THE Richard Burton he is often mentioned as the best actor who never won an Oscar, as well as being one of the highest paid actors in the world.

His relationship with the actress Elizabeth Taylor it was as exciting as his performances, with the couple marrying and divorcing twice and always in the news.

And while Burton gained fame for his distinctive baritone voice, which he leveraged to become a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, it was his warmth that his contemporaries fondly remember.

Among them was his colleague, the also Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins, winner of two Academy Awards for Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs and The Father.

Both stars grew up in Port Talbot, near Swansea, in an area famous for for her love of rugby.

But when Hopkins approached Burton to ask for his autograph at his home, the actor of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? asked the aspiring actor a question without getting the answer he wanted…

Hopkins, who was then 17 years old, he decided to approach Burton, who was preparing to go to Cardiff to watch Wales play in the Five Nations Championship.

Speaking to Candis magazine, Hopkins, now 85, said:

“My father was the local baker, and Richard’s sister, Cecily, used to pop into my parents’ shop. And in the 50s, after Richard became famous, he was living at home with his sister and I went to his house to get an autograph. I remember knocking on the door and this lady came, and I said “Hey, can I have Richard Burton’s autograph?” ;” Oh, you’re Dick Hopkins’ son, aren’t you??” »

“So I went down the hall and I heard this ‘bzzzz’ and it was Richard Burton, shaving with a razor, and he had a T-shirt on and blue eyes.”

Hopkins recalled Burton asking him if he spoke Welsh, and he answered “no” with the British theater legend replying: “Then you are not a true Welshman.”

And he continued:[Ο Μπάρτον] he looked at me with those eyes and his wife, Sybil, who was having breakfast, said ‘Oh come on Richard, just sign the autograph’.

“Then he said ‘Let’s go to the rugby match in Cardiff’, ‘Oh yeah?’ I said, ‘What match is this?'”

“He said, ‘What a match.’; Don’t you know Wales play France? You’re not a real Welshman!”

“So he signed the autograph and I left the house and went back to my father’s shop, and as I was coming down the hill his gray Jaguar passed – to see a Jaguar at Port Talbot in 1955 was something. And Richard and Sybil were in, and Sybil beckoned to me, and Richard looked at me, and I looked at him, our eyes met, and I thought ‘One day, I want to be like that’…”.