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Article: Richard Burton as myth, rogue and Liz's lover
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 12, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Richard Burton A Life. By Melvyn Bragg.
Little, Brown. $22.95.
Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave he was, that Richard Burton!
And how those two warring sides of his character battled at full
force until, at the age of 58, his too, too solid (and
alcohol-sodden) flesh simply gave out.
By the time he died in 1984, observers had been writing his
epitaph for years, and Burton was well practiced in reciting it
himself. It went: Here lies the Welshman, Richard Burton, an actor
of such prodigous talent and intelligence that he might have become
the heir to Gielgud and Olivier. Instead, he squandered his gifts on
drink, on Elizabeth Taylor and on the pursuit of money.
Yet as Melvyn Bragg ...