Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor who had a lengthy Hollywood film career and portrayed the title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside.
Burr's early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. He portrayed the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window (1954), and he also had a role in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which he reprised in the 1985 film Godzilla 1985. He won Emmy Awards for acting in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons (1957–1966) and reprised in a series of 26 Perry Mason TV movies (1985–1993). His second TV series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.
Burr died from liver cancer in 1993, and his personal life came into question, as many details of his biography appeared to be unverifiable. his mother, Minerva Annette (née Smith, 1892–1974), was a pianist and music teacher.
When Burr was six, his parents divorced. He moved to Vallejo, California, with his mother and younger siblings Geraldine and James, He did some acting in his teen years, making his stage debut at age 12 in a Vancouver stock company. By his own account, in 1934 he joined a repertory theatre company in Toronto that toured throughout Canada, then joined another company that toured India, Australia, and England. He briefly attended Long Beach Junior College and taught for a semester at San Jose Junior College, working nights as a radio actor and singer. Burr began his association with the Pasadena Playhouse
Burr moved to New York in 1940 and made his first Broadway appearance in Crazy With the Heat, a two-act musical revue produced by Kurt Kasznar. Despite the veteran cast of stars Willie Howard, Luella Gear, and Gracie Barrie, the show folded after three months.
Film
thumb|right|Lars Thorwald realizes that he is being watched across the courtyard by telephoto lens in [[Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), which offered Burr his most notable film role. Silver described Burr's private detective in Pitfall as "both reprehensible and pathetic," "He tried to make you see the psychosis below the surface, even when the parts weren't huge," said film historian James Ursini. "He was able to bring such complexity and different levels to those characters, and create sympathy for his characters even though they were doing reprehensible things."
"I was just a fat heavy," Burr told journalist James Bawden. "I split the heavy parts with Bill Conrad. We were both in our twenties playing much older men. I never got the girl but I once got the gorilla in a 3-D picture called Gorilla at Large. I menaced Claudette Colbert, Lizabeth Scott, Paulette Goddard, Anne Baxter, Barbara Stanwyck. Those girls would take one look at me and scream and can you blame them? I was drowned, beaten, stabbed and all for my art. But I knew I was horribly overweight. I lacked any kind of self esteem. At 25 I was playing the fathers of people older than me."
Burr's occasional roles on the right side of the law include the aggressive prosecutor in A Place in the Sun (1951).
Working steadily in radio since the 1940s, often uncredited, He had a regular role in Jack Webb's first radio show, Pat Novak for Hire (1949), and in Dragnet (1949–50) he played Joe Friday's boss, Ed Backstrand, chief of detectives.
From March 1951 through June 1952 Burr used the name of Ray Hartman approximately 30 times when appearing on radio, mostly on Dangerous Assignment, The Lineup and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. This was verified by perusing the scripts for both series.
In 1956, Burr was the star of CBS Radio's Fort Laramie, an adult Western drama produced, written and directed by the creators of Gunsmoke. He played the role of Lee Quince, captain of the cavalry, in the series set at a post-Civil War military post where disease, boredom, the elements and the uncharted terrain were the greatest enemies of "ordinary men who lived in extraordinary times". The half-hour transcribed program aired Sundays at 5:30 pm. ET January 22 – October 28, 1956. Burr told columnist Sheilah Graham that he had received 1,500 fan letters after the first broadcasts, and he continued to receive letters praising the show's authenticity and presentation of human dignity.
In August 1956, CBS announced that Burr would star in the television series Perry Mason. Although the network wanted Burr to continue work on Fort Laramie as well, the TV series required an extraordinary commitment and the radio show ended.
Known for his loyalty and consciousness of history, Burr went out of his way to employ his radio colleagues in his television programs.
