A dark, introspective actor with a fine speaking voice, Burton tended to play intelligent and articulate men with a world-weary, self-destructive streak.
His first stage appearance was in 1943, but subsequent service as a Royal Air Force navigator delayed his career. In 1948 he resumed his stage performances and had his first role in a motion picture, The Last Days of Dolwyn. He scored his first real stage triumph in 1949 in Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning.
When Burton came with the play to Broadway the following year, he registered solidly with American producers, and was chosen to play the male lead in My Cousin Rachel (1952), a Daphne du Maurier mystery. His success in that film led to roles in films such as the The Robe (1953), The Rains of Ranchipur and Prince of Players (both 1955).
Burton starred in several respectable British films in the late 1950s, including Look Back in Anger (1959), but his rise to superstardom began with his casting as King Arthur in the Broadway musical Camelot in 1960 (which won him a Tony Award), and his role as Marc Antony in the 1963 film version of Cleopatra During the making of the film, Burton and his costar Elizabeth Taylor carried on an affair, which led both to divorce their current mates-and become headline fodder around the world.
His tempestuous marriage to Elizabeth Taylor led to an acting partnership that elevated Burton to stardom. Together, they made Cleopatra (1963), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). He chose his later roles less carefully, though he displayed undiminished power in such vehicles as Equus (1977), Wagner (1982), and 1984 (1984).
The actor died Aug. 5, 1984, in Geneva, Switz, less than a week before he was due to begin shooting Wild Geese II, a sequel to his successful mercenary thriller The Wild Geese, made in 1978.
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