Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr (
May 21,
1917 –
September 12,
1993) was an
actor, most known for his roles in the
television dramas
Perry Mason and
Ironside.
He was born in
New Westminster,
British Columbia,
Canada to William Johnston Burr (a descendant of
Irish immigrants) and Minerva Smith (who was of
Scottish and
English descent). A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Burr served in the U.S. Navy in
World War II and was wounded at the
Battle of Okinawa. Burr broke into films in
1946 and made 90 in the next decade. He co-starred in the classics
A Place in the Sun and
Rear Window. Burr usually played menacing villains on the screen, although in
1956 he played the heroic reporter Steve Martin in
Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the American re-edited version of the Japanese film
Gojira. He reprised this role nearly three decades later in
Godzilla 1985.
With the international success of
Godzilla, and shortly after starring on the
radio drama Fort Laramie, Burr was chosen to star in
1957 in
Perry Mason where he played
Erle Stanley Gardner's clever defense
attorney who always defended the innocent and only lost one case ("The Case of the Deadly Verdict," 10/17/1963; his client withheld evidence needed to win). The show was very popular and lasted nine years. In
1967, Burr started another long running television series
Ironside (known as
A Man Called Ironside in the
UK) in which he played a wheelchair-bound
police chief. This show ran until
1975. Subsequent to this, Burr had a couple of other short-lived series such as
Kingston: Confidential but was unable to repeat his earlier hits. He co-starred in such
TV films as
Love's Savage Fury (1979),
Eischied: Only The Pretty Girls Die (1979),
Disaster On The Coastliner (1979),
The Curse Of King Tut's Tomb (1980),
The Night The City Screamed (1980),
Peter And Paul (1981), and
They Call Me MISTER Bonobo! (1982). Burr also had a supporting role in
Dennis Hopper's controversial film
Out of the Blue (1980) and spoofed his Perry Mason image in
Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). In
1985, Burr made a comeback as Perry Mason and made a series of 26 two-hour movies that were enormous ratings blockbusters, the last being completed only a few weeks prior to his death. By this time he was largely wheelchair-bound (in his final Mason movie, he is always shown either sitting, or standing while leaning on a table, but never standing unsupported), as his character in
Ironside had been, but this time due to his real-life failing health. He also reprised the role of Ironside not long before his death, having to dye his hair red and shave off his trademark beard in order not to look too much like Perry Mason.
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 Christian Childrens Fund. He would take the children with the greatest medical needs.
He would insist that TV executives and directors treat his co-stars with the same respect shown him. He also gave generously over many years to the
McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento.
In his younger years, Burr, who was predominantly
homosexual, was reportedly a significant other in
Natalie Wood's life. "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. However, these details were fabricated in an attempt to hide the fact that Burr was gay. Only one brief marriage which ended in divorce had actually occurred; the other marriages and the child were fiction.
Robert Hofler in his 2005 book
The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, alleged that Burr and
Rock Hudson hosted gay parties at a rented home in
Palm Springs,
California.
Raymond Burr lived with his partner, former actor
Robert Benevides, for 35 years until Burr's death. At the time of Burr's death,
Sonoma residents said they were well acquainted with Burr and Benevides, who operated their own vineyard there, and regarded them as any other married couple.
*Burr died of liver cancer on
September 12,
1993 in
Sonoma, California, aged 76.
*Burr is interred in the Fraser Cemetery,
New Westminster,
British Columbia,
Canada. The
WGS84 coordinates of his plot are N49° 13.338 W122° 53.892.
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.
Raymond Burr has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Blvd.
*
*
The Ironside Archive*
Slate article mentioning Burr*
Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre - New Westminster, BC
*
Raymond Burr Vineyards
