Alistair MacLean vs. Richard Burton

When visitors wander through the old cemetery of Céligny, a quiet (and quaint*) village near Lake Geneva (Switzerland), they often pause in surprise. Only a few metres apart lie the graves of two well-known men: Richard Burton (1925-1984), the (once) world-famous actor, and Alistair MacLean (1922-1987), the writer of (mostly) superb thrillers.

[Richard Burton, Alistair MacLean and Mary Ure]

Their proximity looks deliberate, purposeful, maybe even symbolic, as if the star of Where Eagles Dare and the man who wrote the book and the script had chosen to rest side by side. In reality, they detested each other.

The short friendship
Richard Burton and Alistair MacLean first met in 1967, when Burton was cast in the movie adaptation of Where Eagles Dare. At first, they got on rather well. Burton admired MacLean’s stoic manner and wartime toughness, while MacLean respected Burton’s intelligence and discipline beneath the flamboyant public persona.

Yes, during the shoot, they spent time together, and yes, they drank together. Both men were heavy drinkers, but their drinking habits were quite different. Burton drank socially, loudly, and with theatrical bravado. MacLean drank privately, compulsively, and with a deep shame of being seen drunk, probably shaped by the trauma from his service on the Arctic convoys.

Their friendship collapsed soon after filming. Burton invited MacLean to the Dorchester Hotel in London, where Burton was already drinking heavily. Accounts differ on the details, but the evening ended in a physical fight. MacLean supposedly planted a right hook to Burton's nose. However, it was a humiliating moment for MacLean, who despised being seen drunk. He left furious and never spoke to Burton again. By the late 1970s, MacLean avoided drinking with anyone. His alcoholism worsened, and he retreated into solitude. Burton, meanwhile, continued drinking publicly until his health (read: liver) deteriorated beyond repair.

Two lonely men in Céligny
Despite their estrangement, both men coincidentally gravitated toward the same Swiss village. Burton moved to Céligny in the 1950s and returned there repeatedly throughout his life. He considered it a refuge from fame. MacLean arrived later, seeking privacy, tax advantages, and a quiet place to write. They did never rekindle their friendship. They lived separate lives, each wrestling with his own demons, each increasingly isolated.

When Burton died in 1984, he was buried in le vieux cimetière ('the old cemetery') of Céligny, a small, leafy, slightly overgrown burial ground. MacLean died three years later, in 1987, and as a resident of the same village, he was buried in the same cemetery. Space was limited which meant that their graves lay close together. Their proximity is therefore just a coincidence. Nothing more.

Yet, it has something poetic if you think about it. Two once famous men, who briefly met, whose temperaments violently clashed, who both were functioning alcoholics for very different reasons, now lie peacefully in the same quiet corner of Switzerland. Not as reconciled friends, but as neighbours in death in the quiet neutrality of a Swiss village cemetery.

The other victim of alcohol
Still, alcohol appears to have been a recurring theme, as Mary Ure, the female lead in Where Eagles Dare, died in 1975 at the young age of 42 from alcohol dependence compounded by other mental health challenges.

* Céligny consists of two small exclaves of the Canton of Geneva.