Talk:Richard Burton

Adopted and part Jewish?

According to NNDB (http://www.nndb.com/people/260/000032164/) Burton was adopted and his maternal grandfather was Jewish. How reliable is NNDB? 87.194.226.202 (talk) 16:49, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

The adoption question is already covered accurately in the article. Haven't heard the Jewish one before. A lot of Welsh people have Jewish-sounding surnames, eg. Samuel, Isaac, for which the true explanation is religious-minded people taking Biblical surnames. So far I haven't been able to find out Edith's maiden name. Deb (talk) 19:56, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

The 2007 book The Hollywood Book of Extravagance: The Totally Infamous, Mostly lists his mother's name as Edith Maude Thomas (so does the 1992 book Richard Burton: a bio-bibliography‎). As for the Jewish thing, the 1981 book Richard Burton‎ (by Paul Ferris) states "His father was half Jewish". The 1991 book Richard Burton: so much, so little‎ (by Peter Stead), on page 129, notes the "the Jewish grandparent whom nobody ever mentions but of whom he was always later to boast" (thanks to Google Books for all this). But I could not find any more detail, or exactly how accurate those claims are. I remember seeing a detailed family tree of Burton online which didn't seem to show any recent Jewish ancestry, but I can't seem find it again to re-check. All Hallow's (talk) 02:02, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Imdb says he was partly Jewish as well.

Name

Richard Burton was also a nineteenth-century British adventurer and eccentric, who first translated the Kama Sutra and, I believe, The Arabian Nights into English, thereby introducing them to the West. He is one of those obscure historical figures with a tremendous cult following even today. Should this be disambiguated for a potential new page? Danny

Absolutely should be disambiguated. He isn't an obscure figure at all! Total wack job, sure, but he is the true discoverer of the sources of the Nile (Speke was a punk), did much to introduce the cultures of India, Africa, and the Middle East to the West. Disambiguate away and I will work on him. The actor is more obscure than he is at this point. Ortolan88

How should we distinguish them? Richard Burton (actor) and Richard Burton (whack job)? ;-) Danny

Either Richard Burton (author) or Richard Burton (adventurer) ought to do it; I'm leaning toward "author", as he's so well known for Arabian nights. --Ed Poor

I thought first of Richard Burton (explorer), but Richard Burton (orientalist) is best. The latter covers Arabian Nights, sneaking into Mecca, chasing the Nile, all in one. After all, his tomb looks like a desert tent. Ortolan88 16:09 Aug 1, 2002 (PDT)

Voice

I put the sentence It was at this time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his hallmark. in this article way back in August and it was meant to be associated with his supposed time at Oxford. It is now in the first paragraph and looks out of place. Mintguy 22:37 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC)

The Internet sources I perused said that too, and that it was why he left after only six months, that the faculty felt he was overshadowing Shakespeare's lines with his unique style, but you can check out Deb's reaction to that scenario at Talk:University of Oxford. -- isis 22:52 Dec 18, 2002 (UTC)

It's true, he may have picked up an "Oxford accent", but he had already had some coaching in "losing his Welsh accent" from Philip Burton, who, as well as a teacher of English, was a BBC radio producer.

Deb

What makes you think Burton 'lost his Welsh accent' -- those beautifully rounded vowels are pure Welsh -- ask Bryn Terfel. Burton's official websites simply states Philip Burton encouraged him to speak more distinctly by walking further away and getting him to project his voice -- nothing about a change of accent for a man who had written into his contracts 'not to work on St David's Day'. Philip Burton is often describes as an English teacher, but was, in fact, a teacher of English. He, himself, the son of a miner, came from the heart of the South Wales vallies and for higher education moved no further than Univesity College, Cardiff.

It's in quotes because it's what Philip Burton said he wanted him to do. But I agree he never quite lost it. Deb 17:06, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmm the fags¹ and the booze would have assisted in his voice change and I'm not sure he would have been quite so heavily into either at 16.

I see. I must have misunderstood what you meant about his distinctive way of speaking! (Although I think he was probably already into fags and booze as a teenager.) Deb

Richard began smoking cigarettes when he was only eight years old and for most of his life smoked about sixty a day.

Rugby League

Wasn't he a big rugby league fan? Londo06 18:34, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Close, rugby union. FruitMonkey (talk) 17:56, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Churchill

There is a good clip of Burton being interviewed by Michael Parkinson on the BBC I guess in the early 70s in which as his 'party piece' he gives a reading of Churchill's speech to the House of Commons on taking over as Prime Minister.

