Richard Burton Interview 1977 pt 2

which in those days was suitably more than it is now and I paid 61 thousand pounds in tax I thought now there's something wrong there isn't there and of course I wouldn't cheat on income tax I'm too terrified to do that so I thought I've got to do something about it but I kept still kept working in England and the United States and paying British taxes and one day I discovered having a pair and by this time a couple of million I suppose I had a jagged car I had about six thousand pounds in the bank and I had a - loomed rather nice - room flat in Hampstead and I thought what happens if nobody wants me anymore I lose whatever trick it is the detracts bubbling I'm going to be in trouble which is why I moved to Switzerland and then concentrated for quite a time on films until I became rich enough not to worry anymore now you don't worry anymore no no no as I suppose I could retire now and live with relative ease for the rest of my life cause I've I was made a fellow of st. Peter's College Oxford now that doesn't sound like much but they do guarantee me bed and breakfast for the rest of my life and it's never crossed my mind that for instance if there was some sort of financial or other kind of Cataclysm tomorrow which would wipe out everything I have I'm perfectly convinced I can make it all again in six months or a year even if I wasn't wanted as an actor somehow or other I have this capacity for attracting wealth property etcetera have you ever asked yourself why that is if you ever stood back and looked at your own talent or your own ability inside the profession and wondered what it is that made Burton an instant success and what it is that assures Burton that if you had to start again he'd do well again well yes obviously because I don't understand actually gives me a slightly eerie feeling sometimes especially in the middle of the night when one's no longer an atheist you know I'm a daylight atheist in the middle of the night I sometimes when I'm troubled and I reach out for the slim cool comfort of a cigarette after nightmare or something I begin to wonder if there's something rather strange up there but that's a very common Celtic phenomenon sure but it has puzzled me that I know at least shall we say over the years about twenty actors who every bit as accomplished as I am and for the most part I may say far better looking and the same size and weight and shape with all the accoutrements of what one would think a star for lack of a better word should have good voice good presence good eyes and they haven't made it and it always raises the long-gone atavistic short hairs on the back of my vertebrae and I can never quite figure it out and I can only assume it's some sort of diabolical or even divine luck but I wouldn't claim to have priority on it it happens to about there are about twenty or thirty people like that in the world and they don't know but they worry about it because I know most of them very well but I never worry about it but I do sometimes wonder about it I'm not at all I hope you I don't get the impression of smugness I'm not all smug about it I suppose it's some sort of thing that comes from the family from my family background that despite the relative poverty I called it relative poverty now because since I grew up I've been to really poor places and I suddenly realized that we grew up like kings compared shall we say to the people who lived in the slums of Naples or in southern Spain or in some parts of Africa I've been to in South America we lived like Lourdes compared with that but despite that I've never had that feeling of insecurity about money and yet I met immensely wealthy people born wealthy I mean with and I don't mean my kind of work but real wealth 200 million four hundred million were really terrified of losing money losing their money can we talk about for a moment about the burden style the sensational rhombic just sometimes scandalous style of life which which you adopted or which you appear to have adopted in those 10 or 20 years is this this is something deliberate have you always courted that sort of publicity or to just come no I think it was a natural instinct I think I don't know quite what happened but when I first made the big success on the stage I don't mean when I played the first part with Gielgud which elevated me into in inverted commas stardom but when I first played Shakespeare that's when it really hit the jackpot for some reason though other actors of roughly the same age were more or less having the same impact mine was front page for some reason I've never discovered quite why as theirs was on page four and that particular kind of colorful for lack of a better word the publicity has followed me around of course I also have lived very dangerously and I've by I'm built had normal stands I should be a dead man I I've drunk more than most men were doing several thousand lifetimes I may say I haven't had a drink now for eight I can't believe that I've been in wears for 36 hours and I haven't had to drink yet this by the way in case my sister is not water and anyway I find it wrong an interesting to give up drink completely which I have done and discovered for instance that for about five years um didn't quite remember what films I done or anything and I ran into a chap after I'd become a good boy and sobered up I saw a very distinguished actor at the party and I went over and I said of you've so many as I'm so glad to meet you he's an American and he said kid we did a film together lasted four months nicer - thank you very much you were talking Richard about the about the ROM Buster's quality of the life you've led and that the question I had asked was whether you courted the sort of publicity you've got or whether it dogged you well um I realize it was very important part of the business and was always