Richard Burton: A Life

Rating:
Summary: Very Engaging and Well Written
Review: I approached this book simply as a comprehensive biography of Richard Burton and instead found it to be the most well-written and very detailed. It draws heavily on Burton's own Notebooks, his diary, and while "Rich" may have taken the mickey out of journos over the years, he is candid and blunt in his personal writings.

I enjoyed this book very much, and found it difficult to put it down once I began reading it. It makes me wish I had a moment to converse with Burton himself, a true bookworm and erudite man who was still down-to-earth enough.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT INSIGHTS INTO A VERY COMPLEX MAN
Review: I enjoyed this biography immensely, especially being as there
are generous quotes and insights from Burton's personal
journal and writings over a period of two decades and more.
Richard Burton was one of the most famous and remarkable
actors, celebrities, and 'genius's' of the past century.
He lived his life adventurously, ... even wrecklessly at
times. But he was never boring (as a man or as an actor)!
He was a 'one of a kind' person. Few people would disagree
with that accessment.
I highly recommend this book/biography. It is filled with
fascinating facts and insights on a man who remains on of
the most enigmatic and charismatic personality of our era.

Rating:
Summary: A Troubled, Fascinating Man
Review: There's a photo of Richard Burton in this book that's probably my own personal favorite: he's sitting on the back step of his house and completely absorbed in a book, oblivious to everything else around him.
He loved to read and there's also a photo of the inside of his house--and it looks like a library! (In fact, the only thing he ever asked for in his divorces were his books).

But what really makes this biography worth reading is that the author quotes Burton's own "notebooks," his diary that he kept over the years. You definitely get a deeper look into this celebrity as a person than most show business books provide.

He was certainly a conflicted man. Here was someone who was starring in the biggest movie ever made (CLEOPATRA), having an affair with the world's most glamorous actress (he'd buy Liz the Hope Diamond as one gift), living on a yatch off Monte Carlo, and yet he would grouse in his diary: "The French, American and Russian revolutions have meant nothing--the rich still get everything!" (I'm paraphrasing a bit).
I believe his own personal demons brought out his best performances: his HAMLET (available on DVD), BECKET (still not on DVD!), WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, EQUUS. There was such a despair in his eyes that it rarely looked like acting at all.
There always seemed to be something haunting him: his poor Welsh upbringing and alcoholic father, his abandonment of the "legitimate British stage" for the "Hollywood quick buck," his guilt over failed marriages. Unfortunately, he turned to drink too often to numb himself.

Richard Burton was a great actor. Even if some of the pain and rage was real.

Rating:
Summary: Burton's diaries make this worth it
Review: This is a well-researched and thoughtfully-written biography of a man who was perhaps the most famous man in the world in the decade of the 1960's. Now, sadly, Burton's legacy and fame have dimmed considerably and he's remembered more as Elizabeth Taylor's fifth (and sixth) husband. He was much more than that. I have always thought Burton overacted miserably in most of his roles and I was chiefly intrigued with him because of his beautiful physicality and because was an erudite, deeply intelligent man. He was also a prodigious reader and a keen intellect, but this genius seemed utterly wasted on Liz, a woman with whom he shared a passionate sex life, but precious little else.

The highlight of this book is the inclusion of over 100 pages of Burton's diaries, kept meticuously from 1965 until his death. Burton writes candidly, wittily and brilliantly. It's devilishly exciting to read his words about Liz and his vicious put downs of others, including a visceral tirade against poor Lucille Ball. He also muses on occasion about his autistic daughter, Jessica, who was hidden by the Burtons and kept in an institution all her life.

Burton had a larger-than-life appetite for living, sex, booze... you name it. He was self-destructive, manic-depressive and difficult, but all of those things make for a compelling character and this book illuminates him like no other.