Richard Burton's Ex Wife Sybil Christopher Dies: Found Success After Husband's Affair with Elizabeth Taylor

The woman best known as Richard Burton's ex wife, who he famously left to marry Elizabeth Taylor, has died. Theater producer and nightclub founder Sybil Christopher was 83 when she died, reports Associated Press. It wasn't until her husband had an affair and left her for the "Golden Age" actress that she found success in her career in 1963.

The New York Times has reported that she died Thursday in New York City.

The Bay Street Theater on Long Island, which Welsh-born Christopher founded in 1991, has posted an obituary for its late artistic director on its website.

The obituary said Sybil was the "heart and soul" of the theater, who would be missed by all her friends and community. "Our thoughts are with her family that she loved dearly," it added.

Upon her Burton divorce, Christopher left California for New York where she opened a nightclub in 1965 with backing from famous friends like Julie Andrews and Leonard Bernstein, reports AP. The club, called "Arthur," became a celebrity hangout and turned Christopher into a post-divorce success story.

According to BBC, Sybil married Burton when she was only 19-years-old, having met him on the set of her first and only film, The Last Days of Dolwyn, in 1948.

The pair acted together again in the celebrated 1954 BBC recording of "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas, and Ms. Christopher had a number of other roles, including work in London's West End.

As Burton became more successful in his film career, his ex-wife gave up her career to travel to Switzerland and then America for her husband.

Remembering her decision, she told the New York Times in 1994: "It was very clear to me that I wasn't making a sacrifice...I knew that Richard would have an exciting career and that it would be fun, two Welsh kids on the Queen Mary, traveling first class."

After a string of reported affairs, according to BBC, the Burtons' marriage finally collapsed after he met Elizabeth Taylor on the set of the 1963 film Cleopatra.

The couple divorced, with Sybil winning custody of their two daughters, Kate and Jessica, and a reported settlement of $1m, a huge sum in the 1960s.

After traveling to New York post-divorce and opening "club Arthur," Sybil met the musician and her future husband, Jordan Christopher, who was a singer at the club.

She married him in 1964, had another daughter, and remained by her second husband's side until his death in 1996, reports BBC.

The late Sybil Christopher is survived by three daughters, including actress Kate Burton.