The Richard Burton Diaries Read online

  Copyright © 2012 Swansea University

  All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.

  For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:

  U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com

  Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk

  Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (Data Connection) Ltd

  Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Burton, Richard, 1925–1984.

  The Richard Burton diaries/edited by Chris Williams.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-300-18010-7 (cl: alk. paper)

  1. Burton, Richard, 1925–1984—Diaries. 2. Actors—Great Britain—Diaries.

  I. Williams, Chris. II. Title.

  PN2598.B795A3 2012

  792.02'8092—dc23

  [b]

  2012023966

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  CONTENTS

  List of Illustrations

  Acknowledgements

  Note on the Print Version

  Introduction, by Chris Williams

  THE RICHARD BURTON DIARIES

  1939

  1940

  1960

  1965

  1966

  1967

  1968

  1969

  1970

  1971

  1972

  1975

  1980

  1983

  Bibliography

  Notes

  Index

  CONTENTS

  List of Illustrations

  Acknowledgements

  Note on the Print Version

  Introduction, by Chris Williams

  THE RICHARD BURTON DIARIES

  1939

  1940

  1960

  1965

  1966

  1967

  1968

  1969

  1970

  1971

  1972

  1975

  1980

  1983

  Bibliography

  Notes

  Index

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  1 Philip Burton and Richard Jenkins, c.1943–4. Photograph in the collection of Philip Burton.

  2 Burton in the school rugby team, 1938–9. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  3 Burton with his father in Pontrhydyfen, 1953. Photograph by Raymond Kleboe/Getty Images.

  4 Burton in his library, c.1953–4. Photograph by Tom Blau, Camera Press London.

  5 Burton, Sybil and Kate at Céligny, c.1958. Photograph by Robert Penn.

  6 Burton in the Café de la Gare, Céligny, c.1958. Photograph by Robert Penn.

  7 ‘Vodka Poem’ by T. H. White, c.1961, in the Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University. By courtesy of the T. H. White Estate.

  8 Burton and Taylor on a yacht, 1962. Sipa Press/Rex Features.

  9 Burton and Taylor on a balcony of Casa Kimberley, 1965. Mirrorpix.

  10 Burton, Taylor, Liza and Maria, 1968. Associated Newspapers/Rex Features.

  11 Burton and Ivor. By courtesy of Graham Jenkins.

  12 Burton in Hamlet, 1964. Photograph by George Silk/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

  13 Burton and Taylor linking arms for a drink, 1967. Associated Press.

  14 Tayor with her 33.19 carat diamond ring, 1968. Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

  15 Burton and Taylor arrive at RAF, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, by private jet, 1967. Mirrorpix.

  16 Burton and Taylor on board Kalizma, 1967. Photograph by David Cairns/Getty Images.

  17 Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days, 1969. Photograph by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.

  18 Burton and Taylor at Heathrow Airport, 1970. Mirrorpix.

  19 Burton during a break from filming The Klansman, 1974. Photograph by Terry O'Neill/Getty Images.

  20 Burton at St Peter's College, Oxford, c.1972. Photograph by Billett Potter, Camera Press London.

  21 Burton and Susan Hunt, 1976. Photograph by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

  22 ‘Yet another Richard Burton divorce is announced’, Grenfell Jones cartoon, 1983. Copyright permission granted by Darryl Jones.

  23 Kate and Richard at the opening of Private Lives, 1983. Photograph by Ron Galella/Wine Image.

  24 Burton and Sally after their wedding, 1983. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  25 Burton reading on the terrace. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  26 Burton's library at Céligny c.1985. Photograph by Derek Bayes.

  1 This studio portrait captures Richard at the very beginning of his acting career in the early 1940s, alongside his greatest mentor and the man whose surname he took, the English teacher and dramatist Philip Burton.

  2 Port Talbot Secondary School's first fifteen (rugby union), 1938–9. Richard is in the middle row, second from right. According to legendary Welsh international Bleddyn Williams, ‘Richard would have made as good a wing-forward as any we have produced in Wales!’

  3 Richard and his father – ‘Dic Bach’ – walking across the tramroad viaduct in Richard's home village of Pontrhydyfen, in the direction of the Miners’ Arms public house, 1953. Richard admired his father's physical strengh and capacity for drink, but not much more.

  4 Richard, studying the text of Hamlet, c.1953–4, in his London home at Lyndhurst Road, Camden, where he and his first wife Sybil lived from 1950 to 1957. On his bookshelves are a number of volumes about actors, acting and playwrights.

  5 Richard, Sybil and their first daughter Kate, at their home – Le Pays de Galles – in Céligny, Switzerland, c.1958.

  6 Richard improving his French in conversation with owner/manager Paul Fillistorf at the Café de la Gare in Céligny, c.1958. Richard would return to the Café's unpretentious comfort with regularity for the next quarter century.

  7 T. H. White's gift of his ‘Vodka Poem’ is mentioned by Burton in his diaries, 26 May 1969. ‘Richard ap Richard’ is Welsh for ‘Richard son of Richard’. ‘Gwalia’ is ‘Wales’.

