Richard Burton

Burton is sometimes erroneously referred to as "Sir Richard Burton", perhaps due to the similarity of his assumed name to that of Richard Francis Burton, but unlike the 19th century scholar, he never received a knighthood. On November 26, 2003, Chespirito and Florinda Meza received the keys to the city of Cicero, Illinois. Burton appears in the 2002 List of "100 Great Britons" (sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public). After show production was stopped both for El Chavo and El Chapulín, both started to tour Mexico and the rest of Latin America and the United States with different plays, sometimes playing the characters that made them famous. He was only 58 years old. He married actress Florinda Meza, who starred as Doña Florinda in El Chavo and who occasionally participated in El Chapulín. Burton died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Switzerland, where he is buried. He also started in such Mexican movies as El Chanfle, and El Chanfle 2.

Burton was banned permanently from BBC productions in 1974 for questioning the sanity of Winston Churchill and others in power during World War II--Burton reported hating them "virulently" for the alleged promise to wipe out all Japanese people on the planet. These two shows became hits all over Latin America, the United States and Spain, and the stars of the show found international fame. The film is reputed to have been similar to Burton and Taylor's real-life marriage. In El Chavo Del Ocho, Chespirito played a kid who lived inside a beer barrel in a Mexican neighborhood, and in El Chapulín Colorado he played a good hearted super hero who always got involved in funny situations. Burton and Taylor played opposite each other in Mike Nichols's film of the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which a bitter erudite couple spend the evening trading vicious barbs in front of their horrified and fascinated guests. His best known roles were in the shows El Chavo Del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado, as El Chavo and El Chapulín. An insomniac and notoriously heavy drinker, Burton was married five times - twice, consecutively, to Elizabeth Taylor. His stage name of Chespirito was concocted from the dimutive form the Mexican pronunciation of the name of William Shakespeare, meaning "Little Shakepeare" or "Little Boy Shakespeare".

In 1954, he took his most famous radio role, as the narrator in the original production of Under Milk Wood, a role he would reprise in the film version twenty years later. He continuously starred in shows on Mexican television from 1970 to 1995 and became well known throughout Latin America. In 1952, Burton successfully made the transition to Hollywood star, appearing in My Cousin Rachel opposite Olivia de Havilland. The network quickly signed him and soon he began writing and starring in his children comedy shows. This was made possible only because it was wartime and he was an air force cadet. Chespirito was discovered as an actor one day as he was making a line to apply for a job as a writer at Televisa. In 1943, at the age of eighteen, Richard Burton (who had now taken his teacher's surname), was allowed into Exeter College for a term of six months study. He began studying Engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and, according to one of his professors, Esteban Salinas Elorriaga, now professor emeritus, Chespirito was great in math. He wrote a number of plays, and contributed dialogue for scripts of films and television shows in Mexico, as well as some character acting work before he became famous.

His former teacher, Philip Burton, recognising his talent, adopted him and enabled him to return to school. Before becoming an actor, he was an amateur boxer. The facts, as recorded by Burton himself in his own autobiography and in Richard and Philip, which he co-wrote, are as follows: At the age of sixteen, he was forced to leave school and find work as a shop assistant. Gómez Bolaños was born in Mexico City. There is a widespread myth (perhaps encouraged or even believed by some members of his stoutly working-class family) that Richard Burton "won a scholarship to Oxford at the age of sixteen" but left after six months. Chespirito (born February 21, 1929 ) is the professional name of Mexican writer, actor, comedian, and songwriter Roberto Gómez Bolaños. It was at this time that he began to develop the distinctive speaking voice that became his hallmark, having been encouraged by Philip (who sidelined as a BBC radio producer) to "lose his Welsh accent".

With the assistance of his inspirational schoolmaster, Philip H Burton (who legally adopted him), he excelled in school productions. He was born Richard Walter Jenkins in the village of Pontrhydyfen near Port Talbot.
Richard Burton (November 10, 1925 - August 5, 1984) was a Welsh actor from the late 1940s through the 1980s. For the 19th-century explorer, scholar, and orientalist, see Richard Francis Burton..

This article is about the 20th-century actor. 1984 (1984) - (his final screen appearance) (see also: Nineteen Eighty-Four (novel)). Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
. Where Eagles Dare (1968)
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