Richard Burton

Burton was nominated for Anne of A Thousand Days the year Wayne won for True Grit. Somewhere I read they met and had a drink after the show. Wayne had his toupee off.

According to the book, John Wayne: American (pp 574-576), I believe that they were pretty good friends. They shared time before and after the Oscars, talking, telling stories and drinking.

I can't say they were the best of friends, but I do know that when John Wayne received his medal from Congress, it was Maureen O'Hara and Elizabeth Taylor who went to Washington to urged Congress to vote that medal for Duke. I think they had a great relationship, the book only mentions the contact that only time.

Cheers Hondo

Richard Burton came from the opposite side of the town to where I grew up. There is a pub there that he and Liz always went when he went home. My mother loved going there. There are pictures of Richard and Liz on most of the walls.

Bob

I've always thought that after Orson Welles, Richard Burton had the finest speaking voice of any actor in the world back then.

Politically Burton was a lifelong socialist, although he was never as heavily involved in politics as Stanley Baker. He greatly admired Democratic Senator Robert F. Kennedy and once got into a sonnet-quoting contest with him. Ironically, Burton got along well with Churchill when he met him at a play in London, and kept a bust of him on his mantelpiece. While filming in Yugoslavia he publicly proclaimed that he was a communist, saying he felt no contradiction between earning vast sums of money for films and holding very left-wing views since "unlike capitalists, I don't exploit other people."

He was a womanzier, drunkard and a jerk. I hate communism with a deep passion.