  8 A month before the end of filming Cleopatra, Richard and Elizabeth spent time together on a yacht off the island of Ischia, Naples, June 1962. The paparazzi's long lenses revealed that ‘le Scandale’ had far from run its course.

  9 Richard and Elizabeth were based in the small Mexican coastal town of Puerto Vallarta while Richard was filming The Night of the Iguana in autumn 1963. They bought Casa Kimberley and returned there frequently over the next decade.

  10 Richard, Maria Burton, Liza Todd and Elizabeth at Chalet Ariel, Gstaad, December 1968. ‘I am very excited at the thought of going home and seeing the two girls in their various [school] plays’, Richard had written a few days earlier.

  11 Richard and his older brother Ivor, whom he admired and respected greatly, in the mid-1960s. Ivor's death in 1972 precipitated a catastrophic decline in Richard's personal and professional fortunes.

  12 Directed by John Gielgud, Richard's Hamlet ran for 134 performances on New York's Broadway in 1964, following a successful run in Toronto. A version was broadcast in cinemas across the USA and a long-playing record released.

  13 While working on The Comedians in the South of France, Richard and Elizabeth discovered that Elizabeth had won her second Best Actress Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? Richard's third nomination in three years
for Best Actor was not successful.

  14 Elizabeth shows off the 33.19 carat Krupp diamond, which cost $305,000, while in Britain for the filming of Harlech Television's ‘Opening Night’ in May 1968. Richard and Elizabeth were both directors of HTV.

  15 Richard and Elizabeth arrive at RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire in their Hawker Siddeley HS.125, in preparation for the film premiere of Doctor Faustus, October 1967. Elizabeth is wearing her The Night of the Iguana brooch, a present from Richard from four years earlier.

  16 Richard and Elizabeth bought their yacht (renamed the Kalizma) in July 1967. They are pictured here the following month off the Capo Caccia peninsula, Sardinia, during the filming of Boom! Richard revelled in the peace and isolation he found on his ‘second home’.

  17 Richard was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days, but it was not a role he enjoyed – ‘Anybody can play Henry VIII . . . even Robert Shaw’.

  18 Richard and Elizabeth arrive at Heathrow Airport, London, in September 1970, prior to Richard filming Villain. He is carrying his new Olivetti typewriter, complete with Welsh flag sticker (see diary entry for 23 May 1970).

  19 By 1974 Richard was drinking very heavily and his marriage to Elizabeth was in desperate trouble. Here he is in California during the filming of The Klansman – one of his less successful screen appearances – where he met Jeanne Bell, who would share his life in 1975.

  20 It's Perrier water in the ice bucket and Richard is enjoying his status as an honorary fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford. Richard had taken a wartime course in English at Exeter College, but had not returned to the university to complete a degree.

  21 Richard met Susan (Suzy) Hunt in Switzerland early in 1976. Before August was out they were married in Arlington, Virginia, after Burton's successful return to Broadway in Equus.

  22 Grenfell ‘Gren’ Jones drew for the Western Mail and South Wales Echo. He won the first of four awards for the best provincial cartoonist in Britain in 1983, the year that Richard was given a diary complete with ‘Gren’ cartoons, one of which took him as its subject.

  23 Richard's daughter Kate was herself a successful actress by the time Private Lives (starring Richard and Elizabeth) opened in New York in May 1983.

  24 Richard and Sally Hay married in Las Vegas in July 1983. Their marriage would last only thirteen months, but it brought Richard great stability and comfort.

  25 Richard's passion for reading was life-long: here he is enjoying sunshine and scholarship at his home in Céligny.

  26 ‘Looking forward to Switzerland and books and peace.’ Richard's library, Céligny.

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  1 Philip Burton and Richard Jenkins, c.1943–4. Photograph in the collection of Philip Burton.

  2 Burton in the school rugby team, 1938–9. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  3 Burton with his father in Pontrhydyfen, 1953. Photograph by Raymond Kleboe/Getty Images.

  4 Burton in his library, c.1953–4. Photograph by Tom Blau, Camera Press London.

  5 Burton, Sybil and Kate at Céligny, c.1958. Photograph by Robert Penn.

  6 Burton in the Café de la Gare, Céligny, c.1958. Photograph by Robert Penn.

  7 ‘Vodka Poem’ by T. H. White, c.1961, in the Richard Burton Archives, Swansea University. By courtesy of the T. H. White Estate.

  8 Burton and Taylor on a yacht, 1962. Sipa Press/Rex Features.

  9 Burton and Taylor on a balcony of Casa Kimberley, 1965. Mirrorpix.

  10 Burton, Taylor, Liza and Maria, 1968. Associated Newspapers/Rex Features.

  11 Burton and Ivor. By courtesy of Graham Jenkins.

  12 Burton in Hamlet, 1964. Photograph by George Silk/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images.

  13 Burton and Taylor linking arms for a drink, 1967. Associated Press.

  14 Tayor with her 33.19 carat diamond ring, 1968. Express Newspapers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

  15 Burton and Taylor arrive at RAF, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, by private jet, 1967. Mirrorpix.

