News about Richard Burton

If there had been a competition for scene-stealing among Britain's great actresses, it's odds-on that Dame Maggie Smith, who died yesterday at the age of 89, would have won it hands down. She was still in her twenties when she had a scene with Richard Burton in Terence ­Rattigan's comedy-drama The VIPs. She upstaged the Welsh Wizard to such an extent that he later admitted it was tantamount to committing 'grand larceny'. More than half a century later, in her ­eighties, she was still stealing scenes as the indomitable and Machiavellian Violet ­Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, in the phenomenally successful Downton Abbey.

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What would a modern therapist make of eighteen-year-old Elizabeth I? There would be a lot to unpack. First, the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, when Elizabeth was a toddler. Then, the coming and going of four stepmothers. What to make of the death of her father, King Henry VIII? Perhaps it's no surprise 18-year-old Elizabeth - though brilliantly clever - was dogged by anxiety. Richard Burton was born on November 10, 1925 in the small front bedroom of a terraced house in Pontrhydyfen, a village in South Wales. He was the twelfth of thirteen children in the Welsh-speaking family of Richard and Edith Jenkins. Troubles at home forced him to drop out of school, and wave goodbye to hopes of a 'bright future'. It must have been a relief for Geoffrey Chaucer to have reached his eighteenth birthday. Born the son of a London vintner, as a young child he endured the horrors of the Black Death, a plague which attacked 'the whole of England so violently that scarcely one in ten of either sex was left alive'.

Elizabeth Taylor revealed her father branded her a w***e when her affair with Richard Burton [pictured together left] was exposed. Her shocking revelation was unveiled in an unearthed recording which featured in HBO documentary Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes, where she opens up about her life and loves.  The Hollywood star, who passed away in 2011 aged 79, famously sent shockwaves through the showbiz world when she fell for Richard while still married to fourth husband Eddie Fisher - with the lovebirds marrying just 10 days after she divorced Eddie. And while Elizabeth and Richard's union made headlines around the world, drawing shock and anger from both Hollywood and the Vatican, Elizabeth found herself facing very harsh criticism closer to home when her father Francis Lenn Taylor [pictured right with Elizabeth] told her what he thought of her.

With her tumbling auburn hair, green eyes, alabaster skin and seductive Irish brogue, Edna O'Brien was as glamorous as any of the women whose lives filled the pages of her best-selling novels. But there was one critical difference: a delicious aura of scandal and intrigue clung to the writer, who has died at the age of 93. Right up until old age she remained a spell-binding femme fatale about whom men, captivated by her beauty, were inclined to tell tall tales. For women, she was celebrated not just for the vividness of her prose but also for challenging conventions about their role - and particularly about sex.

It's official: Welsh voices are proper lush. The soothing accent heard from the likes of Richard Burton, Rob Brydon or Catherine Zeta-Jones has been deemed the most calming of all Britain's regional brogues. In a survey, 38 per cent of people said they found Welsh tones relaxing, more than any other part of the UK. Yorkshire and Cornish accents came joint second, at 36 per cent each, followed by Northern Irish.

Kneeling in front of his mother with his sword at his side, Prince Charles vowed that he would be her 'liege man of life and limb' 55 years ago today. It was a solemn promise that the Prince of Wales - as he was then - would live up to in the decades he spent as the heir of Queen Elizabeth II. At Caernarfon Castle on July 1, 1969, Charles made history as his mother placed his futuristic coronet on his head while 4,000 invited guests saw the proceedings in person and a further 500million people around the world watched on television. But the terror threat from Welsh nationalists (inset, an Army bomb disposal van outside Caenarvon Castle the day before the ceremony) was so high that the BBC recorded obituary tributes to the 20-year-old future King in case he was assassinated. In the early hours of the morning of July 1, two militant nationalists were killed by their own bomb in the town of Abergele, on the route of the royal train. Another bomb planted in a Caernarfon police constable's garden also went off, and activists hiding in the crowd hurled eggs at the Queen's horse-drawn carriage. However, the proceedings were ultimately a success - Charles fulfilled the first part of his destiny and millions across the nation and the world were buoyed by the spectacle.

