married Taylor in 1964, perhaps Sybil Williams found even greater happiness; going on to open a successful nightclub and restaurant in New York, remarrying and having a third daughter.

“The 1950s and Richard’s marriage to Sybil are the part of his life which has been repeatedly overlooked,” said Mr Matthews.

“People tend to get hooked on the diamonds and glamour of the Liz Taylor years, but there’s another reason.

“Despite the attempts of numerous biographers, Sybil’s never agreed to talk about her first marriage; partly because she’s always maintained enormous dignity, but possibly more so because it was simply too painful.

“In some ways that too is a real shame, as without Sybil’s support while he found his way in the 40s and 50s, then who can tell whether there would even have been the diamonds and glamour of the Taylor years?”

Michael Sheen, along with Wales Online, recently launched a campaign to get a star on the Hollywood walk of fame for fellow Port Talbot boy, Richard Burton.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce accepted his nomination following the A Star for Burton appeal launch.Now almost £20,000 needs to be raised before his star can be installed on the world-famous Californian boulevard.

After hearing the news, Michael Sheen, who officially launched the A Star For Burton campaign in March and is now based in LA, said: “I am absolutely delighted this has happened. No star is more thoroughly deserved and it will be good to have another Port Talbot boy to go and talk to just up the road.”

(source)

You may remember that a few weeks ago, I published an article in the Rumour Mill about how Hollywood has Michael Sheen as one of the people hotly tipped to play Richard Burton in a possible Scorcese directed drama of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Martin Scorsese is in talks over the film with Paramount Pictures, who have bought the film rights to ‘Furious Love’ a biography of the couples tempestuous marriage by Nancy Schoenberger. The author has her own ideas on who she would like to play the part of Burton in a screen version.

“At the top of our list has always been Russell Crowe to play Richard Burton. He has that wounded intensity, that smouldering charisma that Burton possessed.

“As for Elizabeth, it’s much more difficult to cast that famous face, certainly Catherine Zeta-Jones, for her passionate nature as well as her beauty.

In a recent WalesOnline article, it appears that the brother of Burton, Graham Jenkins said:

“I don’t really want to see Russell Crowe playing Richard. If anyone can do it, it is Michael Sheen. He’s a Port Talbot boy and will have no trouble with the accent.”

Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese is being tipped to direct a biopic about the passionate relationship between screen stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Their tempestuous romance saw them marry and divorce twice, and made them the most famous couple in the world at the time, and the relationship is to become the subject of its own film which will chart the couple’s life together from the time they met on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra.

Hollywood is already buzzing with rumours about who will take on the roles of two of the biggest names in showbusiness.

Michael Sheen is seen as a frontrunner to play Burton, who was also from Wales. Angelina Jolie is among those tipped to play British-American Miss Taylor, who died two months ago aged 79.