Career
Born in New York City, Burton was a student of The Actor"s Studio. After early work on stage, he broke into films with a minor role in Fright (1956). He played the Hunt Leader, a gorilla, in the science fiction film Planet of the Apes, notable as being the first ape to be seen by both Taylor and the audience, and also appeared as a (human) army officer in the second sequel.
In film, he is perhaps best known for his unconventional (and frequently disparaged) performance as Felix Leiter in the James Bond film.
He played Will Giddings, an ill fated engineer, in the action film, and his later films included, and He played Dennis Christopher"s mean and ill fated boss in the slasher Fade To Black (1980).
On television, he is best known for his performance as Inter-Agency Defense Command"s supervisor Joe Atkinson during the second season of the District of Columbia Comics-based fantasy adventure drama series The New Adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter. He also played Burt Dennis in the situation comedy The Ted Knight Show in the spring of 1978, and appeared as General George Marshall in the 1988 television miniseries War and Remembrance.
Throughout his life, Burton was a devotee of the method school of acting, and taught method acting in Lakeside, California.
Burton was just a few days short of his 80th birthday when he died as a result of an auto accident while returning from Ajijic, Mexico near the California-Arizona state line.