Richard Burton and Roger Moore starred in the 1978 film The Wild Geese about a band of mercenaries in Africa. The film was partially inspired by infamous mercenary Mike Hoare, who served as a technical adviser.
On May 16, 1968, Richard Burton purchased the 33-carat Krupp diamond — named after a wicked industrialist who'd used forced labour during the war — for £127,000 . It was just one of many exquisite jewels he'd give to Elizabeth Taylor.
In the four years after they first came together, Burton and Taylor's films made them a staggering $200million combined, and they couldn't get through the stuff quick enough. As for Burton, he commented: 'It won't seem out of place in the yacht parked in the Bahamas or the Mediterranean . . . It sort of hums with its own beautiful life.'
Would we? There can be too much importance given to display and there will be people always disgusted by Burton and Taylor's materialism. They certainly stand in marked contrast to our 21st century's chilling and arrogant neopuritanical modes of thought , where everyone is crushed and 'cancelled' if they can't signal virtue.
They were spellbound by each other, enchanted, as were their characters Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Watch their performances now, and you can see Burton's muscles and nerves alerted, his eyes devouring her. His father, Dick Jenkins, earned only £3 a week as a coal miner, and became a drunkard after his wife's death. Burton was taken by his sister Cis to live with her and her new husband. Though he saw the rest of the family every weekend, he felt himself to be an orphan.
Cis's husband forced Richard to drop out of school at 15 and start earning a wage as a draper's assistant — a job he hated. Fortunately, another teacher, recognising his academic abilities, managed to get him reinstated as a pupil when he was 17. Philip nevertheless managed to persuade Richard's father to let him adopt the boy and change his surname to Burton. Money changed hands, thought to be £50, for Dick's signature, which gave Philip 'uncontrolled custody'.
One bizarre link between Burton and Taylor is that she, too, had a homosexual parent. Her father Francis worked as a minor art dealer in London and Los Angeles, but seems to have left little mark on her life; he complained that his wife Sara 'wanted the child all to herself. She dotes on her night and day'.
Hers was a royal upbringing, with the studios providing what little education she ever had, booking her flights, reserving hotels, giving her chauffeurs, hiring the band and caterers for her parties. As the producer of Cleopatra would later comment: 'From early childhood, she had lived in a world of fantasy. She doesn't know any other world.'
More significantly, Taylor was shown in her first marriage that sex and violence were connected, that desire can also mean a desire to hurt. The psychological legacy of this was long-lasting. Many of the couples they played on film are like them, from Mark Antony and Cleopatra to the disintegrating pair in Divorce His, Divorce Hers : 'It's no fun behaving badly if you're not going to punish me,' says Taylor's character. 'Beat me black and blue, but please don't leave me.'
Private jets, jewels, fur coats, an entourage, unimaginable wealth . . . With Taylor in his life, Burton simply needed to pose, or loll, or bask, on yachts, on hotel balconies. He became so lordly, he never carried money. Gaston Sanz, their chauffeur, paid for everything. The boot of their Rolls-Royce was filled with fan mail, which Burton and Taylor never bothered to open. They retained suites in hotels in cities they never visited. They had matching $120,000 mink coats.
His nickname for her was 'Monkey Nipples', which may begin to explain why Taylor spent hours in the bathroom, depilating. And he liked to mock her lack of formal education: 'Oh yes, I forgot. You don't know any Shakespeare, do you? Not one bloody word that doesn't come out of the dictionary of clichés.'
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Richard Burton's tumultuous marriages to Liz Taylor were blighted by alcoholic rages... So was he...Richard Burton and Roger Moore starred in the 1978 film The Wild Geese about a band of mercenaries in Africa. The film was partially inspired by infamous mercenary Mike Hoare, who served as a technical adviser.
Lire la suite »
Richard Burton's tumultuous marriages to Liz Taylor were blighted by alcoholic rages... So was he...Richard Burton and Roger Moore starred in the 1978 film The Wild Geese about a band of mercenaries in Africa. The film was partially inspired by infamous mercenary Mike Hoare, who served as a technical adviser.
Lire la suite »
Inspired by Tim Burton and Stephen King, Lancashire make up artist makes thousands from creepy looksInspired by Hollywood icons Tim Burton and Stephen King, she studied special effects makeup at Bolton University in 2019.
Lire la suite »
Richard Arnold responds to Man United fan request for takeover updateIt has been almost a year since the Glazer family put Man Utd up for sale and the takeover situation still remains unclear.
Lire la suite »
Police hunt for man wanted on recall to prisonRichard Tonner has links to Northamptonshire
Lire la suite »
Arnold explains how Man United reached Greenwood decisionMan United chief executive Richard Arnold addressed a fans' forum this week
Lire la suite »