Burr, Raymond William Stacy

(b. 21 May 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada; d. 12 September 1993 in Dry Creek Valley, California), television and film actor most noted for his performance in the title role of the TV series Perry Mason (1967-1975).

Burr was the oldest of three children born to William Johnston Burr, a hardware dealer, and Minerva Smith, a pianist and music teacher and daughter of a U.S. naval officer. Shortly after he was born, the family moved to China, where they spent five years. His parents divorced when Burr was six, and his mother moved the family to Vallejo, California. His family was hit hard during the Great Depression, and at age thirteen Burr quit the San Rafael Military Academy to find work on a cattle and sheep ranch. He returned to school a year later, but never completed junior high. Working in a variety of jobs after leaving school, he taught, traveled as a salesman, sang in a nightclub, and ran a weather station, all while taking extension courses from Stanford, Columbia, and the University of Chongqing. He had an interest in entertainment, including singing as a young adult, which led to his Broadway debut in the 1941 musical Crazy with the Heat.

Later in his life Burr stated that he had been married three times, a surprise to some of his close friends. His sister claimed that only the second marriage was official, prompting some to question the validity of the other unions. In 1939 he married Annette Sutherland. They had one child, a son. Sutherland died in June 1943, allegedly when her plane was shot down by the Germans. In 1946 Burr married Isabella Ward. The marriage lasted only a few months and was annulled in 1947. In 1950 Burr wed Laura Andrina Morgan. She died of cancer in 1955. In 1953 Burr’s son died of leukemia. Burr then spent more than thirty years with his friend Robert Benevides.

Burr served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 and was discharged with a shrapnel injury. He returned to acting, where his large size (in 1946 he weighed 340 pounds and stood six feet tall) led him to be cast as a villain in many films. His 1946 onscreen debut was in Without Reservations with John Wayne and Claudette Colbert. His career eventually encompassed ninety film appearances, including his notable performance as Lars Thorwald in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), his well received role as a district attorney in A Place in the Sun (1951)—an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy— and his role in the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1954). Between 1951 and 1955 Burr made seven tours with the United Service Organizations (USO) to honor troops fighting in the Korean War, while continuing to make movies.

In 1957 Burr assumed the starring role in CBS’s new television drama Perry Mason, for which he won two best actor Emmy Awards, in 1959 and 1961. By the end of the show, in 1966, Burr was the highest paid actor in television, earning $18,500 per episode. Although the series was extremely popular with viewers, Burr told TV Guide in a 1993 interview that the show “dominated [his] life” and that he regretted taking the role. It was a formulaic program that received little praise from critics. Perry Mason, a defense attorney, won almost every case on more than 290 shows, often upsetting the prosecuting attorney’s case by springing new evidence or causing the breakdown of a witness in the middle of a trial. When Mason did lose a case, which happened only three times over the course of nine years, fans protested by sending the studio angry letters.

When Perry Mason was canceled, Burr retired with Benevides to Naitaumba, the 1,830-acre island in Fiji that he had bought with Benevides in 1963, intending to raise cattle. In 1967 he returned to Hollywood to shoot the movie Ironside. The film’s protagonist, Chief Robert Ironside, proved to be such a well-liked character that a television series was developed and Burr took the lead role. The program, about a wheelchair-bound private detective, ran from 1967 to 1975. His portrayal was so convincing that Burr insisted on appearing in variety shows “just to show people [he] could still walk.”

Burr maintained an active schedule of TV, miniseries, and movie roles after the end of Ironside. In 1985 he reprised the role of Perry Mason in a series of made-for-TV movies, all of which proved to be popular. He had put the final touches on his last Perry Mason movie just before his death. He was planning to donate the proceeds of the movie to cancer research and pushed to complete the movie before personally undergoing treatment.

Burr was an avid orchid grower, and in 1961 he opened a Malibu nursery with Benevides. He donated part of his collection to the California Polytechnic Institute in 1982. He also loved art and established the Swarthe-Burr gallery in Beverly Hills, California, in 1960. His own gallery was launched in Beverly Hills in October 1961. Later in his life, Burr opened the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Dry Creek Verly California.

Burr died at his ranch in Dry Creek Valley of cancer of the liver. Some sources give the cause of death as cancer of the kidney. He was buried in Fraserview Cemetery, in New Westminster.

Burr felt constrained by his roles as Perry Mason and as Chief Robert Ironside, but he was proud of his convincing work in those roles. He felt that Perry Mason in particular informed viewers about the inner workings of the legal system. Speculation frequently circulated about his personal life, but Burr preferred that the public see him only through his roles as an actor. He told TV Guide, “Everything else is none of their business.”

Ona Hill documented Raymond Burr’s professional career in Raymond Burr: A Film Radio, and Television Biography (1994). Valuable professional and personal information can be found in Newsmakers 1994 4 (1994), as well as Current Biography Yearbook (1961). An interview with Burr ran in TV Guide (25 Sept. 1993). Obituaries are in the New York Times (14 Sept. 1993) and Los Angeles Times (13 Sept. 1993).

Leslie Janos