From Tiber to Nile: Richard Burton’s Decade in the Ancient World

As a celebration of the centenary of his birth, this heavily illustrated lecture will consider Richard Burton’s substantial contribution to the portrayal of the ancient world on film.

Speaker: John J. Johnston

Having received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for The Robe, (US, Henry Koster, 1953) the first feature shot in CinemaScope, Burton seemed an obvious choice to portray Alexander the Great in writer, producer, and director Robert Rossen’s 1956 film of the same name, appearing alongside a veritable panoply of celebrated British and European stars. However, it is, perhaps, as the Roman general Marc Antony, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s striking Cleopatra (US, 1963) that Richard Burton is most firmly fixed in the public imagination.

Join us for a discussion of the development, production, and reception of these cinematic epics and of Richard Burton’s eloquent contributions to the genre.