Which actor taught English poetry at Oxford University in the 1970s?

In the 1970s, the actor, Richard Burton, had the opportunity to teach English poetry at Oxford University. He was noted for his very high intelligence quotient (IQ), a total score derived from a set of standardized tests/subtests designed to assess human intelligence.

Richard Burton, CBE (born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr., November 1925 – August 1984) was a Welsh actor. He was noted for his mellifluous baritone voice and very early in his career established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s. He is remembered for giving a memorable performance of "Hamlet" in 1964. He was called "the natural successor to Olivier" by critic Kenneth Tynan. A heavy drinker, Burton's purported failure to live up to great expectations disappointed some critics and close colleagues. But the image however added to his persona as a great performer who had wasted his talent. Nevertheless, Burton is still widely regarded as one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. But he never won an Oscar.

By the mid-1960s, Burton was one of the highest-paid actors in the world. Because he remained closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor, the couple and their turbulent relationship was rarely out of the news. In the last 7 years of his life he constantly resisted offers to play Lear on stage, instead preferring to make films like "Absolution" (1978). He died in 1984 in Celigny, Switzerland from an alcoholic cerebral hemorrhage.