Raymond Burr

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Raymond Burr
Birth name	Raymond William Stacey Burr
Born	May 21, 1917 New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Died	September 12, 1993 Healdsburg, California
Years active	1940-1993
Spouse(s)	Robert Benevides (1955-1993)
Notable roles	Perry Mason Perry Mason
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series 1961, Perry Mason 1959, Perry Mason

Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917—September 12, 1993) was an Emmy-nominated actor and vintner, perhaps best known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside.

Contents 1 Early Life 2 Acting/Movie career 3 A role in World War II 4 Resuming his film career before a role in Korean War 5 Reliable 1950s character actor 6 TV Roles 6.1 Perry Mason 6.2 A Man Called Ironside 6.3 TV roles 6.4 Perry Mason Returns 7 Personal Life 8 Philanthropy 9 The Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Early Life

The oldest of three children, Burr was born in New Westminister, British Columbia, Canada, just east of Vancouver to William Johnston Burr from County Cork Ireland, who was an Irish salesman and Minerva Burr, who was a pianist who immigrated from Chicago, Illinois to Canada in 1914, where Burr’s parents were married. An energetic boy, during the winters he often enjoyed sledding and in summer played along the coast near his grandmother's house. To help bring a little money in the household, Minerva played piano accompaniment in silent movie theatres and this likely led to young Raymond's interest in acting. He also enjoyed listening to his mother play the church piano on Sundays. Surrounded by Raymond's grandparents and other relatives, when Raymond was 6 his mother grew restless with small town life, and moved to Vallejo, California to pursue her studies in music. Encouraged by her parents, his mother purchased a hotel just 1 hour away from San Francisco, California. His mother begged his father to leave Canada and was completely taken in of his mother’s husband. His father was struggling to get a job behind his Canadian home, he left his family and within eight months, he returned north. The divorce was not amicable, which took a huge toll on Ray’s life. In 1928, at age 11, his mother decided to enroll him at San Raphael Military School, on which he called, hermitory. All of his life, he was a rotund child, because his grandmothers' loved to feed him whenever it was necessary. At school, all the rest of Raymond’s classmates felt like he was an outcast of his friends, hence, he suffered from their cruel taunts. Despite his misery, he always wanted to leave military school, and at the very last minute, his mother agreed, sending Raymond to a public school. When he was 12 in 1929, the Stock Market crashed, and millions of people were having trouble surviving and needed to pitch in. At that same age, he became a surrogate father, esp. to his sister, Geraldine. Even during the Depression era, Raymond solved a lot of problems by keeping his brother and sister, happy, for throwing out parties, acting in plays, while enjoying it as a little kid. As his relationship with his mother rises, his mother relied on his power and good cheer, for taking him out to lunch. When he was 17 in 1934, he dropped out of school to support the era, the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he learned to fight forest fires, plant trees, among many others. Thanks to his work, he lost several pounds acquiring a trim physique.

[edit] Acting/Movie career

After CCC, he began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse and became an actor in 1937. He tried romantic roles, but was unsuccessful in Hollywood, so, he tried his luck on Broadway. In 1941, he landed his first Broadway role in “Crazy with the Heart”. The show tanked, therefore, he returned to the “Greater White Way,” where he was a tremendous success. His appearance in 1944, was Duke in Darkness, in the role of Bulet, the show gained recognition in theatres. He was also a contract player at RKO studio, where he met future ‘’Perry Mason’’ star, a very young, Barbara Hale. He starred in Godzilla (1954) (Jap. Gojira), as a non-Japanese actor. Burr played several mostly far-fetched villainous roles between 1946 and 1957, starring in over 60 movies. Now a household name, articles began to appear in fan magazines. In the 1950s, actors began to mix fiction among the facts of their biographies, and Burr apparently led a remarkable life.

[edit] A role in World War II

In 1943, he told reporters that he had joined the Navy and was signed to counter-intelligence, claiming he was in the Pacific when he was attacked and wounded by kamikaze planes and had to undergo several operations to remove the shrapnel, later receiving a Purple Heart. But the Navy indicated that they had no records of Burr serving that stint during World War II.

[edit] Resuming his film career before a role in Korean War

Years after that, Burr continued to gain recognition in theaters and in 1951 he received a favourable review for his role as a prosecutor in A Place in the Sun, co-starring Montgomery Clift, where the character was accused of killing his girlfriend. His best-known role was in Rear Window, starring James Stewart. When the Korean War broke out in 1953, he volunteered to organize U.S. set tours to some of the most remote outposts. Upon returning to Hollywood, his movie career continued to flourish but a starring role still eluded him.

