Sybil Christopher

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sybil Christopher around 1955

Sybil Christopher (born Sybil Williams on March 27, 1929 in Tylorstown , Wales , † March 7, 2013 in New York City , New York ) was a British actress , theater director and owner of a nightclub in New York City. She is best known as actor Richard Burton's first wife .

Life

Sybil Williams came from a humble background in South Wales . Her father was a miner who was promoted to a managerial position in a mine in the Rhondda coalfield . She lost both parents early. The mother, a seamstress, died when Sybil was ten years old and the father five years later. Williams then lived with an older sister in Northampton and worked there as a window dresser. With frequent visits to a theater, in which she eventually also appeared on stage, she found interest in the acting profession and applied to the London Academy of Dramatic Arts , where she was accepted.

While filming the Welsh feature film The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949), in which she worked as an extra , she met Richard Burton, who played one of the most important supporting roles. For both of them it was the first film work, but also the last for Sybil. The two young Welsh actors, with similar family backgrounds, married shortly afterwards and lived in London from then on.

In 1949 Sybil Burton starred in a production of My Friend Harvey in the West End . In 1951 she played Lady Mortimer in Henry IV of William Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon . In 1954 she took on the role of Myfanwy Price in a famous BBC production of the radio play Unter dem Milchwald (Under Milk Wood) by Dylan Thomas , in which Richard Burton spoke the lead role.

Burton had increasing success on the big screen in the years that followed, while Sybil gave up her own career. In 1957 the couple moved to Switzerland , where they lived in a house on Lake Geneva . During this time, 1957 and 1959, two daughters were born. The family then moved to California . Sybil apparently tolerated repeated extramarital affairs of her husband with colleagues, for example with Claire Bloom and with Jean Simmons .

In September 1961 Richard took on the role of Mark Antony in the feature film Cleopatra , in which Elizabeth Taylor played the title role. While filming in Rome , the two of them got involved in an affair, which, when it became known in the spring of 1962, turned into a scandalous event, which even the Vatican commented. The extensive coverage of the tabloids also drew Sybil into the limelight, where she, like Taylor's husband Eddie Fisher , was mostly portrayed as a victim and received a lot of compassion. Despite urging from Taylor, Richard Burton hesitated for a long time to part with his wife, also because his own relatives were on her side. Both affected marriages eventually broke up, however, and Sybil won the foster rights for the two daughters as well as a compensation payment of one million US dollars in a bitter divorce process. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor then married in 1964.

Soon after her divorce from Burton, Sybil moved with her two daughters to New York City, where she had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, most of whom she had met through Burton's professional activities. She settled in an apartment on Central Park West . In 1965, with the support of numerous friends, including Debbie Reynolds , Leonard Bernstein , Julie Andrews and Stephen Sondheim , she managed to raise enough money to open the nightclub "Arthur" at the former location of the legendary "El Morocco". The club developed into a favorite meeting place for numerous celebrities and Sybil became a fixture in New York City's social life. In 1966 she married Jordan Christopher, the lead singer of the "Arthur" house band "Wild Ones", and called herself Sybil Christopher from then on. The night club closed its doors in 1969.

Then Christopher rediscovered her love for the theater, although she limited herself to functions behind the scenes. She co-founded the New Theater on 54th Street, where she cast the roles.

Together with two partners, including Emma Walton , Christopher started the "Bay Street Theater" in a former warehouse in Sag Harbor on Long Island in 1991 , where she also lived from then on. The small community theater mainly played works by authors who lived or spent the summer months in this eastern part of Long Islands. Some of the well-known actors could be won for guest performances, such as Alan Alda , Ben Gazzara , Eli Wallach and Polly Draper . Kate Burton also appeared several times in her mother's theater, for example in an adaptation by Hedda Gabler after Henrik Ibsen ; the production earned Burton a Tony Award nomination after moving to Broadway .

Christopher served as the Artistic Director of the Bay Street Theater for 22 years and only gave up her job a year before her death due to poor health.

In December 2012, Sybil Christopher moved from Sag Harbor to Manhattan, where she died on March 7, 2013 at the age of 83. At their own request, their remains were to be cremated and the ashes scattered around their Welsh homeland.

Private life

Sybil Christopher was married twice. From the marriage with Richard Burton, which lasted from 1949 to 1963, had two daughters, including the actress Kate Burton. Sybil was married to her second husband Jordan Christopher from 1966 until his death in 1996. The two had a daughter together.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Christopher, Sybil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Williams, Sybil (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actress, theater manager and nightclub owner in New York City
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Tylorstown , Wales ,
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 2013
Place of death New York City , New York