Stylish pop art of Richard Burton, part of the Welsh Ffilm collection by Art & Hue.

One of, if not the most, famous and lauded actor from Wales, Richard Burton was born in Pontrhydyfen, West Glamorgan, and raised in Taibach, Port Talbot.

Star of stage and screen, Richard Burton’s cinematic debut was in the 1949 film “The Last Days of Dolwyn”. Written by and starring Emlyn Williams, the film also stars Dame Edith Evans and Hugh Griffith. Set in 1892, the drama features the plans to flood the small rural village of Dolwyn and the conflict amongst the villagers that arises, mirroring similar real-life events such as the flooding of Llanwddyn village in the 1880s.

Alongside film, Burton’s strong theatre presence saw him appear in many productions at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, at The Old Vic, and on Broadway.

Richard Burton returned to Wales to play Konstantin in the first Welsh production of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” at The Grand Theatre in Swansea. Co-starring Wilfrid Brambell and Clifford Evans, the director of the theatre during that season, Kenneth Williams understudied Burton in the 1950 production (and nearly had to go on).

Just some of Burton’s film credits include “Green Grow the Rushes” with Honor Blackman, “Look Back in Anger”, “Cleopatra” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with Elizabeth Taylor, “The V.I.P.s” with Orson Welles, Dennis Price, Maggie Smith, & Margaret Rutherford, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, narrator of “Zulu” with Stanley Baker & Michael Caine, “The Medusa Touch” with Harry Andrews & Gordon Jackson, and “The Wild Geese” with Roger Moore, to name a few.