The Burton-Taylor Theatre in Oxford is named in his (and Liz's) honour. I think it had something to do with the production there of Faust but any idea if they made a cash contribution or endowment.

Knighthood

Imdb.com bio says he was a CBE. However, this is not a knighthood, is it? Thus he was never "Sir Richard". Incidentally he's not in the WP article with the list of recipients of the Order of the British Empire honours. Can someone who's up on the British honours system clear this up? Ellsworth 23:36, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

You're right, he wasn't a knight. I think we've been here before. It was the other Richard Burton who was a knight. Deb 16:51, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

So the paragraph in the article is correct. I'll put in that he was a CBE as imdb bio information is presumably reliable. Ellsworth 00:54, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Narrative gap

This article jumps from him being an air force cadet in WWII straight to, "In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to a Hollywood star." I'm guessing he did some other acting in between, like on the stage or in English films. Golfcam 02:09, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

English films...English films????!!!??? I can't believe you said that! Deb 17:19, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

Picture

The picture of him is not sastisfactory. It's too small. The last picture was a close-up and even that one was only decent. The picture's been changed twice over the past couple monthes. I reccomend the picture of him found on IMDB and then keep it that way.

A picture of Burton as Marcellus in "The Robe (1953), when he was 27, would be best because that film showed the actor at his most handsome.

I have to agree . It's poor quality. Does anybody have a problem with [http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1396/Mptv/1396/0406_0538.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Burton,%20Richard%20(I)

Good photo, can we get it uploaded, this article really needs a photo in its infobox Grunners (talk) 13:34, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

Source question

I'd like to add a quote about Richard loving Elizabeth up until the day he died despite remarrying other women, but I can't find it online. I do, however, have it in a biography penned by Richard Burton's brother Graham Jenkins. What's the policy for book citations?

Maybe Jenkins made it up. He seemed to ignore every bad thing about his brother.

There's no problem with citing a book, especially when it's a primary source. It doesn't matter whether Graham Jenkins made it up - he's still in a better position to know whether it was said than 99.9% of people are. Deb 11:47, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

This is the same Graham who denied his brother's homosexual affairs, despite not being with him at the time.

Conan 1997?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0545498/ ?

Bisexual?

"Burton admitted to being bisexual in an interview, although his exact words could be viewed as merely an example of his wit."

What were his exact words? Why not let the reader decide how they could be viewed?

He said all actors drink to cover up their homosexuality, and that he was once actively gay as a young man. This was from a 1974 interview with Michael Parkinson. (InLikeErrol 16:56, 15 June 2007 (UTC))

This is an LGBT article. Burton admitted to having been actively bisexual: he didn't 'try it once and didn't like it', he chose to have many homo experiences, at a time when it was illegal. Most people are hetero, but many bisexuals claim that most people are bi. It would be very unlikely that Burton's quote about actors being homosexuals who cover it up with drink would be first said by a heterosexual. The fact he was an acor who was a very heavy drinker makes it virtually certain that he was including himself in the quote in question. Therefore he should be in bisexual and LGBT categories. Werdnawerdna (talk) 23:41, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

Picture claimed to be in public domain

http://www.retrosellers.com/images/spywhocamein.jpg http://www.retrosellers.com/features97.htm (see note at bottom of page) Does anyone think this picture could be used for the main article? 81.184.56.76 22:32, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

"Hologram" of Burton

While Burton's voice was used in the stage production of War Of The Worlds, it is inaccurate to state that it was a hologram of him, or indeed a hologram at all. The process used was to film an actor synching his speech in Burton-like make-up, his head restrained to prevent excess movement, and this image projected upon a profiled 'sphere' that was essentially a head-shaped screen, the projection providing the detail of the eye and mouth movement while the screen allowed immobile features such as the nose to 'stand out' into the ostensibly 2D projection of detail. I think one term used was a "soligram" (possibly "solo-"), but it isn't strictly speaking a hologram of any kind.

(Incidentally, the decision was made to to make the image of Burton the younger and more visually iconic version of himself, even though matching against the more mature voice of the narrating Burton.)