[edit] Reliable 1950s character actor

Not only a major movie star, Burr emerged as a prolific 1950s television character actor. Burr made his guest-starring television debut on an episode of: The Amazing Dr. Malone. The part led to other television roles in: Dragnet, Chesterfield Sound Off Time, Rebound, Greun Guild Playhouse, Family Theatre, Your Favorite Story, Four Star Playhouse, Mr. & Mrs. North, Schlitz Playhouse of Stardom, The Ford Television Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, among many others.

[edit] TV Roles

[edit] Perry Mason

In 1956, just six years after people had purchased their first television sets, Burr heard about Perry Mason, a new courtroom drama that had been created by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was to have a major impact on his life: he auditioned and after a decade of playing bad-guy roles finally became a good guy, a lawyer. It was his first successful television show on its debut on CBS in 1957. Gardner was very impressed by Burr's seasoned-actor audition; thus Perry Mason was born. The series not only entertained millions of viewers, it also encouraged young people to become lawyers in real life. Also starring were 1940s movie actress and old friend of Burr’s Barbara Hale as Mason’s secretary, Della Street, and B-actor William Hopper as Mason’s Private Investigator, Paul Drake. William Talman played the district attorney, Hamilton Berger (who was destined to lose every case, at least against Perry Mason) and Ray Collins was Lt. Arthur Tragg. On every show Mason built a defence case with extraordinary precision and succeeded in proving his client's innocence. Tough questioning and trademark gaze, eyes flashing in the face of the real guilty party, always got him a confession in the last moments. But he never claimed to win his cases singlehandedly: more than just a decent lawyer, Mason was also a detective.

Burr was a veteran actor, practicing legal terms away from the set. He was nominated for Emmies three times for Outstanding Performance by a Lead Actor and Best Actor In a Leading Role, and between 1959 and 1961 he won two Emmies. When the original show ended in 1966, after a nine-season run, many thought that Burr would be the victim of his own popularity. So type-cast that he would surely never get another role, he took a one year break from acting and then signed up for a new contract on a different series.

Hale said of Burr during the Perry Mason era that they didn’t have teleprompters at the time, so at least three people accompanied him each day with a script while he memorized his lines, at least three because one alone would not have been able to cope with Burr. Hale also said that he once hid a baby alligator in a drawer; the cast and crew began shooting and when she opened the drawer the creature leapt up into her face, causing inevitable panic.

The two kept in touch for 27 years until Burr’s death, just eight years after they had reunited in a Perry Mason made-for-TV movie.

[edit] A Man Called Ironside

Burr moved from CBS to Universal, where he auditioned for the part of paraplegic San Francisco Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside - a leading character in a wheelchair. He had injured his eyes on the set in such as way that he was forced to look upwards, so he suggested playing the part sitting down. On the pilot episode, Ironside was shot, survived the murder attempt, but was paralyzed for life from the waist down. This role gave Burr another blockbuster hit, the first crime drama show ever to star a disabled police officer. It was nominated for six more Emmies, between 1968 and 1972. His role on A Man Called Ironside was physically challenging and risky. On Larry King Live he talked about people in wheelchairs, mentioning that he had back problems and was always happy to spend time in a wheelchair. On Ironside, actors would always be fascinated by Burr’s encyclopedic knowledge of the law, history of the arts, horticulture, and so on. He was an avid reader with a fine memory, who enjoyed trivia and playing pranks. In 1975, after an eight-season run, Ironside was finally taken off.

Also starring on Ironside was veteran character actor Gene Lyons, as Commissioner Dennis Randall. He died in 1974, and the show paid tribute to him during the last season. And a then unknown actor Don Galloway played Ironside’s detective, Sgt. Ed Brown. There was also a warm connection between Burr and Galloway for most of the 1970s, as they were "partners in crime". Galloway said of Burr during his Ironside tenure that he knew what he could learn and what he couldn’t. He was an economical actor who did the necessary and let the power of his personality do the rest. He also had an uncanny instinct for making good choices. Don also said they had researched Ironside a great deal with and for the Paralyzed Veterans of America, who had been very encouraging and did whatever they could to help. Burr was an autodidact, and would question Galloway about geography. They also co-starred in the TV movie Portrait: A Man Whose Name Was John in 1973, in which Burr played the Catholic priest who was destined to become Pope John XXIII. Galloway & Burr would reunite three times between 1988 and 1993, on two separate Perry Mason movies, before doing a reunion movie, The Return of Ironside, shortly before Burr’s own death later that same year. The two stayed in touch for 18 years after the show’s end.

[edit] TV roles

After his Ironside stint, Burr starred in Kingston: Confidential in 1977, but this did not match the popularity of Perry Mason and Ironside.

[edit] Perry Mason Returns

In 1985, Burr was approached by producers Dean Hargrove and Christian Nyby to star in a made-for-TV movie Perry Mason Returns, which also reunited him with former co-star and longtime friend, Barbara Hale, again as Della Street. The rest of the cast had all died, but Hale's real-life son William Katt featured in the TV movie as Paul Drake, Jr. The first one was an instant success, which led to Burr making twenty-six more before his death eight years later in 1993.