very accommodating with the press I didn't seek them out they sought me out but I didn't turn them away and there was a web course of acquiring publicity I presume I'm thinking absolutely out of the top of my head I've never really thought about it before by not giving like the Greta Garbo type of publicity which is to be the drawers somebody once said famously into the limelight the mine has been the opposite if you wanted to see me I talked and it is I suppose psychologically bill possibly subconsciously anyway in the back of my mind I've always known when to make an explosion of some kind and make sure it's done in public so that the world knows about it have you presented the the publicity which you're a much married man that should which your marital affairs have always attracted or I've only been married four times and twice the second woman so there's only three times really isn't it when I have friends were up in there they're in double figures but a nice marriage my first wife for 13 years and I was mad at my second wife for 13 years and I've been married to my third wife for about 13 weeks so and she's much younger so that last 13 years that'll take us to when 1889 was it something like that moral is you don't like living alone yes I love women all shapes sizes ages as a matter of fact you should have seen me sweep through my village this morning I kissed women from the age of 92 to 8 and I think I got down to one was three and a half so I've absolutely totally without prejudice about women I really love their company and love being with them and the trouble is they appear to love yours as well some will do yes I think why maybe because I talk a lot you don't have a family of your own Richard you don't have if you don't have children to have son anyway to you I don't have a son I have two daughters from my first wife and of course an adoptive daughter that I adopted with Elizabeth when the baby was nine months old she's 15 now and Liza I was also Elizabeth's daughter Will's approximately three years old when I became as to her father so I consider her my daughter and she considers me her father so in actual fact I've got four children the two boys also of course Elizabeth two eldest boys I'm very fond of and they of me and they indeed come around to see me all the time as they did last week before I came down yet the Dorchester but they were already seven and nine years old so you don't have quite and also their father was still alive so and they adore him so I don't have quite the same sort of paternal love for them enormous affection as I do for the girls and you're not done yet I origin not done yet received our Susan is very tall she's English too easy well the touch of Scottish blood so that gives a nice little Celtic sort of tinge to it all and she's five feet ten and I'm five feet ten and a half and if we can get the length to go into her and my breath and produce a boy he's all sitting pretty number a toughie where I was told I was told that I was allowed one question provided it wasn't a ruled one Richard about it about Elizabeth so let's see if I can phrase it the Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor relationship to other 60s will that you think be the one of the dominant events of your life well when when the time comes oh yes yes yes was it was a tremendous fun and I adore down the door Elizabeth that we just find find it impossible to live together because our temperaments are both very high and very explosive and I suppose you know thirteen years of such intensity with two people living together who adored each other as much as we did it's it's at such a continual seething boiling point that eventually it spills over but there is no rancor no animosity on either side and she seems to be very content with her present husband who couldn't be more opposite from me than he is he's a liar and he smokes a pipe and he's a great gentleman and he's a the American equivalent of an English squire and perhaps that's the best thing I could have done for Elizabeth is to allow her a little piece from my quite demanding personalities sometimes sometimes of course I'm a little angel well in the course of the program Richard you told me that you've you've got past the male menopause safely that you've got all the money oh we go off all the money that you need you've got a new wife which I'm not terribly rich mind you but I've got enough you've got a new wife with whom you're very happy you've got the the drink problem buttoned up you can handle it what more does life offer you what what more you want from it now I think I ideally but again this might be a pipe dream I'd like to perhaps in five six years become mum a cameo player if you not I mean let everybody else do the work and have a very splendid part lasting about 20 minutes in which you walk away for the entire show and get to the theater late and go home early or to the film studio early and go home early and occasionally right I I feel as if it's great you particularly about my family that I should write because it is a remarkable family each one of my brothers I think is just as talent desire but never went the same in the same direction as I do particularly one or two of them and I'd like to write about my father my mother my ancestors and I think it's the pull of this place the physical pool or Ponte to them and not to be forgotten tie bath which also is gives me a great great turns my stomach's warm water this kind of this whole ambience the faces the people the accents the language - applause well mr. Burton you're very welcome on this program just as you're very welcome every time you come back to Wales thank you very much thank you

Channel: Will B

Views: 81,436

Rating: 4.852941 out of 5

Keywords: Richard Burton (Actor)

Id: kWYbdPnatcA

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 17 2013