The teacher who helped to propel Richard Burton to glory

Richard Burton was a global icon – famous for his powerful voice and baritone and his passionate but tumultuous relationship with his compatriot Megastar Elizabeth Taylor.

But so far, little had ever heard of Philip Burton.

Philip was Richard’s school teacher who spotted his potential, became his legal service, lent him his name and helped him to propel him towards international celebrity.

“It was a friendship built for ages, improbable friendship,” said Ed Talfan, producer of New Biopic M. Burton, published Friday in British cinemas.

The film tells the story of Richard’s first lives in Port Talbot, south of Wales.

Philip, played by Toby Jones, is described as a serious and cultivated man who, alongside the teaching of English, writes and produces pieces.

Scrappy Young Schoolboy Richard, played by Harry Lawtey, has ambitions to become an actor, then Philip teaches him to stand straight and transform his speaking voice by making him circumvent his vowels, pronounce his consonants and his project.

But in fact, the two history of men were more similar than their behaviors suggested – and his role in Richard’s life would prove to be a transformer.

Philip grew up 30 miles (48 km) from Richard to Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

“Philip had a rather tragic and lonely childhood,” said Philip’s historian and biographer, Professor Angela John, who acted as informal consultant on the film.

“His father was killed in a stand accident when Philip was only 14 years old … He was not so close to his mother and he had been very close to his father.”

Philip was a passionate reader and theater lover who won a scholarship at the University of Cardiff to read mathematics when he was only 16 years old.

“In a way, he forged a brand new character,” said Angela.

“He had sort of apose his Welsh accent because unfortunately at that time, if you wanted to continue and if you wanted to be taken seriously in England … Unfortunately you had to get rid of your accent.”

Richard, born Richard Jenkins in 1925, was twenty years old by Philip’s junior.

He would have been one of the 13 children, but two died at a young age.

When Richard was two years old, his mother died of septicemia after giving birth to a younger brother.

“He was a young man from the working class who grew up, I think he is right to say, abject poverty,” said Ed.

Richard ended up living with her sister, her husband who was a minor and their two young girls.

“The prospects for him were really, really difficult. If you are a person in Paris, you would have just said:” Well, he will find himself in the mines or in the steers, “he said.

Angela, who wrote behind the scenes: Philip Burton’s dramatic life, said that Richard’s family was “tall” and “attentive”.

“So, even if his father had drink problems and there was not much money around, they gave everything they could,” she added.

Richard and Philip’s relationship really started after Richard was forced to leave school at 16 to support his family by getting a job.

Philip, who had taught in Richard at school, decided to intervene.

“(Philip) was able, following several key personalities from Port Talbot … to find Richard at school, which is a rather unusual thing to go back to school when you left,” said Angela.

With somewhat cramped conditions with his sister, Richard moved into my Smith’s house, where Philip was a tenant.

“And then from that moment, Richard was under training daily by Philip,” said Angela.

Philip became the legal district of Richard, assuming his responsibility for him, then Richard Jenkins changed his name in Richard Burton.

“This has happened for several reasons,” said Angela.

“This is a horrible thing to say these days, but (Richard) would be better placed to have a name like Burton, which was less considered as a kind of Welsh name in the working class.

“In addition, in fact, Philip took responsibility for Richard and was already a respected person in the world of theater himself, so that gave Richard another opportunity.”

In the film, Richard’s biological father, played by Steffan Rhodri, is wary of Philip’s interest in his son, but happy to take a bundle of money in exchange for the signing of papers to put legal responsibility.

The previous biographies went further, suggesting that Philip’s interest in Richard was sexual.

“My point of view may be quite different,” said Angela.

“There is no evidence or evidence that there was a problem there or that Richard really found this a problem.

“What I would say is that Philip was gay … much later in life when he lived in America, he had a long -term known relationship, so I think that in some cases, it’s people putting two and two together and doing 25.”

Ed agreed.

“The people I spoke to and the people who spoke who knew who knew Richard and Philip personally, and the vast majority of biographies, our point of view is that Philip’s motifs were good, honest and pure,” he said.

Philip’s connections gave Richard his acting break, according to Angela.

After building a reputation in the theater, Richard made his screen debut in 1949 in the last days of Dolwyn.

He continued to be considered by many as the best actor ever emerged from Wales, with films such as Cleopatra and who is afraid of Virginia Woolf?

In 1960, he won a Tony Award for his performance as King Arthur in Camelot on Broadway. He was nominated seven times for an Oscar but has never won.

Richard got married five times, twice consecutively with Elizabeth Taylor.

Meanwhile, Philip has worked on nearly 200 radio programs, producing work by Dylan Thomas.

He reinvented himself in the mid-1950s, moving to the United States where he became the first director of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York.

Richard and Philip remained close throughout their lives outside a period of two years when they were not in contact.

“Philip would not speak to Richard because he was so faithful to SybilRichard’s first wife, “said Angela.

She said it was Elizabeth Taylor who, despite not having met Philip at this stage, gathered the pair.

“(Richard) was trying to head around the production of Gielgud de Hamlet and had difficulties with that … So (Elizabeth) phoned (Philip) and asked him if he came to help Richard,” said Angela.

She said that Elizabeth’s friendship continued after Richard’s death in 1984 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

“When Philip was dying, Elizabeth went to visit her to the hospital in Florida and the room for the room said that she had fallen almost when she saw who the visitor was,” said Angela.

Philip died in 1995, at the age of 90.

Ed thinks that the history of their relationship will resonate with a lot.

“It is almost a cliché that everyone remembers a great teacher, but it is a cliché for a reason because you do not need it in your life and it is transformer,” he said.

Angela hopes that the film will allow Philip to take her own place in history.

“It clearly helps to make Philip better known in the world, which I think he deserves to be,” she said.

“He deserves to be known in its own right because he was in fact a remarkable man.”

Burton’s daughter Kate said that it was “very emotional” on the set and looking at the “extraordinary” performances of actors Lawtey as her father and Rhodri as her grandfather.

“I just saw these two incredible actors playing these two very important men in my life … It was the strangest and strangest thing,” she told BBC Radio 4 Today program.

“I thought it looked really wonderful and very authentic. It was the thing that made me the happiest.”

The actor said that Lawtey’s performance as a young Richard showed a side of her father whom she would not have known.

“There are moments when he is almost childish, and there are times when he is very adult and I think it was something that felt very, very authentic in terms of the way Dada had to sail in his life because he had to grow very, very quickly.”

Kate Burton also praised the performance of Toby Jones by Philip Burton which she described as “my grandfather adopted”.

“What I felt about Toby is that he had found the incredible dignity of Phil Burton, his quiet dignity and also his quiet ambition.”

Mr. Burton, produced by Severn Screen, BBC Wales and Ffilm Cymru Wales, is in British cinemas from April 4, 2025