Thinking about it, I should have checked that this information is not contained within the WotW stageplay article, but I feel that a correction should be made. Less verbose than the above, perhaps referencing an existing explanation, certainly adding 'quotes' to the term to show the looseness of the term.62.49.25.104 (talk) 15:13, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Latest additions

Some substantial additions were recently made, and some of the new content was very definitely not NPOV, even though it was referenced. I also amended the statement that Burton won first prize as a boy soprano at "the Eisteddfod". The phrase implies that this was the National Eisteddfod which I very much doubt. More probably it was a local eisteddfod or perhaps a local heat of the Urdd Youth Eisteddfod. If it was the National, everyone would have heard about it sooner. Maybe someone knows the facts behind this? Deb (talk) 18:05, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Warren Mitchell

Why is there noting about Warren Mitchell he helped him on his acting carrer.

So did lots of other people. Deb (talk) 19:41, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

No what I mean is in the RAF and Oxford. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.64.127.63 (talk) 18:21, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

Burton and Churchill

There appears to be no evidence for the claim that Burton hated Churchill, or that Churchill claimed to wipe out all Japanese people. The only source that makes either claim makes them both together in one paragraph; that would be a book by Howard Zinn. I put a citation needed next to them, but I privately think it's all made up. 67.170.93.244 (talk) 09:17, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Read Burton's own words or Penny Junor's biography - the Communist-leaning Burton absolutely HATED the right-wing Churchill and regarded him as a war criminal. (92.11.132.0 (talk) 17:12, 14 November 2008 (UTC))

DAB page?

When I typed Richard Burton into the search box, I certainly expected to be taken to Richard Francis Burton, not some Hollywood actor. Is the actor really the "well-known primary topic" for the term, as per WP:PRIMARYTOPIC? Otherwise we should move this to Richard Burton (actor) and Richard Burton (disambiguation) to plain Richard Burton (herewith proposed). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:02, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

See discussion at top of this page. You need to post your suggestion on Wikipedia:Requested moves before you think of doing anything. Deb (talk) 12:01, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Actually, no, I can just move the pages if there is consensus. From the above discussion, there seems to be consensus for at least a DAB page. If Richard Francis Burton should also be moved (to "Richard Burton (something)" is an independent question - I'd suggest to leave it where it is and just create redirects for "explorer" and "orientalist". --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:42, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Actually, no, you can't just move the page if there's a likelihood of it being controversial. If you investigate further, you'll find that there has been a good deal of disagreement over this already. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I predict that, if you attempt to move it without discussion, you will find it is moved back pretty quickly! Deb (talk) 17:29, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Sure. I see no reason to suspect controversy - the discussion up on this page seems to be supportive, and I found nothing apropos at Talk:Richard Burton (disambiguation) and Talk:Richard Francis Burton. But if you think it might be controversial, we can go the long route. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:25, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Requested move

The following is a closed discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was no consensus to move. This one is hard. The explorer is clearly not an unimportant footnote amongst the Richard Burton's of the world but, partly because of his name (the Francis) and because of the fame of the actor, I'm closing this as no consensus to move, for now. (I should point out that the page hits on the actor are equally unconvincing, for all we know, they may be coming from Elizabeth Taylor or from one of his many famous movies. In which case, the article title is meaningless.) --RegentsPark (sticks and stones) 10:42, 30 July 2009 (UTC) Richard Burton → Richard Burton (actor) — Per WP:PRIMARYTOPIC - the 20th century actor and the 19th century explorer and author are both of similar notability. Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:35, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

• Richard Burton (disambiguation) → Richard Burton

• Mild Oppose. Richard Burton has 46598 hits this month, and only 10308 went on to hit Richard Francis Burton. This would indicate that the actor is certainly the more searched-for article. The "least-clicks" theory would seem to indicate that a "For the 19th century explorer, see..." at the top of the actor's article would be the most efficient. Black Kite 21:12, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but we have 8 Richard Burtons on the DAB page. Do we really want a double hat note? Hmmm...might work. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 23:15, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

I've done that. This might be a case of primary use, secondary use, then everybody else. Station1 (talk) 23:58, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

