Background
Burton was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of an Air Force sergeant who died when he was five.
Burton was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of an Air Force sergeant who died when he was five.
He became involved in college theatricals while a student at Sonoma State College (later known as Sonoma State University). Burton was plucked from obscurity to star opposite Minnelli as Jerry Payne, the young college student with whom she falls in love in The Sterile Cuckoo. He later played an inmate who was raped in Fortune and Men"s Eyes, and appeared in television specials during the 1970s.
He portrayed Osgood, a mild-mannered man who fights Burt Reynolds in a 1986 film, Heat.