In 'Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes,' that actress revealed she was so miserable in her marriage to Eddie Fisher that she attempted to overdose on sleeping pills. The film, which had its North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday, is based on 40 hours of recently discovered tapes and recordings that Taylor made in the 1960s. She said her marriage to Fisher was 'friggin awful' and when she did leave him for Richard Burton her father called her a whore.

How complicated sex scenes are these days. They are, rightly, all about consent and comfort for the actors but must still fulfil the vision of the director - hence the presence of the 'intimacy co-ordinator' on set. It makes you wonder how movie stars got through them back in the day. Step forward Dame Joan Collins , no less, to clear that one up. 'It's hard to work that up, you know. I mean I did it in The Stud, but I had to get so drunk! We all did,' she says. 'There was an orgy scene and Oliver Tobias, Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns and I got really plastered beforehand.

If you're looking for something to help you mark the anniversary of the historic D-Day landings on Thursday then look no further. Our critics have picked out 30 must-watch shows and films on demand which you won't want to miss. From classics such as The Longest Day, to D-Day: The Unheard Tapes - which brings stories of bravery to life using unheard audio - there will be something for everyone  looking to commemorate 80 years since our heroes fought on the beaches.

In the ugliest divorce since Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Humza Yousaf called a press conference to announce the SNP and the Greens were going their separate ways. Relationships are a fickle thing. On Tuesday, the First Minister said he wanted the Bute House Agreement to continue. Yesterday he was changing the locks and summoning an Uber for Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. Yousaf spoke from Bute House's Room of Doom, the chamber where Nicola Sturgeon unveiled her pact with the Greens and where she later announced her resignation. Doom is where his leadership is heading, so the setting was apt.

Airbnb saw a remarkable 93 percent increase in bookings in Ravello, a city located approximately 15 minutes away from Atrani, a seaside town with a local population of less than 1,000 people where Ripley was filmed. Bookings in Minori, another lesser-known spot just 8 minutes away from Atrani, increased by 63 percent, according to the home-sharing site. Released earlier this month, the Netflix series Ripley comes 25 years after the Amalfi Coast was stunningly featured in the 1999 film adaptation of Highsmith's novel. As tourists flock to the picturesque town, local residents and business owners are bracing themselves for unprecedented challenges posed by large crowds this summer.

The heroic founder of the Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society, Dinah Johnson, fears that the Royal Mail 's proposal to reduce delivery days to two or three a week will spell the end of the letter. 'This is how you get to the death of letter-writing. I didn't think when I set up the society that there would be a scenario where the service is threatened, but it is.' So just how well do you know your letters? Take the test and find out...

BRIAN VINER: If I compiled my list again today, I still wouldn't have space for The Italian Job, Forrest Gump, The Great Escape, or Titanic, which all of which encouraged readers to write in. By the way, that doesn't mean I don't like or even love those photos (although not Titanic), which makes me wish the iceberg would strike a bit sooner). Here is a list of the Top 20 movies you should have included in my Top 100 list, as well as your reasons for... The Shawshank Redemption (left), Mary Poppins (right), and Saving Private Ryan (inset).

According to Elizabeth Taylor, the author of a new book on their rollercoaster romance, Richard Burton's 'Shakespearean dreams' were shattered by her. During the construction of their 1963 mega-flop Cleopatra, the two couples engaged in a wild affair when they were both married to other people. Their tumescent affair became a Hollywood celebrity, with the pair getting married and divorced twice in the middle of a blizzard of alcohol-fuelled zeal.

Double chins can be the scourge of even the most beautiful women in the country, with actor Richard Burton once claiming that Elizabeth Taylor had one. However, researchers now claim that the humble soya bean will rid of the unwanted facial fat. In a lawsuit, a drug is being used selectively to break down submental fat, which affects 60% of people. Research has suggested that the fat, often associated with being overweight, can run in families, and results in loss of skin elasticity with age

Magic formulas must exist for successful TV shows, but actors and writers have yet to find a foolproof spell. Instead, they keep falling back on the classics, remaking favourite shows in the hopes that lightning will strike twice. Here we examine eight classics and compare them to their remakes - some are better than the original, some are more popular but equally good, and at least one of them is a horrible clunker.