• Oppose. No evidence that notability is similar - some evidence that actor's notability is significantly higher. Both general and google books searches yield mostly only hits for the actor, at least on the first page of results for each, which is particularly significant for notability. --Born2cycle (talk) 23:04, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
• Oppose. Yikes, does no one remember The Taming of the Shrew, or Elizabeth Taylor? RB is regarded as one of the best Shakespearean actors ever, and with the best diction of any actor. I would put his popularity up there with Marlon Brando. 199.125.109.88 (talk) 03:51, 23 July 2009 (UTC)
• Support. The explorer lacks the benefit of recentism, and the actor is not more notable than the others collectively. --Una Smith (talk) 04:41, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Google Books:

• "Richard Burton", 2862 hits
• "Richard Burton" actor, 938 hits
• "Richard Burton" explorer, 770 hits; "Richard Francis Burton" explorer, 677 hits
• "Richard Burton" cricket, 527 hits

• That's a common mistake, to go by "collective" views. All you need to do is compare the two most viewed, in this case RB + RB (actor) = 3800 / RB (exp) + RFB = 1447, a ratio of 2.6:1. Plenty to establish primary topic. Except that I don't get any hits for Richard Burton (explorer). I get RB = 47,348,[1] RB (actor) = 1,954,[2] RFB = 14,628[3], a ratio of 3.37:1. 199.125.109.88 (talk) 05:13, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

• It is common, but no mistake. The mistake is to suppose there must always be a primary topic. See WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. --Una Smith (talk) 05:28, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Page view statistics for June 2009 shows a surge in hits on Richard Burton (disambiguation) and on Richard Francis Burton. It appears the majority of readers hitting the dab page are looking for the article about the explorer. --Una Smith (talk) 05:34, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

That should be obvious, because the explorer is clearly the second most commonly searched-for term after the actor, but people looking for the actor don't ever reach the dab page, because they go straight to the article. Hopefully the additional hatnote on the actor's page should reduce those hits to the dab page from now on.

Furthermore, there are only 897 hits to the dab page this month, compared with over 10,000 for the explorer. And to take that surge that you're talking about, on 30 June, there were 1,900 hits to the explorer's article, but only 194 to the dab page. This indicates that 90% of the readers of the explorer's article are typing "Richard Francis Burton" into the searchbox, or they're reaching the article via an internal or external hyperlink - in both cases indicating that the issue of the actor being the primary topic isn't causing a problem. Black Kite 11:42, 23 July 2009 (UTC)

Page hits do not necessarily reflect use of the Wikipedia search box; many readers come from outside, or from other articles (eg, articles appearing on the Main page). A "primary topic" has to be "clearly" primary, and primary to all other topics, not just to one of them. --Una Smith (talk) 19:17, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I think you are once again misinterpreting what primary and "clearly" primary mean. Yes you have to look over all the other topics to see which one is the second most viewed, but once you have identified that article, the only comparison is between the most viewed and the second most viewed. For example, lets take a hypothetical case where there are 10,000 actors named RB, one in the movies, the others who have only played in local stage productions. You might get 3 hits for each of them, and 20,000 hits for the movie actor. Now you seem to be thinking that since there are 50,000 hits and only 20,000 for the movie actor, they are not a primary topic. But that is not what is done. You never add up the page views, you only look at the most popular and the second most popular, in this case take any one of the 10,000, and the ratio is 20,000 to 3. I would clearly call that a primary topic, no? 199.125.109.126 (talk) 21:00, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Regarding his sexuality

I don't know whether he is bisexual or not, but there may have been disregards lately. I noticed they deleted a passage based on family's reaction (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/708074.stm). However, we may have to re-consider before re-entering the data with fully reliable source, even if the family disagrees. Is there anything we can do to make it stay alive? --Gh87 (talk) 18:18, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Burton said himself that he had had sex with men, therefore it should be in the article. (92.9.69.17 (talk) 15:11, 22 August 2009 (UTC))

Citation, please! Deb (talk) 21:19, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

It was in a Fenruary 1975 interview on the set of "Jackpot" - a film that was never completed. Burton told an interviewer that he had had sex with men and that he thought all actors were latent homosexuals. This is mentioned in every biography I have read of him and should certainly be in the article. (92.13.99.172 (talk) 12:23, 23 August 2009 (UTC))

Are you sure he actually said he had sex with men? What were his exact words and where was the interview published? Deb (talk) 18:14, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The bisexual Burton said, "My father said all actors were homosexuals. That is nonsense, of course. But perhaps most actors are latent homosexuals and we cover it with drink. I was a homosexual once, but not for long. But I tried it. It didn't work so I gave it up." The interview was published everywhere at the time, and is mentioned in most biographies. (92.11.142.51 (talk) 18:50, 23 August 2009 (UTC))