Television
Burr emerged as a prolific television character actor in the 1950s. He made his television debut in 1951, appearing in episodes of Stars Over Hollywood, The Bigelow Theatre, He went on to appear in such programs as Gruen Playhouse, Four Star Playhouse, Ford Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, Mr. and Mrs. North, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars and Playhouse 90. Burr told associate producer Sam White, "If you don't like me as Perry Mason, then I'll go along and play the part of the district attorney, Hamilton Burger." Executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson had been impressed with Burr's courtroom performance in A Place in the Sun (1951), and she told Burr that he was perfect for Perry Mason but at least overweight. He went on a crash diet over the following month; he then tested as Perry Mason and was cast in the role. While Burr's test was running, Gardner reportedly stood up, pointed at the screen, and said, "That's Perry Mason." The series also starred Barbara Hale as Della Street, Mason's secretary, William Talman as Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who loses nearly every case to Mason, and Ray Collins as homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg. Burr received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations and won the award in 1959 and 1961
One last attempt to launch a series followed on CBS. The two-hour premiere of The Jordan Chance aroused little interest.
On January 20, 1987, Burr hosted the television special that later served as the pilot for the long-running series Unsolved Mysteries. The same week, Burr recalled, he was asked to reprise the role he played in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), in a low-budget film that would be titled Godzilla 1985. Although Burr is best remembered for his role as Perry Mason, a devoted following continues to appreciate him as the actor that brought the Godzilla series to America.
He agreed to appear in the Mason movie if Barbara Hale returned to reprise her role as Della Street. Hale agreed, and when Perry Mason Returns aired in December 1985, her character became the defendant.
After several of the TV movies, Burr's age and health issues forced him to use a cane onscreen, which was jokingly explained as a "skiing accident". By 1993, when Burr signed with NBC for another season of Mason films, he was using a wheelchair full-time because of his failing health. In his final Perry Mason movie, The Case of the Killer Kiss, he was shown either sitting or standing while leaning on a table, but only once standing unsupported for a few seconds. Twelve more Mason movies were scheduled before Burr's death, including one scheduled to film the month he died.
As he had with the Perry Mason TV movies, Burr decided to do an Ironside reunion movie. The Return of Ironside aired in May 1993, reuniting the entire original cast of the 1967–75 series. Like many of the Mason movies, it was set and filmed in Denver. on January 10, 1948. They met in 1943 while she was a student at the Pasadena Playhouse where Burr was teaching. They met again in 1947 when she was in California with a theater company. They were married shortly before Burr began work on the 1948 film noir Pitfall. In May 1948, they appeared on stage together in a Pasadena Playhouse production based on the life of Paul Gauguin. They owned and operated an orchid business and then a vineyard in California's Dry Creek Valley. They were domestic partners until Burr's death in 1993. (reportedly against Burr's wishes) and managed it as a commercial enterprise.
Although Burr had not revealed that he was homosexual during his lifetime, it was reported in the press upon his death.
Biographical contradictions
At various times in his career, Burr and his managers and publicists offered spurious or unverifiable biographical details to the press and public. Burr's obituary in The New York Times states that he entered the U.S. Navy in 1944, after The Duke in Darkness, and left in 1946, weighing almost . that he sustained battle injuries at Okinawa. and by his first biographer, Ona Hill.—killed, Burr said, in the same 1943 plane crash that claimed the life of actor Leslie Howard. However, multiple sources have reported that no one by that name appears on any of the published passenger manifests from the flight. Yet no evidence exists of either marriage, nor of a son's birth, other than Burr's own claims. Burr reportedly resented Warner Bros.' decision to promote her attachment to another gay actor, Tab Hunter, rather than him. Robert Benevides later said, "He was a little bitter about it. He was really in love with her, I guess."
Arthur Marks, a producer of Perry Mason, recalled Burr's talk of wives and children: "I know he was just putting on a show. ... That was my gut feeling. I think the wives and the loving women, the Natalie Wood thing, were a bit of a cover." He was interested in flying, sailing, and fishing. According to A&E Biography, Burr was an avid reader with a retentive memory. He was also among the earliest importers and breeders of Portuguese water dogs in the United States.
thumb|Raymond Burr Vineyards
Burr developed his interest in cultivating and hybridizing orchids into a business with Benevides. Over 20 years, their company, Sea God Nurseries, had nurseries in Fiji, Hawaii, the Azores, and California, and was responsible for adding more than 1,500 new orchids to the worldwide catalog. Burr named one of them the "Barbara Hale Orchid" after his Perry Mason costar. Burr and Benevides cultivated Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and grapes for Port wine, as well as orchids, at Burr's farm/estate in Sonoma County, California.
