FAMOUS CANADIANS:
RAYMOND BURR Raymond William Stacy Burr was born on May 21, 1917 in the small community of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. He starred in many films and television shows but is most widely known for the roles of Perry Mason and Ironside in a long television career. • Quite the story-teller, Burr apparently told many untruths about his own personal life. He claimed to have been married three times and that he had a son who died young. By all accounts at least two of the marriages and the son were fabricated relationships. • What is known as truth about Burr is that he could pretend to be a lawyer and a detective and proved that well in two long-running television shows. • One of the earliest appearances that Burr is known for was in Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Rear Window. • He is most widely known for his starring role as the heavy-weight burly attorney, Perry Mason, in the show by the same name that was broadcast nine seasons from 1957-66. • The Perry Mason television show was based on the fictional writings of Erle Stanley Gardner, who was a practicing attorney for about 20 years. Gardner created the main character as well as Mason’s secretary, played by Della Street, and the private detective and investigator who made up the main cast of characters for the television series. Gardner wrote the first Perry Mason stories in 1933. The last Perry Mason mystery was published three years after Gardner’s death in 1973. • A year after the original Perry Mason series ended Burr returned to television as Ironside. That series was about a police detective who became confined to a wheelchair in the first episode. It was on the air from 1967-75.
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• It is sometimes reported (inaccurately) that Perry Mason never lost a case. However, Perry Mason did lose two cases: The Case of the Terrified Typist and The Case of the Deadly Verdict. • Canada honored Raymond Burr, aka Perry Mason, with a postage stamp in 2008. He was one of four Canadians the postal service chose to honor for their achievements in Hollywood. • The U.S. Postal Service also had a Perry Mason stamp. It was part of a series of stamps called “Early TV Memories,” issued on August 11, 2009. • Collectors of Raymond Burr memorabilia seek out the stamps for their collections but also look for vintage copies of TV Guide. He was on the cover 14 times! • Burr starred in numerous reprisals of his role as Perry Mason after the original series ended. There was The New Perry Mason series in 1973; a television movie, Perry Mason Returns in 1985; and more than 25 other Perry Mason appearances for Burr. The movie in the 1985-86 season was the second-highest rated television movie that year. One of the funniest appearances by Raymond Burr was in a spoof of his Perry Mason role on Airplane II, the Sequel in 1982. • Burr had a great interest in two horticultural beauties: orchids and his favorite wine grape, Cabernet Sauvignon. One of his last ventures was the establishment of the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Sonoma County, California. • Burr died on September 12, 1993 at his home in Sonoma, California after a battle with cancer.
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