[4] A Flint Northern High School graduate,[5] he was a Michigan Golden Gloves heavyweight boxing champion and two-time all-state football player.
[3][5] Burton won the State Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship in 1957 and lost in the Chicago Tournament of Champions semi-finals.
NEA's Frank Sanello in March 1988: Prison for me was productive because I got my high school diploma and a degree from the University of California.
But most important, I got myself together and found out who I was and how I could proceed without destroying myself.More specifically, one of the skills acquired at Chino landed Burton his wife, Rae, whom he met on a TV repair house call.
[7] After prison, Burton started getting work with small theater companies in and around Los Angeles, garnering favorable notices early on.
[8][9] A life member of the Actors Studio,[10] Burton numbers among his many credits a co-starring role in Frank's Place and parts in films, such as Stir Crazy and The Toy.
He also appeared as Wells, one of the prisoners trapped in the besieged police station in John Carpenter's 1976 Howard Hawks-inspired action film, Assault on Precinct 13.
[15] He defeated Stanley Kubrick on the set of The Shining, in which Burton played Larry Durkin, the garage owner.
Speaking with Kubrick biographer Vincent LoBrutto, Burton recalled his first day on the set: My contract was for a week.