EXCLUSIVE: Richard Burton's Tortured Life and Private Demons Exposed
Richard Burton's tortured life and private demons are revealed, exposing the struggles behind his fame.
Sept. 24 2026, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
In 1966, Richard Burton played a henpecked college professor who spends a night drunkenly bickering with his wife in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
His performance is heated and subtle, horrifying and heartbreaking – and earned him one of the seven Oscar nominations of his distinguished career, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Burton Rose From Humble Beginnings
Philip Burton introduced Richard Burton to theater opportunities during his school years.
The son of a Welsh coal miner, Burton rose to the top of Hollywood's A-list in the 1960s. For a time, he and his second wife and Virginia Woolf costar, Elizabeth Taylor, were the most talked-about couple in the world.
"Wider fame is a curious thing," he said in 1963, a year before they wed for the first time. "You're furious if you're recognized – and you're equally furious if you're not."
As a schoolboy, Burton earned recognition for his singing and oratory skills, which set him apart in his working-class hometown. "He was proud of being from this lineage of Welsh coal miners," explained Nancy Schoenberger, co-author of Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century.
"His father was a respected coal miner, but his alcoholism cast a shadow over the lives of all the children."
Richard expected to join his father and brothers in the mine, but he welcomed the opportunities his schoolmaster, Philip Burton – whose surname Richard would professionally adopt – offered in the theater.
Love And Tears
Richard fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor while filming 'Cleopatra.'
"I became fascinated by the idea of earning so much money for what I considered to be so little work," Richard admitted. Yet he felt guilty for leaving his family. "He was a little embarrassed or ashamed of being given all these advantages," said Schoenberger.
Richard was already a star and a married man with two daughters when he fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor on the set of 1963's Cleopatra.
"They were a very lusty couple in all kinds of ways," said Schoenberger. "He loved that she could drink these big, tough men under the table."
But during their years together, Richard's alcohol intake became out of control.
His biggest heartbreak occurred in 1966 when his older brother Ifor became paralyzed after a night of heavy drinking. It's been claimed that Richard was at fault for throwing Ifor to the ground during a drunken quarrel.
"To see his big, virile brother reduced to being paralyzed was just a terrible twist," said Schoenberger. "It fueled Richard's alcoholism."
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Sally Hay helped Richard maintain his sobriety during his later years.
He would suffer for many years, and his troubles would break up his marriage to his third wife, Suzy Hunt.
"Nobody quite knows which drink it is that takes him over the edge," said Richard. "You reach out for a cigarette and think of all the horrible things you've done in your life and all the shames you endured and suffered."
In 1981, Richard quit drinking, calling it "worse than cancer." He met production assistant Sally Hay on the set of Wagner, a TV movie, and they wed in 1983 – just a year before he died of a brain hemorrhage.
"I did not expect to lose him when I was still in my 30s, and he was in his 50s," admitted Hay, who helped the star maintain his sobriety.
"She made a nice home for him," said Schoenberger.
"In the end, he came to a sort of peace living a much quieter life with his fourth wife among his treasured books."
