Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on May 21, 1917 in the Great White North, or so he claimed, Burr had other talents than being a thespian, one was being a teller of tall tales. Not that Burr was a despicable or what one could consider an inveterate liar, oh no quite the contrary and with the exception of claiming to have had two wives; one who perished in a airplane crash and the other who left him a widower after succumbing to cancer, Burr's embellishments had a rhyme and they had a reason. In his day, just as this day, many a fine actor feels the necessity of survival mode, to ransom themselves from the big, bad gutter-press. Burr was no stranger to having aspersions allocated in his direction and being besmirched. Burr was a sensitive being and had a predilection for making homemade wine and collecting seashells at the sea-shore. Burr was to leave an orchid legacy behind in The Garden of The Sleeping Giant in Viti Levu, Fiji.
Raymond had his reasons for wanting to keep his private life, private at a time when trumpeting your sexuality would fall upon the most deaf and unsympathetic of ears. I am here to set the record straight that Mr Burr was quite the good egg and Art Seid, the producer of the Perry Mason series was one of his advocates who believed in spite of the fabrications and biography born out of a wild imagination, that Burr was 'genuine.' and respected him for his dedication to the grueling schedule he stayed so committed to, he slept in the studios so he would never miss any such beat. Burr was one of the hardest working men in television business after all.
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| From 1948's Raw Deal, Burr plays the heavy with heart. |
Burr rarely gave an interview and who could blame him, and besides - that was his prerogative wasn't it just - and when all was said and done, Raymond Burr was heroic in his own right, to have the courage of his convictions at a time like that and the way Burr instinctively knew he was full within his rights, rights to step off the stage and do his best to keep the status of his sexuality away from the papers. Perhaps today this would have been an entirely different story but Burr would probably not have been much interested. Good job he was a hotshot attorney named Perry Mason and owned a mansion and a yacht too, eh?