In 1965, Burr purchased Naitauba, a island in Fiji, rich in seashells. There, he and Benevides oversaw the raising of copra (coconut meat) and cattle, as well as orchids.
Philanthropy
Burr was a well-known philanthropist. He gave enormous sums of money, including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies, to charity. He was also known for sharing his wealth with friends. He sponsored 26 foster children through the Foster Parents' Plan or Save the Children, many with the greatest medical needs.
thumb|A view of the [[Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, with the Raymond Burr Memorial Garden in the foreground, December 2011]]
Burr was an early supporter of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, raising funds and chairing its first capital campaign.
In 1993, Sonoma State University awarded Burr an honorary doctorate. He supported medical and educational institutions in Denver, and in 1993, the University of Colorado awarded him an honorary doctorate for his acting work.
Burr made repeated trips on behalf of the United Service Organizations (USO). He toured both Korea and Vietnam during wartime and once spent six months touring Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He sometimes organized his own troupe and toured bases both in the U.S. and overseas, often small installations that the USO did not serve, like one tour of Greenland, Baffin Island, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Illness and death
thumb|Raymond Burr's grave marker with his family in [[New Westminster, Canada.]]
During the filming of his last Perry Mason movie in the spring of 1993, Burr became ill. A Viacom spokesman told the media that the illness might have been related to the renal cell carcinoma (malignant kidney tumour) that had been removed from Burr that February. Burr held several "goodbye parties" before his death on September 12, 1993, at his Sonoma County ranch near Healdsburg. He was 76 years old. The New York Times reported that Perry Mason had been named second—after F. Lee Bailey, and before Abraham Lincoln, Thurgood Marshall, Janet Reno, Ben Matlock and Hillary Clinton—in a 1993 National Law Journal poll that asked Americans to name the attorney, fictional or not, they most admired.
Burr was interred with his parents and sister Geraldine (1920-2001) at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia. On October 1, about 600 family members and friends paid tribute to Burr at a private memorial service at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Burr bequeathed his estate to Robert Benevides, and excluded all relatives, including a sister, nieces, and nephews. His will was challenged, without success, by the two children of his late brother, James E. Burr.
Accolades
For his work in the TV series Perry Mason, Burr received the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series at the 11th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1959. Nominated again in 1960, he received his second Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series (Lead) at the 13th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1961. Burr was named Favorite Male Performer, for Perry Mason, in TV Guide magazine's inaugural TV Guide Award readers poll in 1960. He also received the second annual award in 1961.
In 1960, Burr was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Boulevard. Burr received six Emmy nominations (1968–72) for his work in the TV series Ironside. A benefactor of legal education, Burr was principal speaker at the founders' banquet of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, in June 1973. The Raymond Burr Award for Excellence in Criminal Law was established in his honor.
Burr was ranked No. 44 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time in 1996. Completed in 1996, a circular garden at the entrance to the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, honored Burr for his role in establishing the museum. Burr was a trustee and an early supporter who chaired the museum's first capital campaign, and made direct contributions from his own shell collection. A display about Burr as an actor, benefactor and collector opened in the museum's Great Hall of Shells in 2012.
From 2000 to 2006, the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society leased the historic Columbia Theatre from the city of New Westminster, and renamed it the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre. Although the nonprofit organization hoped to raise funds to renovate and expand the venue, its contract was not renewed. The group was a failed bidder when the theater was sold in 2011.
In 2008, Canada Post issued a postage stamp in its "Canadians in Hollywood" series featuring Burr. Burr received the 2009 Canadian Legends Award and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on September 12, 2009. A 2014 article in The Atlantic that examined how Netflix categorized nearly 77,000 different personalized genres found that Burr was rated as the favorite actor by Netflix users, with the greatest number of dedicated microgenres.
