Alcoholism is still a struggle — actor

Press, 26 February 1983, Page 8

Alcoholism is still a struggle — actor

NZPA London The actor. Richard Burton, says that he is still struggling with alcoholism and occasionally falls off the wagon to have one or two bottles of vodka a day. “It's no laughing matter — I am an alcoholic,” he said in a 8.8. C. television interview. “It’s a terrifying disease, as bad as cancer." Burton said that he had been a heavy drinker since his student days at Oxford and could always drink anyone under the table. He first realised he had become an alcoholic at the age of 48 when he woke up with his first hangover. He said that he admitted himself to a hospital within weeks to dry out. But he said that he continued to suffer from alcoholism. “I sometimes fall off the waggon and have one or two bottles of vodka a day,” he said. During the hour-long programme, "Burton, a Portrait of a Superstar.” the 57-year-

old actor spoke candidly about his career and personal life. He said that he wished he had never become famous, hated theatre audiences, and considered himself arraoant. Burton said that his thwarted ambition was to become a scholar, and said his idol was the great Shakespearean scholar. W.R.D. Chambers. "He didn’t have my desire for women: he was lucky," Burton said. "To be born Chambers to be totally unknown — and neuter. Burton has been married four times, twice to Elizabeth Taylor, whom he described in the interview as “an extraordinary ladv.” Asked if he did not like his audiences, Burton said with obvious distaste: “Have you ever looked at a theatre audience? “The women with their tinted hair, their husbands who didn't want to be there in the first place?"

He would rather play to an empty house or to a small group who understood Shakespeare. Asked about the numerous mediocre films he has appeared in Burton said: “I did them to have somewhere to go in the morning."