Probably more frequently remembered for his turbulent personal life and multiple marriages, Richard Burton was nonetheless one of the great British actors of the post-WWII period. Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in Pontrhydyfen, Wales, to Edith Maude (Thomas) and Richard Walter Jenkins, a coal miner. His mother died while he was a toddler and his father abandoned the family, leaving him to be raised by his sister Cecilia and her husband Elfred.