Richard Burton receives posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame star

OHMYGOSSIP — Richard Burton has received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The honour was unveiled Friday, March 1 and is located beside the star dedicated to Elizabeth Taylor.

Burton starred opposite Taylor in 11 films and the pair married twice. Their relationship was recently dramatised in TV movie Liz & Dick, which starred Lindsay Lohan as Taylor.

The star’s unveiling coincides with the 50th anniversary of one of the former couple’s most iconic films, Cleopatra.

Burton – who grew up in the village of Pontrhydyfen, near Port Talbot, Wales – died aged 58 in 1984.

BBC News reports that the pair’s adopted daughter Maria and fellow Welshman Michael Sheen were in attendance at the dedication ceremony.

Sheen told the crowd at the unveiling of the excitement he had felt as a youngster when Burton and Taylor visited the coastal town he grew up in.

He said: “The same beach that I built my boyhood sand castles and learned to flailingly swim, it was that same beach, that one legendary day, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor descended from the heavens, like gods from Olympus, in a helicopter… and landed on those sands.

“They stepped out swathed in luxurious fur coats – it was the ’70s – and walked among us for too short a time.”

Burton’s star is the 2,491st plaque to be installed on Hollywood Boulevard. Its unveiling follows a campaign by Welsh paper the Western Mail to honour the actor.

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