Talk:Richard Burton

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[edit] Name

Richard Burton was also a nineteenth-century British adventurer and eccentric, who first translated the Kama Sutra and, I believe, The Arabian Nights into English, thereby introducing them to the West. He is one of those obscure historical figures with a tremendous cult following even today. Should this be disambiguated for a potential new page? Danny

Absolutely should be disambiguated. He isn't an obscure figure at all! Total wack job, sure, but he is the true discoverer of the sources of the Nile (Speke was a punk), did much to introduce the cultures of India, Africa, and the Middle East to the West. Disambiguate away and I will work on him. The actor is more obscure than he is at this point. Ortolan88
How should we distinguish them? Richard Burton (actor) and Richard Burton (whack job)? ;-) Danny

Either Richard Burton (author) or Richard Burton (adventurer) ought to do it; I'm leaning toward "author", as he's so well known for Arabian nights. --Ed Poor

I thought first of Richard Burton (explorer), but Richard Burton (orientalist) is best. The latter covers Arabian Nights, sneaking into Mecca, chasing the Nile, all in one. After all, his tomb looks like a desert tent. Ortolan88 16:09 Aug 1, 2002 (PDT)

--- I put the sentence It was at this time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his hallmark. in this article way back in August and it was meant to be associated with his supposed time at Oxford. It is now in the first paragraph and looks out of place. Mintguy 22:37 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC)

The Internet sources I perused said that too, and that it was why he left after only six months, that the faculty felt he was overshadowing Shakespeare's lines with his unique style, but you can check out Deb's reaction to that scenario at Talk:University of Oxford. -- isis 22:52 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC)
It's true, he may have picked up an "Oxford accent", but he had already had some coaching in "losing his Welsh accent" from Philip Burton, who, as well as a teacher of English, was a BBC radio producer.

Deb

What makes you think Burton 'lost his Welsh accent' -- those beautifully rounded vowels are pure Welsh -- ask Bryn Terfel. Burton's official websites simply states Philip Burton encouraged him to speak more distinctly by walking further away and getting him to project his voice -- nothing about a change of accent for a man who had written into his contracts 'not to work on St David's Day'. Philip Burton is often describes as an English teacher, but was, in fact, a teacher of English. He, himself, the son of a miner, came from the heart of the South Wales vallies and for higher education moved no further than Univesity College, Cardiff.

It's in quotes because it's what Philip Burton said he wanted him to do. But I agree he never quite lost it. Deb 17:06, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
Hmm the fags1 and the booze would have assisted in his voice change and I'm not sure he would have been quite so heavily into either at 16.
I see. I must have misunderstood what you meant about his distinctive way of speaking! (Although I think he was probably already into fags and booze as a teenager.) Deb
Richard began smoking cigarettes when he was only eight years old and for most of his life smoked about sixty a day.

[edit] Rugby League

Wasn't he a big rugby league fan? Londo06 18:34, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Churchill

There is a good clip of Burton being interviewed by Michael Parkinson on the BBC I guess in the early 70s in which as his 'party piece' he gives a reading of Churchill's speech to the House of Commons on taking over as Prime Minister.

The Burton-Taylor Theatre in Oxford is named in his (and Liz's) honour. I think it had something to do with the production there of Faust but any idea if they made a cash contribution or endowment.

[edit] Knighthood

Imdb.com bio says he was a CBE. However, this is not a knighthood, is it? Thus he was never "Sir Richard". Incidentally he's not in the WP article with the list of recipients of the Order of the British Empire honours. Can someone who's up on the British honours system clear this up? Ellsworth 23:36, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

You're right, he wasn't a knight. I think we've been here before. It was the other Richard Burton who was a knight. Deb 16:51, 21 April 2006 (UTC)
So the paragraph in the article is correct. I'll put in that he was a CBE as imdb bio information is presumably reliable. Ellsworth 00:54, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Narrative gap

This article jumps from him being an air force cadet in WWII straight to, "In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star." I'm guessing he did some other acting in between, like on the stage or in English films. Golfcam 02:09, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

English films...English films????!!!??? I can't believe you said that! Deb 17:19, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture

The picture of him is not sastisfactory. It's too small. The last picture was a close-up and even that one was only decent. The picture's been changed twice over the past couple monthes. I reccomend the picture of him found on IMDB and then keep it that way.

A picture of Burton as Marcellus in "The Robe (1953), when he was 27, would be best because that film showed the actor at his most handsome.
I have to agree . It's poor quality. Does anybody have a problem with [http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1396/Mptv/1396/0406_0538.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Burton,%20Richard%20(I)
Good photo, can we get it uploaded, this article really needs a photo in its infobox Grunners (talk) 13:34, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Source question.

I'd like to add a quote about Richard loving Elizabeth up until the day he died despite remarrying other women, but I can't find it online. I do, however, have it in a biography penned by Richard Burton's brother Graham Jenkins. What's the policy for book citations?

Maybe Jenkins made it up. He seemed to ignore every bad thing about his brother.

There's no problem with citing a book, especially when it's a primary source. It doesn't matter whether Graham Jenkins made it up - he's still in a better position to know whether it was said than 99.9% of people are. Deb 11:47, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

This is the same Graham who denied his brother's homosexual affairs, despite not being with him at the time.

[edit] Conan 1997?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0545498/ ?

[edit] Bisexual?

"Burton admitted to being bisexual in an interview, although his exact words could be viewed as merely an example of his wit."

What were his exact words? Why not let the reader decide how they could be viewed?

He said all actors drink to cover up their homosexuality, and that he was once actively gay as a young man. This was from a 1974 interview with Michael Parkinson. (InLikeErrol 16:56, 15 June 2007 (UTC))

[edit] PICTURE CLAIMED TO BE IN PUBLIC DOMAIN

http://www.retrosellers.com/images/spywhocamein.jpg http://www.retrosellers.com/features97.htm (see note at bottom of page) Does anyone think this picture could be used for the main article? 81.184.56.76 22:32, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Equus212.jpg

Image:Equus212.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot 04:49, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Hologram" of Burton

While Burton's voice was used in the stage production of War Of The Worlds, it is inaccurate to state that it was a hologram of him, or indeed a hologram at all. The process used was to film an actor synching his speech in Burton-like make-up, his head restrained to prevent excess movement, and this image projected upon a profiled 'sphere' that was essentially a head-shaped screen, the projection providing the detail of the eye and mouth movement while the screen allowed immobile features such as the nose to 'stand out' into the ostensibly 2D projection of detail. I think one term used was a "soligram" (possibly "solo-"), but it isn't strictly speaking a hologram of any kind.

(Incidentally, the decision was made to to make the image of Burton the younger and more visually iconic version of himself, even though matching against the more mature voice of the narrating Burton.)

Thinking about it, I should have checked that this information is not contained within the WotW stageplay article, but I feel that a correction should be made. Less verbose than the above, perhaps referencing an existing explanation, certainly adding 'quotes' to the term to show the looseness of the term.62.49.25.104 (talk) 15:13, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Latest additions

Some substantial additions were recently made, and some of the new content was very definitely not NPOV, even though it was referenced. I also amended the statement that Burton won first prize as a boy soprano at "the Eisteddfod". The phrase implies that this was the National Eisteddfod which I very much doubt. More probably it was a local eisteddfod or perhaps a local heat of the Urdd Youth Eisteddfod. If it was the National, everyone would have heard about it sooner. Maybe someone knows the facts behind this? Deb (talk) 18:05, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

can i just say laurence burton is a gammon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.62.166 (talk) 18:27, 15 May 2008 (UTC)