Groo - Monday again, and it's raining...
Hey ho - we have a centenary to take our minds off it, that of the very lovely Richard Burton.
With his mellifluous deep Welsh-accented voice and piercing blue eyes, he was more-or-less destined to be an actor, and indeed he became lauded as one of Britain's (and the world's) finest! Despite his long and estimable career - from My Cousin Rachel to The Robe to Under Milk Wood to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds - his acting accomplishments were somewhat overshadowed by his tumultuous and headline-grabbing relationship with Elizabeth Taylor...
On this Tacky Music Monday, by way of a tribute, here's the great man singing:
Have a good week, dear reader.
A Giant of the theatre and every form of acting and the spoken word.
ReplyDeleteNo one could ever deliver these words like him -
“It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobbledstreets silent and the hunched courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.”
Not even Sir Anthony Hopkins could top that with his own recording (for the BBC in 1988). Nor, indeed Michael Sheen, when we saw him as "First Voice" in the National Theatre production post-COVID - but as my sister pointed out in the comments on that post, Mr Sheen commented: "it was OK for him, he was reading it. I had to learn every word." Jx
DeleteWhen I was learning my lines as "Polly Garter", I listened to an old cassette tape of Burton. God that was hard!!
Delete"You're no better than you should be, Polly, and that's good enough for me." Jx
Delete"...for they're good bad boys from the lonely farms."
Delete"Come down from the hills to drink and be gay"! As if. Jx
DeleteI actually love the film Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe, even though by the end of the movie I need a gin with bromide in it.
ReplyDeleteHoney: Oh, I don't know, a little brandy maybe. "Never mix, never worry!"
DeleteGeorge: Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?
Martha: Sure! "Never mix, never worry!"
My kind of party! 😜 Jx
I'm not sure that counts as "singing" but it's perfectly fine rhythmic speaking.
ReplyDeleteIt's the Rex Harrison/Dirk Bogarde school of "singing"... Jx
DeleteI had an ex boyfriend who was obsessed with Richard Burton [I know!?? I did wonder] so I've sat through many of Mr Burton's films - including the stinkers such as the remake of Brief Encounter starring Burton and.... Sophia Loren!!! 1974, if you're interested.
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P.S Your posts have stopped updating on my Blog Roll.
DeleteSx
That was a truly pointless remake, wasn't it? How could a sultry vamp like La Loren possibly step into the role of a bored, slightly stuffy wartime British housewife swept away by a handsome stranger? She'd be the one doing the seducing! Jx
DeleteNot sure what's going on with the blogroll (I assume it's Blogger's own? If that's the case, heaven only knows - it has a mind of its own)! Jx
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