  16 Burton and Taylor on board Kalizma, 1967. Photograph by David Cairns/Getty Images.

  17 Burton in Anne of the Thousand Days, 1969. Photograph by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.

  18 Burton and Taylor at Heathrow Airport, 1970. Mirrorpix.

  19 Burton during a break from filming The Klansman, 1974. Photograph by Terry O'Neill/Getty Images.

  20 Burton at St Peter's College, Oxford, c.1972. Photograph by Billett Potter, Camera Press London.

  21 Burton and Susan Hunt, 1976. Photograph by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

  22 ‘Yet another Richard Burton divorce is announced’, Grenfell Jones cartoon, 1983. Copyright permission granted by Darryl Jones.

  23 Kate and Richard at the opening of Private Lives, 1983. Photograph by Ron Galella/Wine Image.

  24 Burton and Sally after their wedding, 1983. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  25 Burton reading on the terrace. By courtesy of Sally Burton.

  26 Burton's library at Céligny c.1985. Photograph by Derek Bayes.

  1 This studio portrait captures Richard at the very beginning of his acting career in the early 1940s, alongside his greatest mentor and the man whose surname he took, the English teacher and dramatist Philip Burton.

  2 Port Talbot Secondary School's first fifteen (rugby union), 1938–9. Richard is in the middle row, second from right. According to legendary Welsh international Bleddyn Williams, ‘Richard would have made as good a wing-forward as any we have produced in Wales!’

  3 Richard and his father – ‘Dic Bach’ – walking across the tramroad viaduct in Richard's home village of Pontrhydyfen, in the direction of the Miners’ Arms public house, 1953. Richard admired his father's physical strengh and capacity for drink, but not much more.

  4 Richard, studying the text of Hamlet, c.1953–4, in his London home at Lyndhurst Road, Camden, where he and his first wife Sybil lived from 1950 to 1957. On his bookshelves are a number of volumes about actors, acting and playwrights.

  5 Richard, Sybil and their first daughter Kate, at their home – Le Pays de Galles – in Céligny, Switzerland, c.1958.

  6 Richard improving his French in conversation with owner/manager Paul Fillistorf at the Café de la Gare in Céligny, c.1958. Richard would return to the Café's unpretentious comfort with regularity for the next quarter century.

  7 T. H. White's gift of his ‘Vodka Poem’ is mentioned by Burton in his diaries, 26 May 1969. ‘Richard ap Richard’ is Welsh for ‘Richard son of Richard’. ‘Gwalia’ is ‘Wales’.

  8 A month before the end of filming Cleopatra, Richard and Elizabeth spent time together on a yacht off the island of Ischia, Naples, June 1962. The paparazzi's long lenses revealed that ‘le Scandale’ had far from run its course.

  9 Richard and Elizabeth were based in the small Mexican coastal town of Puerto Vallarta while Richard was filming The Night of the Iguana in autumn 1963. They bought Casa Kimberley and returned there frequently over the next decade.

  10 Richard, Maria Burton, Liza Todd and Elizabeth at Chalet Ariel, Gstaad, December 1968. ‘I am very excited at the thought of going home and seeing the two girls in their various [school] plays’, Richard had written a few days earlier.

  11 Richard and his older brother Ivor, whom he admired and respected greatly, in the mid-1960s. Ivor's death in 1972 precipitated a catastrophic decline in Richard's personal and professional fortunes.

  12 Directed by John Gielgud, Richard's Hamlet ran for 134 performances on New York's Broadway in 1964, following a successful run in Toronto. A version was broadcast in cinemas across the USA and a long-playing record released.

  13 While working on The Comedians in the South of France, Richard and Elizabeth discovered that Elizabeth had won her second Best Actress Oscar for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? Richard's third nomination in three years for Best Actor was not successful.

  14 Elizabeth shows off the 33.19 carat Krupp diamond, which cost $305,000,
while in Britain for the filming of Harlech Television's ‘Opening Night’ in May 1968. Richard and Elizabeth were both directors of HTV.

  15 Richard and Elizabeth arrive at RAF Abingdon, Oxfordshire in their Hawker Siddeley HS.125, in preparation for the film premiere of Doctor Faustus, October 1967. Elizabeth is wearing her The Night of the Iguana brooch, a present from Richard from four years earlier.

  16 Richard and Elizabeth bought their yacht (renamed the Kalizma) in July 1967. They are pictured here the following month off the Capo Caccia peninsula, Sardinia, during the filming of Boom! Richard revelled in the peace and isolation he found on his ‘second home’.

  17 Richard was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days, but it was not a role he enjoyed – ‘Anybody can play Henry VIII . . . even Robert Shaw’.

  18 Richard and Elizabeth arrive at Heathrow Airport, London, in September 1970, prior to Richard filming Villain. He is carrying his new Olivetti typewriter, complete with Welsh flag sticker (see diary entry for 23 May 1970).