The Man Who Raised Richard Burton (Who Wasn’t His Father)
Actor Richard Burton was born Richard Jenkins in Wales in 1925. The famed celebrity and movie star died in 1984 at the age of 58. It was Richard Burton’s surrogate father who inspired his stage name honoring the man who encouraged him to become an actor.
Richard Burton was taken in by a man named Philip Burton
After Burton’s mother died, he was taken in by his older sister Cecelia and her husband, Elfed James. While in school and training as a cadet with the Royal Air Force, Richard Burton schoolmaster Philip Burton.
Philip Burton was impressed with Richard Burton’s promising talent and began tutoring him and helping him with theatre. He attempted to adopt Richard Burton, but was unable to because of the actor’s age.
Instead, Philip Burton became his official legal guardian and changed the future actor’s name to Richard Burton.
“He came into my life in 1943 and went out of it in 1984. Despite his faults, none of them petty, I remember Richard with pride in his best achievements and with gratitude for a fulfilling paternal relationship that lasted over 40 years and still remains deeply within me,” Philip Burton said according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Richard Burton and Philip Burton had a falling out
Even though Philip Burton helped launch Richard Burton’s career, the two became estranged after the actor married Elizabeth Taylor in 1964.
When Burton and Taylor first met on the set of Cleopatra in 1962, Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher, and Burton was married to Sybil Christopher. Their affair was exposed, and they married after divorcing their former partners.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, “Philip Burton refused to speak to his son for two years” after Richard Burton married Taylor.
However, Taylor helped the two start speaking again. “Ms. Taylor, who married Richard Burton twice, encouraged the reconciliation with his father. She asked the elder Burton to help the actor when he became frustrated with a production of Hamlet.”
Who did Richard Burton leave his money to?
In 1984, Burton died from an intracerebral hemorrhage. At the time of his death, Burton’s spouse was Sally Hay Burton and had multiple children and step-children.
According to the Associated Press, Burton “left the bulk of his $2.7 million estate to his fourth wife” and also left Hay his “homes in Haiti and in Switzerland.”
When it came to his children, the Associated Press reports that “Burton left nearly $350,000 each to Katherine and Jessica Burton, his daughters from his first marriage to Sybil Williams, and $279,000 to Maria Burton, whom he and Miss Taylor adopted” and “also left $15,000 each to his former step-children, Liza Todd and Christopher Wilding.”
However, the actor also left money for other family members and friends. The Associated Press reports that Richard Burton’s adoptive father, Philip Burton, received $15,000 from the actor’s will.
