There are a lot of poor stars in Hollywood, but there are not many people like Burton who are always immersed in inferiority complex and childhood shadows, and even gradually develop psychological problems.
As the son of a miner, it was not easy for him to become an undergraduate student at Oxford University. He even got a scholarship, but eventually dropped out of school because he joined the army in World War II. Oxford said he could go back to his studies and finish his studies after three years of military service. But at that time, he wanted to work too early, and finally did not return to campus, but chose to be an actor to help his family.
Because of the harsh environment, his mother died of puerperal fever, and he borrowed 10 pounds for her funeral, which prevented the family from turning over for more than ten years. Like him, several older brothers who were born with hemophilia still have to risk their lives to seek a living in the mines.
Even though his brother-in-law treated him very badly, he used cold violence for many years and forced him to drop out of school to work, which also laid a tragic foreshadowing of his later becoming a smoker, alcoholic and depression patient. But he still chose to repay his grievances with virtue. The first money he earned after working was to buy a new house for his sister-in-law and her husband.
After many years of marriage, he and Sybil didn't want children. He devoted himself to his career. After saving money for a long time, he finally bought an apartment in London, and then divided it into four and rented it out.
At that time, the British taxation of actors was too heavy. Seventy or eighty percent of his income had to be taxed. The fixed salary he received at the Old Vic Theatre was not high. During this period, something happened that made him feel guilty for life. tragedy.
His friend Dylan Thomas, a poet he had admired all his life, lent him £300 in 1953. He can't get the money. Dylan could only make money by going to the United States to recite. Because I was so depressed, I drank 28 glasses of whiskey at a bar in the United States and died of alcohol poisoning.
Burton considers himself the culprit in Dylan's death. Although he couldn't come up with the money all at once, but he tried his best to get it together. This incident made him deeply realize the disadvantage of not having money.
In 1957, Sibyl was pregnant, and Burton, who was a Hollywood first-line star at this time, made three movies in Hollywood and received a salary of 300,000 US dollars, but only 25,000 was finally received.
He finally couldn't bear it anymore. He wished so much for his child to be born in a materially rich, carefree environment and not suffer like he did when he was a child, so he chose to move to Switzerland to avoid taxes.
Because of this, he could not stay in the UK for more than 90 days per year, and he had to give up his performance in the most beloved Old Vic Theatre and his flourishing theatrical career in the UK.
A reporter once interviewed him and asked him what he wanted most. His answer was, "Buy a new Jaguar and perform at Old Vic."
He really wanted to have both money and hobbies, just as he later wanted to be a great actor and a household name at the same time.
However, after paying the sacrifice in his career, he was tricked by fate again. Jessica, the second daughter born in 1959, was born with autism because of his excessive smoking and drinking.
Paparazzi were a regular in his house when his affair with Taylor was raging in '62, and his eldest daughter Kate later recalled being surrounded by paparazzi footage for as long as she could remember. I think when a young child learns that all this is because of her father's derailment, she hates this father so much.
Tragedy finally happened, one day a group of aggressive paparazzi broke into his villa in Rome, irritating Jessica, she kept screaming.
The three-year-old uttered the last words of her life when her mother took her to New York to protect her, "fun, fun, fun." She never said a word since, and she suffered from severe schizophrenia.
Perhaps because of this incident, Burton had drunk to a coma that year and nearly died. Also want to commit suicide.
When he reappeared in front of the camera after a few months of seclusion in Switzerland, his temples were suddenly gray, and he was not yet 38 years old.
Sybill changed from loving him to hating him. She didn't give him either of her two daughters. She took Kate away, and she didn't even allow him to pick up Jessica from the mental hospital on Long Island. The only thing he can do is give money.
Burton has always felt hopeless and helpless about this state of existence without quality of life.
In 1968, his brother Aifa accompanied him to drink and he broke his cervical vertebra and became paralyzed. He settled him in a luxury hotel all year round and asked a nurse to take care of him. But every time he came back from a hotel visit, Burton would tell Taylor very painfully that it would be better to die than to live like this.
Saying so, I hope Death can give relief to the high-ranking paraplegic brother, but when he finally died in 1972, Burton completely fell into the abyss of self-destruction, and has been trying to commit suicide with alcohol.
Therefore, the mental pressure of the youngest daughter Jessica, who has been living in the mental hospital, is unimaginable to outsiders.
Since she went mad, he has also fallen into a state of recurrent depression, often despairing for no reason, fearing that he will die and not be able to take care of his wife and children, which lasted until the end of his life.
Until his death, Jessica was still living in a mental hospital.
He combined his own childhood experiences, his hatred of his irresponsible biological father, and Jessica's madness into the lines of "Spiritual Spring Night".
He tells a terrible story to the male partner.
A teenager, who accidentally killed his mother, has a psychological disorder. With a heavy accent in his English, he was often ostracized by his classmates, and he was always trying to learn humor, trying to tell jokes and make fun of himself, trying to look gregarious.
When his life was finally about to see hope, he killed his father because of a driving accident. When he woke up from the hospital and heard the result, he started laughing wildly and couldn't stop until the doctor gave him a sedative, and he was completely quiet since then.
The male partner asked him what happened to the boy later.
His face seemed to have aged ten years in the process of telling the story. This also indicates that his life is always an alcoholic who seeks his own death.
In the eyes of the public, Richard Burton is a big man, but in his heart, he is like a tiny insect struggling in vain on the spider web of fate, humble and helpless.
He answered slowly, living in the nursing home, and has not said a word until now.
Jessica's fate is so tragic, who can imagine that a three-year-old child will be so frightened that he will be so mad that he will never say a word for a lifetime? Sybil didn't allow Burton to take his daughter to take care of him personally, just to punish him and make him feel guilty for the rest of his life. Who wants to see the person closest to him live in a mental hospital all the time? She grew up and lived without quality of life, always silently reminding him that he was the culprit.
Burton saw himself as a moneymaker, since his twenties. He buys security with money, and worries about gains and losses for money. Always worried that he didn't have enough money, that his wife and children would have nothing to rely on after his death. Maybe it was this kind of worry and a heavy sense of responsibility that kept him alive for many years, and he never quit the film industry.
In the last two months, he suddenly went crazy again, preparing to shoot four movies in half a year. Maybe he really wanted to squeeze all his last value out and leave as much money as possible for his family.
Of course, he may only be normal when he is performing. Although he is very smooth and humorous when he speaks normally on the show, he can always make people laugh, but if his eyes turn to one side and start to scatter blankly, his eyes will always be Unconsciously showing melancholy and sadness.
He seems to have been sitting and lying down, making a bunch of nervous and cramped small movements, either smoking or sweating non-stop. It was only when the host asked him to recite and perform that he suddenly changed his personality. He was no longer the one who smiled shyly and never looked at the camera. He suddenly became extremely confident, the masculine, charismatic image that audiences were familiar with on the screen.
Every time he starts improvising, it reminds me of what Tyler said of him, "He's like the sea, like the sunset, and he's a huge guy."
Maybe the performance made him feel powerful. I really doubt he would do the same when chatting with friends without drinking. If this is the case, it is no wonder that as long as there are more people, he will always stand up and perform.
Monty said he spoke like a recitation, always "intoxicated with his voice. He forgot that he was living and not acting, and that was not the way he should be". This is not true either.
Monty thought that his behavior was conceited, narcissistic and vanity, but it was not, because he couldn't let himself face his life too clearly, and life was hopeless in his eyes. When performing, he can live as a character, as confidently as a king, like a prince, and escape from him living with inferiority and self-loathing as his own identity.
Acting is also a way of self-help.
View more about Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? reviews
