Dennis Burgess

In 1926, Burgess was born in Neath, in Wales.^[1]

Burgess grew up in Port Talbot, attending Port Talbot Secondary School.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, Burgess married Glenys Maria Hare at Neath.^{[citation needed]}

Burgess worked as a drama teacher for most of his adult life. He dedicated a lot of his time to helping his father care for his invalid mother, and it wasn't until after she had died that Burgess became a professional actor.^{[citation needed]}

In 1973, at 47 years of age, Burgess moved from Wales to the south east of England to focus on his acting career. His first professional role was in the film Bluebeard (1972), starring his boyhood friend Richard Burton, who had helped him into the profession. Burton and Burgess had remained great friends, and a series of letters written by the screen legend to his old friend have previously been exhibited at the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth. They included an invitation to Burton's 50th birthday party in 1975, from his then wife Elizabeth Taylor.^[2]

Burgess went on to feature in The Professionals, The Sandbaggers, and The Elephant Man, and played the recurring role of Flambeau in Father Brown.^{[citation needed]}

Death

His second career was to be a short one. On the evening of 3 November 1980, at age 54, Dennis Burgess was driving to his home in Chesham when he suffered a massive heart attack and veered off the road. He was found dead at the wheel of his car, in the middle of a cricket pitch, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England.^{[citation needed]}