Sounds awfully like the kind of outrageous joke Burton loved to make! Deb (talk) 18:58, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Why? He admitted on other occasions that he had sex with men in order to further his career. Many believe the reason he chain smoked and drank his way into an early grave was due to guilt over his bisexuality. In any event these were his actual words so it should be in the article. Oh dear, so the only reason you are trying to remove this is because you're Welsh and don't want people to know that Burton was openly bisexual? Well he was and it's in all his biographies. You might think he said it just for publicity but the fact is that he did say he had sex with men, and never during the remaining nine years of his life did he try to deny this, so it must be mentioned. (92.12.54.231 (talk) 14:04, 24 August 2009 (UTC))

I have added what I believe to be a fair compromise. It may be that Burton was either joking or trying to get headlines, but he did nevertheless claim to have had sex with a man and it was reported at the time, so it should be in his article. (RichardSalway (talk) 16:58, 29 August 2009 (UTC))

Could you please add the citation for the interview? Deb (talk) 20:27, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, I have, it's mentioned on pages 170-171 of Ferris' biography. (RichardSalway (talk) 21:51, 29 August 2009 (UTC))

It's still a bit unclear. I thought the reference was for the second comment. What were the actual words he used in the interview - I can hardly believe he said, "I once had sex with another man". Deb (talk) 07:33, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

His words, "I was homosexual once, but not for long. But I tried it" obviously meant that he did have sex with another man. (RichardSalway (talk) 12:52, 30 August 2009 (UTC))

I would say that was obviously a joke. Deb (talk) 17:01, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Why? The interviewer said he was deadly serious and sounded very depressed at the time. Unless you were with Burton every day of his life then you don't know what he did. Even his family thought his relationships with Philip Burton and Emlyn Williams may have been sexual. (RichardSalway (talk) 18:29, 31 August 2009 (UTC))

There is a difference between "being homosexual" and "having sex with a man". Burton could, for example, have meant that he thought he was in love with a man, or that he decided to call himself homosexual, or any number of other things. I think it's a bit of a quantum leap from "I tried it once" to "I slept with a man". Deb (talk) 12:01, 1 September 2009 (UTC)

John Lennon once let Brian Epstein fellate him. That didn't make Lennon a bisexual. That sort of one-off passive activity may be all that Burton was referring to by "I tried it once". That's if he was being serious at all. The best we can do is report his actual words. We cannot make any inferences from them as to what he did, with whom, how often, etc etc. We certainly cannot say it means "he slept with" anyone. JackofOz (talk) 09:35, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

I think it may have been Brook Williams that Burton experimented with. I will do some further research. (RichardSalway (talk) 19:08, 2 September 2009 (UTC))

Racism and anti-semitism

In addition to his admissions of bisexuality, surely the article should mention Burton's overt racism and anti-semitism? (92.11.142.51 (talk) 19:29, 23 August 2009 (UTC))

For goodness sake, go away. Deb (talk) 19:56, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Why? Haven't you read what Marlon Brando had to say about Burton's extremely racist behaviour? (92.11.142.51 (talk) 20:09, 23 August 2009 (UTC))

Brando's dead, so he can't be sued for libel. Wikipedia can. Deb (talk) 21:07, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Burton was both a racist and an anti-semite and there are lots of sources to prove it. And since Burton is long dead, none of his relatives can sue this site. (92.11.142.51 (talk) 21:39, 23 August 2009 (UTC))

Ah, the anonymous "lots of sources" again. Deb (talk) 11:44, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

No, there are plenty of sources such as Brando's own autobiography in which he records Burton's extremely racist words, or Burton's brother Graham Jenkins' book "My Brother Richard Burton" in which he recalls Burton deliberately using the N-word in South Africa to cause offence. It might also be worth pointing out that filming "The Wild Geese" in South Africa under the apartheid regime was incredibly controversial in itself. (92.12.54.231 (talk) 14:03, 24 August 2009 (UTC))

Everything Burton did was controversial, and deliberately so. It got him lots of publicity. Some people even believed he meant it. Deb (talk) 17:53, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

It might be a good idea to start new sections in the article entitled "Bisexuality" and "Allegations of Racism and Anti-semitism" in order to present a balanced picture of the subject. (92.10.219.56 (talk) 15:53, 25 August 2009 (UTC))

Or that might imbue these particular bugbears of yours with an additional significance far beyond what they deserve. Surely a section headed "Controversy" is quite adequate to contain all the accusations made about Burton both during his lifetime and since his death? Deb (talk) 17:30, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Somebody needs to fix awkward phrase

"his entire spinal column was coated with crystallised alcohol and had to be rebuilt in a delicate operation (to be replaced by his friend Richard Harris)" Sounds like the spinal column was replaced.