In addition to his famous television roles, Burr was also a media spokesman for the now-defunct British Columbia-based real estate company Block Bros, whose successor companies, including National Real Estate Service [NRS], have since been absorbed into the RE/MAX Group). He did TV, radio and print ads for them in his native province in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ^[1]

[edit] Personal Life

In his younger years, Burr, who was gay, was rumored to be romantically involved with Natalie Wood. "When I was talking to Dennis Hopper about that," Wood biographer Suzanne Finstad says, "he was saying, I just can't wrap my mind around that one. But you know, I saw them together. They were definitely a couple. Who knows what was going on there?" No romantic relationship has ever been proved between Burr and Natalie Wood.

Burr's official biography stated that he had been previously married, but both his wives and one child had died. In 1942, while working in London, he met Annette Sutherland, an aspiring actress from Scotland and that year they married. Despite protests from her husband, Sutherland insisted on fulfilling her contract and traveled to Spain with the tour company while Burr returned to America. Shortly before her death, Burr received a letter that Sutherland was working in Spain and would return to England and then America; Sutherland then boarded a flight from Lisbon to London and it has been widely reported that Sutherland then perished on BOAC Flight 777-A, the same flight that claimed actor Leslie Howard. However, Burr’s biographer Ona L. Hill writes that “no one by the name of Annette Sutherland Burr was listed as a passenger on the plane” and that Sutherland was on a separate commercial plane traveling between Lisbon and London around the same time as Flight 777-A, which was also shot down by the Germans.^[2]

Robert Hofler alleges in his 2005 book, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, that Burr and Rock Hudson hosted gay parties at a rented home in Palm Springs, California.

Burr's parents, William and Minerva, remarried in 1955 after 33 years of separation. Burr had remained very close to them, both during their separation and after they remarried. In early 1974, Minerva died of cancer at 81, and eleven years later, in 1985, his father, William died at 96 of natural causes.

Raymond Burr lived with his partner and long-time companion, former actor Robert Benevides, for 35 years until Burr's death. Sonoma County residents were well acquainted with Burr and Benevides, who together owned and operated their vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley, and regarded them as any other married couple.^[3]

In January 1993, Burr was diagnosed with kidney cancer in his left kidney. He refused to undergo surgery, as this would have interfered with the shooting schedule of his final two 2 TV movies. After shooting, he went back to visit the doctors and discovered the cancer had spread to several organs, making it inoperable. Burr died of kidney cancer on September 12, 1993 on his Sonoma County, California ranch in near Healdsburg, California at age 76.^[4] Burr is interred at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. The WGS84 coordinates of his grave plot are N49° 13.338 W122° 53.892.

On October 1, 1993, the friends of Burr and Benevides were joined by Burr's many fans in mourning him at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. The private memorial was attended by Barbara Hale, Don Galloway, Don Mitchell, Barbara Anderson, Elizabeth Baur, Dean Hargrove and Christian Nyby.

Burr was devoted to his longtime hobby, cultivating and hybridizing orchids. He later developed this passion into an orchid business. Burr even developed an orchid he named the Barbara Hale Orchid.^[5]

Burr bought 4,000 acres (1600 ha) on the the island of Naitauba, Fiji in 1965 which he later sold in 1983 to self claimed guru Adi Da.^[6]

[edit] Philanthropy

In contrast to the "bad guys" and hard, unbending heroes he often played, Raymond Burr was in real life a generous man who gave enormous sums of money (including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies) to charity. He once sponsored 27 foster children through the Christian Children's Fund. He would take the children with the greatest medical needs.

Burr always insisted that TV executives and directors treated his co-stars with the same respect shown to him. He also gave generously over many years to the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California.

Burr was heavily involved in raising money for The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida .

[edit] The Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre

The Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre in New Westminster, British Columbia opened in October 2000 near a city block bearing the family name of Burr. Originally a movie theatre under ownership of the Famous Players chain (as the Columbia Theatre) and at present a 238-seat intimate theatre, plans exist to expand the theatre to become a 650-seat regional performing arts facility. Since the theatre began producing plays, it has been the custom always to have a picture of Raymond Burr included somewhere on each set, and the first toast on the opening night of every production is always dedicated to his memory. The Centre is commonly referred to as the Burr Theatre, or simply as "the Burr".

Raymond Burr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Blvd.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Raymond Burr at the Internet Movie Database
• Raymond Burr at the Notable Names Database
• Raymond Burr at the TCM Movie Database
• Raymond Burr at TV.com
• Raymond Burr at Yahoo! Movies
• Raymond Burr at the MBC Encyclopedia of Television
• The Ironside Archive
• Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre - New Westminster, BC
• Raymond Burr Vineyards