Raymond William Stacy Burr May 21, β September 12, was a Canadian actor who had a lengthy Hollywood film career and portrayed the title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. Burr's early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. He portrayed the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window , and he also had a role in the film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
He won Emmy Awards for acting in and for the role of Perry Mason , which he played for nine seasons β and reprised in a series of 26 Perry Mason TV movies β Burr died due to liver cancer in , and his personal life came into question, as many details of his biography appeared to be unverifiable.
When Burr was six, his parents divorced. He moved to Vallejo, California , with his mother and younger siblings Geraldine and James, [ 4 ] while his father remained in New Westminster.
In , he told journalist Jane Ardmore that, when he was 12 years old, his mother sent him to New Mexico for a year to work as a ranch hand. As with many of Burr's self-reported autobiographical details about his early life, this is unverified and open to question. According to Burr's story, he was already his full adult height and rather large and "had fallen in with a group of college-aged kids who didn't realize how young Raymond was, and they let him tag along with them in activities and situations far too sophisticated for him to handle.
Burr grew up during the Great Depression and hoped to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse , but he was unable to afford the tuition. Despite the veteran cast of stars Willie Howard , Luella Gear , and Gracie Barrie, the show folded after three months. He became a member of the Pasadena Playhouse drama faculty for 18 months, and he performed in some 30 plays over the years. His performance as the loyal friend of the imprisoned protagonist led to a contract with RKO Radio Pictures.
