Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917 - September 12, 1993) was a Canadian-American actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. He was prominently involved in multiple charitable endeavors, such as working on behalf of the United Service Organizations.

Burr's early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain. His portrayal of the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window (1954) is regarded as his best-known film role. He won two Emmy Awards, in 1959 and 1961, for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons (1957-66) and reprised in a series of 26 television films (1985-93). His second hit TV series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations.

After Burr's death from cancer in 1993, his personal life came into question, as details of his known biography appeared to be unverifiable.

In 1996, Burr was listed as one of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time by TV Guide. A 2014 study found that Burr was rated as the favorite actor by Netflix users, with the greatest number of dedicated microgenres.

Early life

Raymond William Stacy Burr was born May 21, 1917, in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. His father, William Johnston Burr (1889-1985), was a hardware salesman; his mother, Minerva Annette (née Smith, 1892-1974), was a pianist and music teacher who had been born in Chicago, Illinois. Burr's ancestry included Irish, English, Scottish, and German.

When Burr was six, his parents divorced. Burr's mother moved to Vallejo, California, with him and his younger siblings, Geraldine and James. His father remained in New Westminster. Burr attended a military academy for a while and graduated from Berkeley High School.

In later years, Burr freely invented stories of a happy childhood. In 1986 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. 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." He developed a passion for growing things and, while still a teenager, and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps for a year. Throughout his teenage years, he had some acting work, making his stage debut at age 12 with a Vancouver stock company.

Theatre

Growing up during the Great Depression, Burr hoped to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, a revered community theater and school in Pasadena, California, but he was unable to afford the tuition. In 1934 he joined a repertory theatre group in Toronto that toured throughout Canada, then joined another company that toured India, Australia and England. He briefly attended Long Beach Junior College and taught for a semester at San Jose Junior College, working nights as a radio actor and singer. He also began his association with the Pasadena Playhouse in 1937.

Burr moved to New York in 1940, and made his first Broadway appearance in Crazy With the Heat, a two-act musical revue produced by Kurt Kasznar that quickly folded. His first starring role on the stage came in November 1942, when he was an emergency replacement in a Pasadena Playhouse production of Quiet Wedding, directed by Lenore Shanewise. He became a member of the Pasadena Playhouse drama faculty for 18 months, and he performed in some 30 plays over the years. He returned to the Broadway stage for Patrick Hamilton's The Duke in Darkness (1944), a psychological drama set during the French Wars of Religion. Burr's performance as the loyal friend of the imprisoned protagonist led to a contract with RKO Radio Pictures.

Film

Burr appeared in over 60 movies between 1946 and 1957. Burr was loaned out by RKO to play a film noir villain in Eagle-Lion's Raw Deal (1948). His performance in Pitfall (1948) was cited in 1976 by Richard Schickel as a prototype of film noir, in contrast with the appealing television characters for which Burr later became famous. Burr received favorable notice for his role as an aggressive prosecutor in A Place in the Sun (1951), co-starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Shelley Winters. His most notable film role was that of a suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

He played the part of reporter Steve Martin in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956). Burr reprised the role in Godzilla 1985, and was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor.

Radio

Throughout this time, Burr's distinctive voice also could be heard on network radio, in a regular role in Jack Webb's first radio show, the short-lived Pat Novak for Hire, as well as in early episodes of Dragnet. He also made guest appearances on other Los Angeles-based shows, such as Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, and landed a starring role in CBS's Fort Laramie (1956), which depicted 19th-century life at old Fort Laramie.

Television

Burr emerged as a prolific television character actor in the early to mid-1950s. He made his television debut in 1951, appearing in episodes of Stars Over Hollywood, The Bigelow Theatre, and the debut episode of Dragnet. He went on to appear in such programs as Gruen Playhouse, Four Star Playhouse, Mr. and Mrs. North, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Ford Theatre and Lux Video Theatre.

