Richard Burton on The Passing of His Mother | The Dick Cavett Show

good evening I think I'll save some time by not going into a long introduction of my desk if you don't know him on-site then you obviously just arrived from some other planet he was here last night in stocking feet and if they'll take too long to explain that but to say that he's a splendid actor is to understate the case and if you don't believe it you can check that out these days in Camelot if you're lucky enough to be in one of the cities that it tour is in would you welcome again what I wish were a month long conversation with Richard Burton last night you were talking about your father and it was wonderful event in passing you mentioned that your mother died when you were when you were 2 when your mother dies at that age do you have any visual memory of her or any kind of no memory at all of no not at all and apparently I was a real mother's white I went with her everywhere I hung on to her but there must have been I think the shock must have been so great that when they tell me she'd gone away and she wouldn't come back which I don't remember being told I never asked for her again I completely obviously cut her out of my two-year-old mind and I have no recollection of her whatsoever I've wonder if under deep hypnosis which can regress people practically to the womb that memories of that age would come out supposedly they do and whether it's they might be nervous or not yes it must be sleeping there somewhere in some dormant part of the brain but I'm not sure that I'd like to yeah to remember what we sort of passed about then amongst sisters and the other parts of your large family no my mother died giving birth to her 13th child and who is very much alive and my brother Graham and he was five days old when she died and she died actually of of neglect she was very strong one because she was she was 44 when she died and she married my father when she was 16 and she had 13 children and two died in infancy and the others grew up medical neglect yes she died a puerperal fever which we used to call bed fever which is simply glog neglect by doctor a hygienic neglect and so my eldest brother was married and so my little brother of my five day old brother went to live with the eldest brother and I went to live with my eldest sister but I commuted as to where she lived in another village called tie bar and she was married to a minor and I would spend the school week as to a Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday with my sister in the village of tie bar and the weekends or most weekends back in pancha Deven with my family with my brothers and sisters so that says he shuttled the shuttle back and forth what's her name we called her sis yes yes actually but she's still very much alive and her husband was like my adopted father and since she died last year from the same diseases my brother pneumoconiosis and he also was 79 and I had a very happy childhood as a matter of fact I often think when I talk to other people and hear about their trials and tribulations with their parents and so on that perhaps it's better to grow up without any to be brought up Thank You Lily or whatever the word is to have aunts and uncles who spoil you and all compete to to get your your affection and your love so I would wander around from family to family and this one would slip me sixpence and another one threatens and so on and I grade them accordingly so I had really very happy childhood were you above telling one that the other one had given you more and I would hint at it yes I was as one would do to one producer the later Burton was pre shadow didn't yes he had his as a matter of fact that always that had this happy year knock off of acquiring money even during the bad days of the depression I I would sometimes as much as the minimum wage of a minor while I was at school it meant a very full day of course I would get up at about I would get up when the miners went to work or rather when they got up before they went to work which would be half us four or five in the morning I still do get up at that time and I would go up to the mountains with a I remember I had a green sweater especially for the occasion and I'd go up to the mountains with a sack and a shovel and fill up the sack with the horse manure and cow manure and take it back home then I would have to take a bath of course cold baths we didn't have any heat because I was thinking and and put this dreaded green sweater away and then I would go and wait for the Express from London and wait for the daily newspapers to arrive and then I delivered the newspapers and then I would have breakfast then I walked to school the grammar school and then I had an arrangement of the fish and chip shop and with my customers who had the newspapers I would sell the dung for sixpence a bucket two of the various allotments you know people had allotments where they had their own gardens and I got six months a bucket full of dung and I was paid one shilling a week for delivering the newspapers which in those days I don't know what there would be in American money I suppose about twenty-five cents and then I would recollect something not all but a great many of the newspapers which I delivered during the week I would recollect them on the Saturday and - efficient chip shop and on Saturday morning they wrapped them in their don't they're selling they used to yes no not now and they don't taste this good you know that without the printer I swear I can tell the difference anyway then I would there was there was a thing that you turned with the handle which cleaned the potatoes in this fish-and-chip shop and but it couldn't get the eyes out so I would I the potatoes and on a good week with tips from my customers and so on I could earn as much as 30 or 35 shillings which was the miners minimum wage at that time and so I always had happy genius for getting money you realize what you've just done you've given some critic and wonderful experience yes so now he can say Burton revealed that he sold dung as a child and now he's at it again you know I think I think they've one or two of them have said that without without knowing without previous knowledge here [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dick Cavett Show

Views: 173,725

Keywords: 1980s interview, British cinema, British filmography, Hollywood actor, Richard Burton, TV interview series, The Dick Cavett Show, actor's personal life, candid discussion, emotional recollection, emotional reminiscing, emotional storytelling, iconic actor, iconic performances, interview, medical neglect, mother's passing, on-screen legends, showbiz history, vintage TV show, vintage television moments

Id: 6hwSJATnqz8

Length: 8min 27sec (507 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 20 2020