When Westerners describe a man with a kingly spirit, they always describe him as a lion. From the year Burton conquered Hollywood at the age of 27, to the two months before his death at the age of 58, he was always called a lion.
Although he came out of Oxford, a recognized intellectual, he read a lot. He speaks Queen's English gracefully, he can speak French very fluently, and he recites Shakespeare, but in the eyes of people, he is still a male creature full of beasts, exuding the smell of beasts all over his body.
He has dark brown tousled hair, a sturdy frame, a thick chest, an astonishingly broad shoulder, and a roar that can shake the sky.
Although most of the time he was just taking a lazy nap or taking a walk, but when he saw his prey, his green eyes would emit an evil light. In 1953, a Hollywood columnist likened him to the Sphinx - the sphinx in Greek mythology, the monster with the face of the sphinx, who has a very high intelligence and who only eats it.
"He was always wearing a green wool coat or a green corduroy coat, like a Welsh sphinx, and burst into Hollywood. He devoured hors d'oeuvres, drank, and recited and sang, the Welsh way. Alluring everyone. Just a little carelessness and he'll be his prey."
In 1955, 29-year-old Burton appeared in a bar opposite Old Vic, and to 14-year-old Mary Kingsland, he was a big cat.
"His eyes are a beautiful shade of green. He's kind of like a cat, like a big cat, he's very powerful. He's not very tall, but he's muscular and very strong."
By the early 1970s, Burton was still a lion, but he was no longer strong or powerful.
Once the couple was making a movie, Burton accidentally took the wrong position and got the wrong direction. Tyler yelled at him, "Oh my God Richard, you're going in the wrong direction, you're blocking me and Bo (a supporting character)!"
The director saw that Burton's response to the accusation was "like a quiet lion." He didn't say a word, bowed his head and drank. In the last two months, Burton, who appeared in the eyes of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" director Michael Ledford, was still the lion he was familiar with. Both he and the producer are much younger than him and grew up watching his films.
The changes in life circumstances are unpredictable. When he was young and middle-aged, Burton was his unattainable screen idol, but now he is just an actor under him.
He forbade him to use his world-famous "Richard Burton Voice" again, lest he overwhelm the audience, turning the film into his one-man Broadway play.
Burton didn't get angry, but as a newbie, he told Sally, "I'm going to give it my all this time."
When he got to the set, his first words to Ledford were, "I know I'm only the fourth pick, but I promise I'll do it well." Ledford later recalled, "He was like a wounded head. Old lion."
Like a photographer of a wildlife documentary, he witnessed an old lion that was old and frail, lost his throne and was injured at the same time, and began its final wandering.
"He looked twenty years older than his actual age, and I had to have the makeup artist put on heavy makeup on him."
He is gradually coming to the end of his life, and his body is of no use to him, and he doesn't care. He performs entirely with his charming voice and eyes, as if the triumphs and absurdities, joys and sorrows of his life have all been distilled into pure and indifferent performances.
"Life had left him in a strange way, for him the most important thing in his life was gone, and he couldn't wait to die." Producer Simon Perry recalls Burton arriving from Switzerland "Suddenly, in the Twickham Studios make-up trailer, we saw a star, and Lyford and I grew up watching his films together," he said on set.
As filming began, Ledford told Burton, "Richard, I've hired everything from you except your voice. I don't want to hear the famous Burton."
"I see," he replied, "you don't want me playing Burton!"
Burton quickly fascinated his colleagues. He'll tell techies some nasty anecdotes.
"It was painful for him to sit, so he had to stand in front of the trailer, even for a whole day, entertaining those who listened to his stories, especially Elizabeth Taylor. They listened to So fascinated... He said she could see a diamond a hundred paces away. He said that while the media around the world thought Taylor was mysterious, he found her no more mysterious than a glass of lemonade." Li said he was clearly in pain at the time. He tries to recite the lines, but he still forgets them and needs a cue card.
In a key scene in which O'Brien tortures Winston, O'Brien puts his hand in front of Winston and asks, "Winston, how many fingers do you see?"
Burton was too weak to do it, and he needed an assistant director to get out of the way, grab his arm from behind and raise it to help him keep his hand steady.
"It's sad to see this giant on stage and screen decline so much."
"But his eyes are still strong, his mind is good, even if his memory is bad. As an actor, he has not lost any acting skills." Today, some of his great works on the screen - such as "Wagner" The immortal performances in the show have been little known. But children can still see his commercials on TV, such as "Blood on the Snow Mountain Castle" and "Wild Goose Death Squad."
Anyone interested in movies will realize that he was a handsome, charismatic star who led a glamorous, alcoholic life who married Elizabeth Taylor. However, they are unlikely to have any detailed knowledge of his work.
"He was a very, very beautiful man," exclaimed Perry. "Even though he was physically mutilated, old, weak, he still had a real beauty." The young Hal from Henry IV, '51 The prince quietly put on the crown for himself, and in 1984, in 1984, the aged O'Brien cast a sharp glance at the camera among the crowd, the coronation of the Lion King and the final curtain call were as moving as ever.
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