Perry Mason

Main article: Perry Mason (TV series)

In 1956, Burr auditioned for the role of District Attorney Hamilton Burger in Perry Mason, a new CBS-TV courtroom drama based on the highly successful novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Impressed with his courtroom performance in the 1951 film, A Place in the Sun, executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson told Burr he was perfect for Perry Mason, but at least 60 pounds overweight. Over the next month, Burr went on a crash diet. When he returned, he tested as Perry Mason and won the role. Gardner reportedly saw his audition and declared, "He is Perry Mason." William Hopper also auditioned as Mason, but was instead cast as private detective Paul Drake. Also starring were Barbara Hale as Della Street, Mason's secretary; William Talman as Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who loses nearly every case to Mason; and Ray Collins as homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg.

The series ran from 1957 to 1966. Burr received Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961 for his performance as Perry Mason. The series has been rerun in syndication ever since. Beginning in 2006, the series has become available on DVD, with each calendar year having the release of one season as two separate volumes. The ninth and final season's DVD sets became available in 2013. Though Burr's character is often said never to have lost a case, he did lose two murder cases in early episodes of the series, once when his client misled him and another time when his client was later cleared.

Ironside

Main article: Ironside (1967 TV series)

Burr moved from CBS to Universal Studios, where he played the title role in the television drama Ironside, which ran on NBC. In the pilot episode, San Francisco Chief of Detectives Robert T. Ironside is wounded by a sniper during an attempt on his life and is left an invalid in a wheelchair. This role gave Burr another hit series, the first crime drama show ever to star a police officer with a disability. The show, which ran from 1967 to 1975, earned Burr six Emmy nominations—one for the pilot and five for his work in the series—and two Golden Globe nominations.

Other series

After Ironside went off the air, NBC failed in two attempts to launch Burr as the star of a new series. In a two-hour television movie format, Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence aired in February 1976 with Burr again in the role of the lawyer who outwits the district attorney. Despite good reviews for Burr, the critical reception was poor and NBC decided against developing it into a series. In 1977, Burr starred in the short-lived TV series Kingston: Confidential as R.B. Kingston, a William Randolph Hearst-esque publishing magnate, owner of numerous newspapers and TV stations, who, in his spare time, solved crimes along with a group of employees. It was a critical failure that was scheduled opposite the extraordinarily popular Charlie's Angels. It was cancelled after 13 weeks. Burr took on a shorter project next, playing an underworld boss in a six-hour miniseries, 79 Park Avenue. One last attempt to launch a series followed on CBS. The two-hour premiere of The Jordan Chance aroused little interest.

On January 20, 1987, Burr hosted the television special that later served as the pilot for the long-running series Unsolved Mysteries.

Television films

Main article: Perry Mason (TV movies)

In 1985, Burr was approached by producers Dean Hargrove and Fred Silverman to star in a made-for-TV movie, Perry Mason Returns. Burr recalled in a 1986 interview, "They asked me to do a new 'Godzilla' the same week they asked me to do another Perry Mason, so I did them both." He agreed to do the Mason movie if Barbara Hale returned to reprise her role as Della Street. Hale agreed and when Perry Mason Returns aired in December 1985, her character became the defendant. The rest of the original cast had died, but Hale's real-life son William Katt played the role of Paul Drake, Jr. The movie was so successful that Burr made a total of 26 Perry Mason television films before his death. Many were filmed in and around Denver, Colorado.

By 1993, when Burr signed with NBC for another season of Mason films, he was using a wheelchair full-time because of his failing health. In his final Perry Mason movie, The Case of the Killer Kiss, which ironically was based on the final 60-minute episode, "The Case of the Final Fadeout," he was shown either sitting or standing while leaning on a table, but only once standing unsupported for a few seconds. Twelve more Mason movies were scheduled before Burr's death, including one scheduled to film the month he died.

As he had with the Perry Mason TV movies, Burr decided to do an Ironside reunion movie. The Return of Ironside aired in May 1993, reuniting the entire original cast of the 1967-75 series. Like many of the Mason movies, it was set and filmed in Denver.

