Raymond vs raymond cover movie#
Raymond vs raymond cover tv#

Gifted with a rich, resonating voice, Burr naturally found work in radio. He starred in the radio program ‘Fort Laramie’ and read his lines from a wheelchair Image: radiospirits Here are things you might not know about Raymond Burr. Beyond the screen, Burr was a horticulturist, an oenophile and a seashell collector.īurr’s fascinating biography was filled with fabrication and speculation, as he and his publicists obscured his private life. Early in his film career, he was a natural in film noirs. Of course, he played the titular wheelchair-bound police consultant on Ironside, too. Yet the Canadian-born actor was far more than television’s greatest defense lawyer. Raymond Burr is synonymous with Perry Mason. That the author only assembled a relatively slender volume out of Burr’s life probably indicates that the actor carried many of his secrets to the grave.ġ1 things you might not know about Raymond Burr Learn how the ‘Perry Mason’ star links to orchids, Godzilla, wine and the history of synthesizers. Starr notes that throughout his public life Burr was unfailingly generous to charities and gave much of his time (when he wasn’t keeping a grueling work schedule) to public service of one sort or another. Later, as the wheelchair-riding detective in “Ironside,” he might even have spurred the drive toward ramps and accessible facilities for the handicapped. Playing the title role in “Perry Mason,” he became one of TV’s best paid and best known faces.

Raymond vs raymond cover movie#

Never considered an A-list movie actor, he became a star in the emerging medium of television. He played the furtive murderous husband across the courtyard in Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window (1954) and finally stood on the right side of the law as the district attorney dismantling Montgomery Clift’s testimony in A Place in the Sun (1951). Typecast as a “heavy” when he drifted into Hollywood after World War II, his hulking presence and brooding scowl made him ideal for film noir and crime dramas generally. The story of a deeply closeted Hollywood lifestyle isn’t entirely unique the backdrop of Burr’s career adds to its interest. Burr met his life companion, onetime actor Robert Benevides, in 1957 on the “Perry Mason” set.

They were genuinely fond of each other but sparks never flew. In the 1950s he was “romantically linked” with rising starlet Natalie Wood. Along with false reports of his service during World War II, he repeated these additions to his autobiography so long and so often that they found their way into his obituaries.

He was actually once married, briefly, and went on to invent no less than two dead wives and even a dead son to fill out the blank spaces in his life story. Times changed but Burr kept his own counsel through the end. And there he was, instantly recognizable and in the public eye, a gay man who kept his sexuality concealed.Īny admission of homosexuality would have poisoned his career at any time before the 1980s.

Raymond vs raymond cover tv#

He became one of the world’s most familiar TV stars during the original run of “Perry Mason” (1956-1966) and went on to another popular if less remembered series, “Ironside” (1967-1975). According to Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr (published by Applause), secrecy was second nature to the actor. Biographer Michael Seth Starr is not surprised. Almost no one on the set knew he was dying of cancer. Raymond Burr was in excruciating pain as he filmed the final “Perry Mason” episodes in 1993.