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Raymond Burr

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9.4 Superb
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Biography

Recent Role:
Host (1987) on Unsolved Mysteries
Gender:
Male
Born:
5-21-1917
Died:
9-12-1993 (kidney cancer)
Birthplace:
New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Birth Name:
Raymond William Stacy Burr
Raymond Burr will always be known principally as Perry Mason, and later as the wheelchair bound Chief in the series Ironside. His life was much more as Burr began his acting career playing not-so-popular heavies, yet almost to his last day, he ensured his memory to millions of fans as Perry Mason.



Born Raymond William Stacy Burr in New Westminster, British Columbia, Burr's father was a trade agent, and Burr and family spent their early days traveling to such far off places as China. His parents divorced in 1923, and Raymond and his younger brother and sister moved



… More to Vallejo, California with their mother. Living with grandparents, they then moved to San Francisco. Burr Entered the Navy during World War II and picked up a shrapnel wound to the stomach while stationed in Okinawa. A brief marriage ended in separation after six months in 1948. A divorce in 1952 was followed by the tragic death of his son from leukemia in 1953. His third wife died of cancer two years later. Fans were shocked to learn later on that the second and third marriages had never existed, nor had the son who supposedly died of leukemia.



Although he had worked in theater in Canada and the US (including the Pasadena Playhouse), he eventually moved to the big screen. His Hollywood acting career began with RKO in 1944 and later with the film San Quentin (1946) starring Lawrence Tierney. In successive movies built, Burr built his reputation and developed his own individual Other pictures included A Place in the Sun (1951), where he played a district attorney and which played a part in his getting the role of Mason, Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954), the cult c Godzilla (1954) and Fort Laramie (1956). In 1957, Burr landed the role of TV's Perry Mason, and for the next nine years over 271 episodes, Perry never lost a case. Raymond only missed a few episodes and was replaced by such guest star lawyers as Bette Davis, Walter Pidgeon, Michael Rennie, Mike Connors and Hugh O'Brien.


What is little known is Burr's philanthropic side. During the Korean and Vietnam Wars, Burr made countless visits to the troops stationed there and, with his own funds, provided entertainment and much good will. Having become quite well off from the Mason series, he also shared his home and bank account with many out of work actors and friends.



He won Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961, awards by the American Bar Association (as he put them in a positive light) and, in 1965, the purchase of an island in Fiji where he improved local living conditions and developed another passion, the cultivation of orchids. The orchids soon expanded their distribution to the Azores, Portugal and Puerto Rico.



In 1967, barely a year after a long and successful series, Burr took on the role of Chief Robert T. Ironside on "Ironside". It scored another hit for Burr who, it seemed, the public could not spend their evenings without. The series completed a successful eight season run in 1975. After several short-lived series (including Trial by Jury which he hosted) and numerous TV roles, Burr returned in 1985 to his Perry Mason character in 23 TV movies. During his semi-retirement and between his acting roles, Burr enjoyed his Northern California Santa Rosa ranch where he tended to one of his great loves: wine making. The Raymond Burr Winery was founded with his partner Robert Benevides.


Burr worked right up to his final episode... Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss, which was completed shortly before he died of pancreatic cancer in 1993.

From the Forums

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  • Perry Mason v. Robert Ironside

    Arguably, Raymond Burr is best known for his two detective TV characters and the long-running series in which he starred. The two characters could not be more different (a testimony to Burr's acting), but which do you prefer - the black & white, film noir detecting and lawyering of Perry… More Mason or the full-color, 60s in full-swing wheelchair-bound Robert Ironside ? My choice would be Ironside , only because I think Raymond Burr got to do more "acting" on this later series. Don't get me wrong - Perry Mason is a great character, but the curmudgeony aspects of Ironside's persona combined with his handicap made him a bit more dogged and fiesty. Anyone else?

    jamoon2006
    3 comments, last one Aug 27, 2008

  • Welcome to the TV.com Forums for Raymond Burr

    Welcome to the TV.com Forums for Raymond Burr. Here is your area to discuss, dissect and debate all things about this person.

    1 comments, last one Apr 29, 2007
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Fans' Reviews

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  •  
    9 Superb
    One of the few actors to achieve big success with two different shows. hide show

    For an actor to achieve the success that Raymond Burr did, anchoring two successful shows with close to decade-long runs for each is rare. And perhaps it is even more rare for an actor to do it with Burr's sense of generosity and philanthropy among his fellow actors and fellow men.

    As Perry Mason, Burr carried the series and defined the TV "defense attorney" for decades to come. He delivered a nuanced, hard-boiled performance and took his work seriously, often doing his own legal research to better understand the show and its concepts. That the character was so warmly received in the 1980s and 1990s reunion movies is a testament to the strength of the series and of Burr's performance. After a nine-year run of "Perry Mason" wrapped up, Burr immediately jumped into "Ironside," which itself ran for eight seasons. And it wasn't just a case of Perry Mason in a wheelchair. Robert Ironside was a distinctive character, crass and ill-tempered and miles away from Mason. But Burr made them both work. Even when illness struck him late in life, he kept working. He worked right up to his death, finishing one last "Perry Mason" movie before succumbing to cancer.

    It's almost ironic that Raymond Burr would be remembered as the upstanding, heroic Perry Mason and Ironside after breaking into acting in villainous roles (most famously as Lars Thorwald in "Rear Window.") He is remembered today as a tremendous talent and a genuine, caring man who has given the world hundreds of hours of entertainment.

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    jamoon2006 Added Nov 14, 2007 All my reviews
 

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