Richard Burton was a global icon – famed for his powerful, baritone voice and passionate yet tumultuous relationship with fellow megastar Elizabeth Taylor.
But until now, few had ever heard of Philip Burton.
Philip was Richard’s school teacher who spotted his potential, became his legal ward, lent him his name and helped propel him to international stardom.
“It was a friendship built for the ages, an unlikely friendship,” said Ed Talfan, a producer on new biopic Mr Burton, which was released in UK cinemas on Friday.
The film tells the story of Richard’s difficult early life in Port Talbot, south Wales.
Philip, played by Toby Jones, is portrayed as a serious and cultured man who, alongside teaching English, writes and produces plays.
Scrappy young schoolboy Richard, played by Harry Lawtey, has ambitions to become an actor, so Philip teaches him to stand up straight and transforms his speaking voice by getting him to round his vowels, pronounce his consonants and project.
But in fact the two men’s backgrounds were more similar than their demeanours ever suggested – and his role in Richard’s life would prove to be transformative.
Philip grew up 30 miles (48km) from Richard in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“Philip had a rather tragic and lonely childhood,” said historian and Philip’s biographer Prof Angela John, who acted as an informal consultant on the film.
“His father was killed in a pit accident when Philip was only 14… he wasn’t that close to his mother and he’d been very close to his father.”
Philip was an avid reader and theatre lover who won a scholarship to Cardiff University to read Maths when he was only 16.
“In a way he forged a whole new persona,” said Angela.
“He had sort of ironed out his Welsh accent because unfortunately in those days, if you wanted to get on and if you wanted to be taken seriously in England… you had to sadly get rid of your accent.”
Richard, born Richard Jenkins in 1925, was twenty years Philip’s junior.
He would have been one of 13 children, but two died in infancy.
When Richard was two years old, his mother died from septicaemia after giving birth to a younger brother.
“He was a working-class young man growing up in, I think it’s fair to say, abject poverty,” said Ed.
Richard ended up living with his sister, her husband who was a miner, and their two young daughters.
“The outlook for him was really, really tough. If you’re a betting person, you’d have just said, ‘well he’s going to end up down the mines or at the steelworks’,” he said.
Angela, who has written Behind the Scenes: The Dramatic Lives of Philip Burton, said Richard’s family was “large” and “caring”.
“So even though his father had drink problems and there wasn’t that much money around, they gave whatever they could,” she added.
