'Mr. Burton' Sets Spring Release for Actor Biopic

The Oscars Primetime telecast may signal the end of awards season, but the next wave of awards contenders are already gearing up to take the public's attention. Even before the Academy Awards announced its nominations for the year that was 2024, Sundance was introducing the tentative hopefuls, and Berlinale was parsing through the possible contenders. But not every film will reserve itself for the film festival circuit. One British biopic, Mr. Burton, about the rise of Welsh actor Richard Burton, is heading to the theaters at the height of spring, in hopes that nominations will bloom.

Born in 1925, Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. grew up in the mining town of Pontrhydyfen, Glamorgan, Wales, the twelfth of thirteen children born into a Welsh-speaking family. His father, who he was named for, was, in Jenkins's own words "a 12 pint a day man," when he wasn't underground, and his mother died when Richard was barely two after complications with her 13th delivery. Richard was raised by his oldest sister and her husband, Cecilia and Elfed James.

But it wasn't until he made it to secondary school, the first in his family to go past the Welsh equivalent of 8th grade, that he met the father figure who would redirect his life. His schoolmaster, Philip Burton, saw the talent in the teenage Richard, and introduced him to William Shakespeare, inspiring him to become one of the world's greatest actors of the mid-20th century. In gratitude, Richard took Burton's surname when he renamed himself for the stage.