In the centennial year of actor Richard Burton’s birth, a movie that chronicles his early years in a Welsh mining village will be released.
Harry Lawtey plays a young Burton in Mr. Burton, while Toby Jones plays Philip Burton, the actor’s teacher who noticed the actor’s dramatic talent and took him under his wing.
Burton, who starred in the Hollywood blockbuster Cleopatra and was well-known for his strong performances in Shakespearean stage roles and Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, passed away in 1984 at the age of 58.
The movie highlights a relationship that had a “profound impact” on Burton’s life, according to producer Ed Talfan.
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The movie is based on the real-life story of Richard Jenkins, a mischievous schoolboy who was born in 1925 in Pontrhydyfen, in the Afan Valley, near Port Talbot.
The movie, which will be released in April, explores the hardships Burton’s family endured while he was growing up. Burton’s father, Richard Jenkins, was a miner.
His teacher, Philip Burton (played by Bafta winner Toby Jones, who most recently played Alan Bates in Mr. Bates vs. The Post Office), notices his dramatic talent.
Richard receives his first acting role thanks to Philip and the assistance of Lesley Manville’s character, the landlady Ma Smith.
He later assumed the surname Burton and became Richard’s legal guardian.
Known for his tumultuous love life and alcoholism, Burton was married five times, including twice to Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he starred in eleven movies.
His tale of rising from poverty in a Welsh mining town to Hollywood stardom, however, is one that never goes out of style.
Ed Talfan, the film’s producer, stated, “I think there is a huge national pride in Richard Burton.” “In many ways, he’s the North Star of Welsh cinema.”
He said, “He made this incredible leap to global stardom from a very tough, impoverished background.”
The film, which was directed by Marc Evans and written by Tom Bullough, both fellow Welshmen, focuses primarily on Richard in his late teens, during World War Two, when Philip Burton tutored him.
It also stars Steffan Rhodri as Richard’s father Dic Jenkins, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Aneurin Barnard and Elfed, Richard’s sister and brother-in-law.
The trailer hints at the roots of his alcoholism and shows the prejudice faced by working class actors in 1940s the early 1950s.
“It is very much the first chapter in his story,” Mr Talfan said.
Actors in previous generations would have been expected to speak “Queen’s English”, but Burton embraced where he was from, Mr Talfan said.
“He managed to change his voice and not jettison or sacrifice any of his Welshness. You hear the same thing in Anthony Hopkins,” Mr Talfan said.
“He was just a huge breath of fresh air.”
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