Focus Features

On November 10, 1925, the great stage and screen actor Richard Burton was born in the small Welsh town of Pontrhydyfen – except that he wasn’t Richard Burton then. He was born Richard Walter Jenkins, the 12th of 13 children in a working class, coal mining family, however had his life forever changed when, aged just two, his mother died after giving birth to her 13th child. He was put in the care of his sister Cecilia (“Cis”), though his brother Ifor, a miner and avid sportsman 19 years his senior, would be the shaping influence in his early life. Growing up, Burton’s passions were reading and language, and sports, with him demonstrating great promise at rugby, cricket and table tennis. (His athletic prowess did not seem to be harmed too much by the fact that, at the age of twelve, he was already drinking and smoking!) A dropout at 15, young Richard was heading nowhere fast until Philip Burton, a school teacher and Richard’s commanding officer in the Air Training Corps, brought order to his life, putting him back into the school system and pushing him to fulfill his considerable potential. To help him solidify a scholarship offer from Oxford University, Burton adopted his gifted protégé, although the actor saw it differently: “He didn’t adopt me; I adopted him,” he would say. Just before attending Oxford, Burton performed in the Emlyn Williams play The Druid’s Rest, and was said by the reviewer from the New Statesman to have “exceptional ability.” From there, he never looked back.

On November 10, 1925, the great stage and screen actor Richard Burton was born in the small Welsh town of Pontrhydyfen – except that he wasn’t Richard Burton then. He was born Richard Walter Jenkins, the 12th of 13 children in a working class, coal mining family, however had his life forever changed when, aged just two, his mother died after giving birth to her 13th child. He was put in the care of his sister Cecilia (“Cis”), though his brother Ifor, a miner and avid sportsman 19 years his senior, would be the shaping influence in his early life. Growing up, Burton’s passions were reading and language, and sports, with him demonstrating great promise at rugby, cricket and table tennis. (His athletic prowess did not seem to be harmed too much by the fact that, at the age of twelve, he was already drinking and smoking!) A dropout at 15, young Richard was heading nowhere fast until Philip Burton, a school teacher and Richard’s commanding officer in the Air Training Corps, brought order to his life, putting him back into the school system and pushing him to fulfill his considerable potential. To help him solidify a scholarship offer from Oxford University, Burton adopted his gifted protégé, although the actor saw it differently: “He didn’t adopt me; I adopted him,” he would say. Just before attending Oxford, Burton performed in the Emlyn Williams play The Druid’s Rest, and was said by the reviewer from the New Statesman to have “exceptional ability.” From there, he never looked back.