I think it was then (in April 1981) that his kidneys and liver were found to be damaged. (92.11.170.208 (talk) 18:55, 27 September 2009 (UTC))

Knighthood?

Why does the article say he was awarded a knighthood? Also, it is the government that gives honours, not the monarch. (92.11.217.30 (talk) 17:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC))

Thanks for pointing that out. The inaccuracy seems to have been introduced during September and evidently no one noticed! Deb (talk) 19:19, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you know whether it was Harold Wilson or Edward Heath who appointed Burton as a CBE? (92.9.89.93 (talk) 13:11, 16 October 2009 (UTC))

No, but I'd guess it was Wilson, as he'd have had the New Year's Honours and Queen's Birthday honours in which to do it. Deb (talk) 17:47, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Strictly speaking such honours are conferred by the monarch on the recommendation of the government of the day. – ukexpat (talk) 18:03, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

old vandalism still intact about spine and "crystallised alcohol"

{{editsemiprotected}} spine was coated in "crystallised alcohol"? This was vandalism from 20 March 2009 and is still there. The earlier version, that he left the play early due to a back injury, is all that is needed.

Not necessarily vandalism; there are some Ghits on this; nonetheless, since I find it very dubious (alcohol simply does not crystalize at body temperature), and it is unsourced,  Done. Tim Song (talk) 20:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

There's a particular vandal who really likes this article, so it probably was vandalism - any unsourced negative statements added here should just be reverted post haste. Mind you, I managed to miss that particular item myself. — Gavia immer (talk) 01:18, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Actually it is true, read Penny Junor's biography. Burton's spine had to be rebuilt in April 1981 because it was entirely coated in crystallised alcohol. His liver and kidneys were found to be damaged at the same time. The mythical "back injury" was the official explanation at the time, in an attempt to disguise the true severity of his illness. (92.11.33.26 (talk) 19:39, 27 October 2009 (UTC))

Just needs a citation. Deb (talk) 14:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

I think the biographies by Graham Jenkins and Penny Junor mention this. It's well known that Burton considered retiring completely after the operation, since he could no longer get insurance for movies. The surgery was for degenerative disease of the cervical spine, affecting all the cervical vertebrae, but it was indeed his alcoholism whichg had caused this.(LouisWalshFan (talk) 14:11, 28 October 2009 (UTC))

I checked Junor's biography, she mentions that Burton's spinal column was "entirely coated" in crystallised alcohol, and that he could only have the operation after putting on weight at the hospital, since during the "Camelot" tour his weight had dropped from twelve stone to an alarmingly low nine stone. (92.9.166.4 (talk) 02:18, 30 October 2009 (UTC))

I don't mean that I want the citation, I just mean that it should be added to the article. Deb (talk) 12:20, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

The article can't be edited at the moment. (92.15.7.98 (talk) 20:33, 31 October 2009 (UTC))

I've taken the protection off so you can edit it if you wish. If you registered as a user, you would have been able to edit it any time. Deb (talk) 19:29, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

I see the mythical "back injury" information is still there. Why does the article still contain false information? (RossMacCormick (talk) 19:53, 11 November 2009 (UTC))

Because you haven't removed it! Deb (talk) 19:54, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

If it is in the sources mentioned above, which I don't have access to, it should be cited. I'll add some tags. – ukexpat (talk) 18:03, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

The Golden Turkey Awards

"The book awards the fictional "Golden Turkey Awards" to films that the Medveds feel are poor in quality, along with directors and actors judged to have created a chronically inept body of work. Readers will not necessarily agree with all their choices; however, the book almost exclusively showcases low-budget obscurities and exploitation films. A notable exception is the selection of Richard Burton as the worst actor ever, notwithstanding his star status and seven Academy Award nominations for acting; the authors justified their choice by assessing the cumulative merit of his good performances as being far outweighed by the sheer number of bad performances."