Page "Richard Burton" Paragraph 32

Their lively version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew ( 1967 ), directed by Franco Zeffirelli, was a notable success.

Later collaborations, however, The Comedians ( 1967 ), Boom!

( 1968 ), and the Burton-directed Doctor Faustus ( 1967 ) ( which had its genesis from a theatre production he staged and starred in at the Oxford University Dramatic Society ) were critical and commercial failures.

He did enjoy a final commercial blockbuster with Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare in 1968 but his last film of the decade, Anne of the Thousand Days ( 1969 ), was a commercial and critical disappointment.

In spite of those failures, it performed remarkably well at that year's Academy awards ( receiving ten nominations, including one for Burton's performance as Henry VIII ), which many thought to be largely the result of an expensive advertising campaign by Universal Studios.