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Born Richard Walter Jenkins in Pontrhydyfen, South Wales in 1925. Jenkins, the 12th child of a coal miner, won a scholarship to Oxford thanks to his tutor Philip Burton, who also gave him his stage name. Initially Burton split himself between stage and screen, making his film debut in 1948 in The Last Days Of Dolwyn, and blowing John Gielgud off stage a year later in The Lady's Not For Burning. He hit the headlines when he married Cleopatra co-star Elizabeth Taylor in 1963. By the time of his sudden death in 1984 he had been nominated for Oscars seven times.
