Raymond Burr

The Shadow Watching Hitchcock

Raymond Burr stood nearly six feet three inches tall and weighed over two hundred pounds when Hollywood decided his face was perfect for crime roles. Before winning impossible trials on television, he spent years menacing leading characters in dark alleys in B-movies. He had a heavy stare that jumped off the screen and a baritone voice that intimidated even the most veteran directors.

In 1954, Alfred Hitchcock was cast to play the killer in Rear Window, because the director needed someone who could seem like a real threat without saying much at all. The director had him dye his hair white and move with a deliberately slow pace to terrify James Stewart from across the courtyard.

And she made it happen.

In 1956, he starred in the American version of Godzilla, playing reporter Steve Martin. It was a strange technical job in which Burr shot his scenes in a California studio so they could later be inserted into the original Japanese footage. The film grossed $2 million on its initial release and changed the way Western audiences saw monster movies.

The Glass Office and the Wheelchair

Television changed his destiny in 1957 when he accepted the role of Perry Mason. At first, producers doubted him because of his physique, but Burr went on a strict diet to fit into the suit of the sharpest attorney in Los Angeles. He worked six days a week and memorized pages of technical dialogue while the rest of the cast rested in their trailers.

He won two Emmy Awards for this role and became a constant presence in living rooms across half the world for nearly a decade. But his massive success forced him to keep his private life under lock and key at a time when the industry showed no mercy toward same-sex relationships.

When the series ended in 1966, many thought his time had passed. But Burr didn't take even a year to return to the top with Ironside, playing a wheelchair-bound detective who solved crimes in San Francisco. The role was a different physical challenge because he had to convey the character's full strength using only his torso and facial expressions.

The series stayed on air until 1975.

Away from the spotlight, he retreated to his private island in Fiji, where he grew orchids with almost scientific precision. He was an expert botanist who went on to name several new species and funded research expeditions across the Pacific. But his retirement was always interrupted by the public demand for the defense attorney they never forgot.

The Return of Multimillion-Dollar Figures

In 1985, he returned to the role of Mason in a series of TV movies that drew unexpectedly record ratings for NBC. Despite his poor health and considerable weight gain, audiences responded with a loyalty critics had failed to anticipate. He made a total of 26 TV movies about the attorney before cancer forced him to stop.

His last professional appearance came in 1993 with the filming of The Return of Ironside, just a few months before his death. There were no public farewells or major charity events organized by him during his final days. Burr always preferred absolute discretion about his finances and his closest relationships.

He died at his California ranch on September 12, 1993. He left an estate valued at $32 million to his partner, Robert Benevides, and excluded all his living relatives from his will. The final inventory of his property included thousands of orchids and an art collection that was auctioned months later in Los Angeles.