He Utterly Hated Richard Burton, Now We Know the Reason Why
Behind the glamorous facade of Old Hollywood, silver screen triumphs were frequently fueled by genuine, red-hot animosity. Few figures ignited as much intense, polarizing emotion among their peers as the legendary Welsh titan, Richard Burton. While the public swooned over his booming baritone and magnetic presence, behind the scenes, his sharp intellect and volatile temperament birthed some of the industry’s most legendary feuds. To truly understand the golden age of cinema, one must dissect the anatomy of the rivalries that defined Burton’s tumultuous career.
The most venomous, deeply personal hatred directed at Burton came from fellow powerhouse actor Robert Shaw. Their feud was not born from a mere clash of egos on a movie set, but from a raw, unresolved romantic grievance that spanned decades. In the 1950s, Burton engaged in a passionate, highly publicized affair with the brilliant actress Mary Ure. Shaw later married Ure, but the ghost of her past with Burton haunted him permanently. Shaw fiercely resented Burton for the emotional toll the affair had taken on Ure, transforming a private romantic scar into a lifelong professional vendetta.
This deep-seated personal malice inevitably spilled over into their artistic rivalry, particularly when both men tackled the same historical icon. Shaw had delivered a critically acclaimed performance as King Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons. When Burton later received an Academy Award nomination for playing the exact same monarch in Anne of the Thousand Days, Shaw was utterly furious. He openly mocked Burton’s acting credentials, bitterly claiming that “anyone could play Henry VIII.” For Shaw, Burton was not an artistic equal, but a lifelong nemesis whose talent he refused to legitimize.
A completely different, yet equally volatile clash of civilizations occurred on the set of the 1953 Biblical epic, The Robe. Here, Burton found himself starring alongside Victor Mature, a Hollywood heavyweight who operated on an entirely different wavelength. Burton, a fiercely proud, classically trained Shakespearean purist, treated the craft of acting with monastic gravity. He viewed the film set as a sacred stage, whereas Mature viewed it as a job, openly embracing his status as a commercial star rather than a highbrow artist.
This fundamental ideological divide quickly mutated into mutual, unadulterated loathing. Burton took every opportunity to sneer at Mature’s dramatic capabilities, treating him with elitist condescension. Mature, however, was entirely unbothered by the Welshman’s intellectual snobbery. Famous for his self-deprecating wit, Mature once joked that he was not an actor and “had the reviews to prove it.” Mature utterly detested Burton’s self-important, pretentious attitude, turning the set of one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters into a cold war of diametric opposites.
Yet, the most tragic revelation concerning Burton’s hostile relationships did not involve a jealous co-star, but the man in the mirror. With the posthumous publication of The Richard Burton Diaries, historians and film enthusiasts gained unprecedented access to the actor’s inner world. The writings exposed a startling truth: the person who harbored the most violent, unrelenting hatred for Richard Burton was Richard Burton himself. His diaries paint a grim portrait of a man trapped under the suffocating weight of his own profound self-loathing.
Burton’s journals reveal that he despised his physical appearance, deeply scarred by a severe bout of childhood acne. More shockingly, he harbored a profound contempt for his own profession, routinely writing that he “hated acting” and viewed the glitz of Hollywood as a shallow, wasteful distraction from his true passion for literature. Ultimately, whether facing the romantic fury of Robert Shaw, the ideological disdain of Victor Mature, or the quiet agony of his own reflection, Burton’s life proves that the most captivating drama was never what appeared on the silver screen.