Image: Wikimedia CommonsRaymond Burr
Canadian actor (1917–1993)
- Born May 21, 1917
- 7 movies
Raymond Burr (21 May 1917 to 12 September 1993) was a Canadian actor, born in New Westminster, British Columbia, who became a fixture of American television as the defence lawyer Perry Mason and the wheelchair-using detective Ironside. Before that he spent a decade as one of film noir's busiest villains, most famously the suspected wife-killer across the courtyard in Hitchcock's Rear Window. He won Emmys in 1959 and 1961 for Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons and in 26 television films.
Raymond Burr appears in 7 films in The Rerun, from 1948 to 1954. Most of that work is in thriller, crime and mystery. Frequent collaborators in The Rerun: Alfred Hitchcock (2), Bess Flowers (2).
Known for
- Perry Mason (1957), Perry Mason. His title role won two Emmy Awards across nine seasons.
- Ironside, Ironside. His second title role, earning six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.
- Rear Window (1954). He played the suspected murderer in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller.
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956). A role he reprised in Godzilla 1985.
- A Place in the Sun (1951). One of his early 1950s film credits.
Career
Raised largely in California, Burr acted in radio as a boy and joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1937. Broadway work, including The Duke in Darkness (1944), led to an RKO contract, and between 1946 and 1957 he made more than 50 features, many of them noir: Desperate, Raw Deal, Pitfall, His Kind of Woman and The Blue Gardenia. He also played the reporter in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), a role he revisited in Godzilla 1985. On radio he worked for Jack Webb in Pat Novak for Hire and Dragnet.
His relentless prosecutor in A Place in the Sun (1951) caught the eye of the producers of Perry Mason, who considered him for the district attorney before he won the lead. The show ran on CBS from 1957 to 1966, and Burr went straight into Ironside, which earned him six more Emmy nominations. From 1985 until his death he returned to Mason in a string of TV films.
Where to start
- Rear Window (1954): the most famous villain of his noir years, seen mostly through James Stewart’s lens.
- A Place in the Sun (1951): the courtroom performance that led to Perry Mason.
- Perry Mason (1957): nine seasons of the defining television lawyer.
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Raymond Burr been in?
- Raymond Burr appears in Rear Window (1954), The Blue Gardenia (1953), A Place in the Sun (1951), His Kind of Woman (1951), Love Happy (1949), Adventures of Don Juan (1948) and Raw Deal (1948) on The Remote.
- When was Raymond Burr born?
- Raymond Burr was born on 21 May 1917.
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