Acting credits
Theatre
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! class="unsortable" | Date
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| December 26, 1940
| Crazy With the Heat
|
| Boston
|-
| January 14–18, 1941
| Crazy With the Heat
|
| 44th Street Theatre, New York City
|-
| November 11–22, 1942
| Quiet Wedding
|
| Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Lenore Shanewise
|-
| December 23, 1942 – January 3, 1943
| Charley's Aunt
|
| Pasadena Playhouse
|-
| February – February 21, 1943
| Arsenic and Old Lace
|
| Pasadena Playhouse
|-
| March–April 1943
| Jason
|
| Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Onslow Stevens
|-
| July 1943
| '
|
| Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Lenore Shanewise
|-
| July–August 1943
| Monsieur Beaucaire
|
| Pasadena Playhouse
|-
| January 24 – February 12, 1944
| '
| Voulain
| Playhouse Theatre, New York City
|-
|May - August 1944
|Multiple productions
|Various
|Elitch Gardens Theater, Denver, Colorado, Additional Citation:
|-
| June 12–23, 1946
| While the Sun Shines
|
| Pasadena Playhouse
|-
| December 1, 1946 –
| Murder Without Crime
|
| Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Raymond Burr (also actor)
|-
| May 26, 1948 –
| Gauguin
|
| Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Catherine Turney
|-
| June 11 – July 15, 1962
| Critic's Choice
|
| Suburbs of Detroit and Chicago
|-
| 1983
| Underground
|
| Tour including Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Theatre Royal, York and Prince of Wales Theatre, London
|}
Film
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1940
| Earl of Puddlestone
| Mrs. Millicent Potter's chauffeur
| Uncredited
|-
| 1947
| Code of the West
| Boyd Carter
|
|-
| 1962
| "When Sally Fell"
| Himself (introduction, conclusion)
| Short film on home safety
|-
| 1962
| "Look Alive"
| Himself
| Short film on pedestrian safety
|-
| 1980
| '
| Dr. Kramer
|
|-
| 1982
| Airplane II: The Sequel
| The Judge
|
|-
| 1991
| The Legend of Kootenai Brown
| Judge Webster
|
|-
| 1991
| Delirious
| Carter Hedison
|
|-
| October 18, 1948
| '
|
| "The Case of the Eager Victim"
|-
| October 26, 1948
| Favorite Story
|
| "The Jest of Hahalaba"
|-
| December 25, 1948
| Wrigley Christmas Party
|
|
|-
| January 23, 1949
| Screen Directors Playhouse
|
| "The Exile"
|-
| February 13 – June 26, 1949
| Pat Novak, for Hire
|
|
|-
| February 17, 1949
| Suspense
|
| "Catch Me If You Can"
|-
| July 16, 1949
| Dangerous Assignment
|
| "Sunken Ships"
|-
| August 24, 1949
| Family Theater
|
| "Robert of Sicily"
|-
| September 21, 1949
| '
|
| "The Paul Conrad Case"
|-
| September 27, 1949 –
| Dr. Kildare
| Repertory cast
| Eight transcribed episodes
|-
| October 17, 1949
| Screen Directors Playhouse
| MacDonald
| "Pitfall"
|-
| May 9, 1950
| Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
|
| "The Harold Trandem Matter"
|-
| October 7, 1950
| Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
|
| "The Richard Splain Matter"
|-
| October 28, 1950
| Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
|
| "The Joan Sebastian Matter"
|-
| December 6, 1950
| Family Theater
|
| "Robert of Sicily"
|-
| January 4, 1951
| Screen Directors Playhouse
|
| "Prince of Foxes"
|-
| April 24, 1951
| '
|
| "The Brommel and Bellows Bloody Bullet Case"
|-
| October 28, 1951
| '
|
| "The Case of the Rubber Gloves"
|-
| November 8, 1951
| Hallmark Playhouse
|
| "Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"
|-
| 1951
| '
|
| "The Mischianza"
|-
| March 9, 1952
| '
|
| "Breakaway"
|-
| April 7, 1952
| '
|
| "The Homecoming"
|-