JAN MOIR (left): Jeremy King (left) is back where he belongs, sporting his latest restaurant (right), which also happens to be his old restaurant and, perhaps more importantly, was his first restaurant. From 1981 to 2000, the King of Arlington, Texas, operated it with his business partner Chris Corbin as Le Caprice. It was purchased by billionaire Richard Caring in 2005, who closed it three years ago due to the pandemic, but the name and plans to relaunch it in a London hotel were mischievous. However, it is no surprise that it was King Le Caprice's version that thrilled and delighted London. The opulent, the undeniably popular, and the indelibly royal became a favorite haunt in St James's under Corbin & King's direction.

Ellie Goulding, 37, had a glamorous night out at the UK Women in Music festival hosted by Sony this week wearing a stunning floral mini dress. But before she hit the tiles, she shared a series of Instagram posts educating her 13.9 million followers on life after Mr Jopling's 32-year absence. A photograph of the mother of one sunbathing topless in skimpy bikini bottoms by a pool in Costa Rica this week, a precursor to a more cryptic post alluding to the break-up after four years. Ms Goulding posted a sample from a letter sent to Elizabeth Taylor from Richard Burton shortly after he left him in 1973, but the couple divorced in 1976.

Ellie Goulding went topless in a tumultuous snap from her Costa Rica holiday that she shared with her 13.9 million Instagram followers on Thursday. In a video shared on Instagram, the singer, 37, was enjoying a refreshing dip at sunrise as she chronicled her flight away from husband Caspar Jopling, which comes in conjunction with her long-awaited announcement of her divorce. In the snap, she reclining by a pool in just bikini bottoms and showing off her lithe body - right after Richard Burton's 1973 letter to Elizabeth Taylor about her departure from him.

My source tells me that the trip was hoped to take part of Biden's trip to Europe in June to attend the G7 summit in Italy, with time running out before November's presidential race. However, there is a snag. The Palace intends that the visit take place pre-G7 and not afterwards. Why? Because it clashes with Royal Ascot, the King seems determined to maintain his late mother's high attendance records. Don't tell Sleepy Joe!

After a fire three years ago, a grand mansion that has housed Winston Churchill and Richard Burton is being demolished. The impressive Bontddu Hall, which is located in the Welsh countryside, was devastated by a serious fire in June 2020 that resulted in the death of the owner's wife. According to a structural analysis, the repair costs of the building have decreased by more than £4.5 million and the building's asking price has been reduced by more than £750,000 to remain as a private residence or be turned into a stunning hotel. Despite the decrease in price, the mansion hasn't sold, and Eryri National Park Authority has been given the opportunity to demolish the building and build eight new houses in its place. The agent Christie and Co. said, "It has hosted a number of popular guests over the years, including Sir Winston Churchill.'

Robert Forbes, 39, was part of the off-road convoy and leapt into the River Esk in North Yorkshire to try to pull the three victims from the Land Rover Discovery, including his father, Leslie, 70. Witnesses saw him riding his bike behind his father, who was born in East Yorkshire, and his friends, Scott Daddy, 28, of Hull, and Kenneth Hibbins, 59, of Yorkshire, were caught in a separate car. On Thursday, he was seen yelling to assist after being pulled underwater while attempting to cross the treacherous ford just before midday.

Joan Collins is the only one alive who overheard Judy Garland's apology for being late because 'Liza won't stop crying'. Nevertheless, Hollywood was horrible. The designers had hoped for sexual favors. If only she'd be 'nice' to the head of the 20th Century Fox, Joan was offered Cleopatra. Elizabeth Taylor blasted Richard Burton, another predatory actor, indignably, so instead, she got the part opposite him.'