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Key influences
Richard Burton discusses the four key influences on his life and career, ranging from school teachers Meredith Jones and Philip Burton to Welsh dramatist Emlyn Williams and stage and screen giant John Gielgud. This clip was taken from the programme Kane on Friday: Richard Burton, which was broadcast in 1977.
In this clip, Burton quotes Meredith Jones and Philip Burton as key influences in his life. Jones was the man reponsible for persuading the Glamorgan Education Committee to readmit the young actor to grammar school after he intially quit his education at the age of 15. Jones also set up a local youth centre that Burton attended and where he encountered his first spell of acting.
Mentor Philip Burton kept a fatherly eye over the young student when he returned to school. He later became his legal ward, and Richard took the surname of his guardian at the age of 18. Philip Burton went on to work as a drama producer at the 91Èȱ¬, he moved to the United States in the 1950s and worked as an actor and director.
In 1944, at the age of 19, Burton starred in Emlyn Williams' play The Druid's Rest. He also made his screen debut in another of Williams' works, The Last Days of Dolwyn, in 1948.