| June 10, 1952
| '
|
| "Lobdell's Poodle-Cut Tomato Case"
|-
| July 22, 1952
| '
|
| "The Drinkler Kidnapping Case"
|-
| January 30, 1953
| Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
|
| "The Kay Bellamy Matter"
|-
| September 26, 1953
| Romance
|
| "Treadmill"
|-
| September 30, 1953
| Family Theater
|
| "Journey of the Pegasus"
|-
| March 24, 1954
| Family Theater
|
| "Night Caller"
|-
| March 9, 1956
| CBS Radio Workshop
|
| "Report on ESP"
|-
| May 25, 1956
| CBS Radio Workshop
| Narrator
| "The Little Prince"
|-
| August 24, 1969
| Special Delivery: Vietnam
|
| "History's First Nationwide Radiothon"
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! class="unsortable" | Date
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| March 14, 1951
| Stars Over Hollywood
|
| "Prison Doctor"
|-
| December 16, 1951
| Dragnet
|
| "The Human Bomb" (series debut)
|-
| November 21, 1951
| Family Theater
|Simon the Cyrenean
|-
| March 21, 1952
| Rebound
|
| "Joker's Wild"
|-
| April 11, 1952
| Rebound
| Gomez
| "The Wreck"
|-
| September 9, 1952
| Gruen Playhouse
|
| "The Leather Coat"
|-
| January 2, 1953
| Tales of Tomorrow
|
| "The Mask of Medusa"
|-
| January 16, 1953
| Your Favorite Story
|
| "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
|-
| April 28, 1953
| Chevron Theatre
|
| "No Escape"
|-
| December 10, 1953
| Four Star Playhouse
|
| "The Room"
|-
| January 28, 1954
| Lux Video Theatre
|
| "A Place in the Sun"
|-
| November 2, 1955
| '
|
| "The Ox-Bow Incident"
|-
| December 1, 1955
| Lux Video Theatre
|
| "The Web"
|-
| March 1, 1956
| Climax!
|
| "The Sound of Silence"
|-
| March 1, 1956
| Ford Theatre
|
| "Man Without a Fear"
|-
| May 24, 1956
| Climax!
|
| "The Shadow of Evil"
|-
| December 6, 1956
| Climax!
|
| "Savage Portrait"
|-
| 1956
| Chevron Hall of Stars
| Jud
| "The Lone Hand"
|-
| January 31, 1957
| Playhouse 90
|
| "The Greer Case"
|-
| March 12, 1957
| Celebrity Playhouse
| George
| "No Escape"
|-
| September 21, 1957 – May 22, 1966
| Perry Mason
|
| 271 episodes<br>Winner, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, 1959 and 1961; nominee in 1960
|-
| June 5, 1958
| Playhouse 90
| Host
| "The Innocent Sleep"
|-
| May 6, 1959
| 11th Emmy Awards
| Host
|
|-
| November 5, 1961
| '
|
| "Jack On Trial for Murder"
|-
| June 3, 1962
| What's My Line?
| Mystery guest
|
|-
| March 28, 1967
| Ironside
|
| World premiere television film<br>Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama (1968)
|-
| September 14, 1967 – January 16, 1975
| Ironside
|
| 194 episodes<br>Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972
|-
| January 9, 1968
| It Takes a Thief
|
| "A Thief Is a Thief" (series premiere)
|-
| September 19, 1972
| '
|
| "Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown"
|-
| February 8, 1976
| Mallory
|
|
|-
| July 3, 1976
| The Inventing of America
| Co-host
| NBC–BBC co-production for the U.S. Bicentennial, co-hosted by James Burke
|-
| September 15, 1976
| Kingston: The Power Play
|
|
|-
| October 16–18, 1977
| 79 Park Avenue
|
| Miniseries
|-
| December 12, 1978
| '
|
|
|-
| October 1, 1978 –
| Centennial
|
| Miniseries
|-
| October 23, 1979
| '
|
|
|-
| December 18, 1980
| '
| Mayor
|
|-
| April 12 + 14, 1981
| Peter and Paul
| Herod Agrippa
|
|-
| May 25, 1986
| Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun
|
|
|-
| February 23, 1987
| Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love
|
|
|-
| January 21, 1990
| Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen
|
|
|-
| May 21, 1993
| Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host
|
|