Personal life

Physical characteristics

Burr's weight, always an issue for him in getting roles, became a public relations problem when Johnny Carson began making jokes about him during his Tonight Show monologues. Burr refused to appear as Carson's guest from then on and told Us Weekly years later: "I have been asked a number of times to do his show and I won't do it. Because I like NBC. He's doing an NBC show. If I went on I'd have some things to say, not just about the bad jokes he's done about me, but bad jokes he does about everybody who can't fight back because they aren't there. And that wouldn't be good for NBC." In later life, his distinctive physique and manner could be used as a reference that would be universally recognized. One journal for librarians published a writer's opinion that "asking persons without cataloging experience to design automated catalogs...is as practical as asking Raymond Burr to pole vault." A character in a 1989 short story refers to Burr as "grossly overweight" in Ironside.

Family life

Burr married actress Isabella Ward (1919-2004) on January 10, 1948. They had met in 1943 while Ward was a student at the Pasadena Playhouse, where Burr was teaching. They met again in 1947, when Ward was in California with a short-lived theatre company. They were married shortly before Burr began work on the 1948 film noir, Pitfall. In May 1948 they did one play together, a production based on the life of Paul Gauguin. The couple lived in a basement apartment in a large house in Hollywood that Burr shared with his mother and grandparents. The marriage ended within months, and Ward returned to her native Delaware. They divorced in 1952, and neither remarried.

In the mid-1950s, Burr met Robert Benevides (born February 9, 1930, Visalia, California) a young actor and Korean War veteran, on the set of Perry Mason. According to Benevides, they became a couple around 1960. Benevides gave up acting in 1963 and later became a production consultant for 21 of the Perry Mason TV movies. Together they owned and operated an orchid business and then a vineyard, in the Dry Creek Valley in California. They were partners until Burr's death in 1993. Burr left Benevides his entire estate, including "all my jewelry, clothing, books, works of art … and other items of a personal nature." Benevides subsequently renamed the Dry Creek property Raymond Burr Vineyards (reportedly against Burr's wishes) and managed it as a commercial enterprise. In 2016 the property was listed for sale.

Biographical contradictions

At various times in his career, Burr and his managers and publicists offered spurious or unverifiable biographical details to the press and public. He may have served in the Coast Guard; reports of his service in the United States Navy cannot be confirmed, nor can his statements that he sustained battle injuries at Okinawa. Other invented biographical details include years of college education at a variety of institutions, two marriages and a young son who died, world travel, an acting tour of the United Kingdom, and success in high school athletics. Most of these claims were accepted as fact by the press at the time of his death and by his first biographer, Ona Hill.

Burr was reportedly married in 1940 to a Scottish actress named Annette Sutherland—killed, Burr said, in the same plane crash that claimed the life of actor Leslie Howard. However, multiple sources have reported that no one by that name appears on any of the published passenger manifests from the flight. Another undocumented marriage in 1953 to Laura Andrina Morgan—who died of cancer, Burr said, in 1955—produced a son, Michael Evan, who purportedly died at age ten of leukemia. Yet no evidence exists of the marriage, nor of a son's birth, other than Burr's own claims. As late as 1991, Burr stood by the account of his son's life and death; he told Parade magazine that when he realized Michael was dying, he took him on a one-year tour of the United States. "Before my boy left, before his time was gone," he said, "I wanted him to see the beauty of his country and its people." After Burr's death his publicist confirmed that Burr worked in Hollywood throughout the year that he was supposedly touring with his son.

In the late 1950s, Burr was rumored to be romantically involved with Natalie Wood. Wood's agent sent her on public dates so she could be noticed by directors and producers and so the men she dated could present themselves in public as heterosexuals. The dates also helped to disguise Wood's relationship with Robert Wagner, whom she later married. Burr felt enough attraction to Wood to resent Warner Bros.' decision to promote her attachment to Tab Hunter rather than him. Robert Benevides later said, "He was a little bitter about it. He was really in love with her, I guess."

Later accounts of Burr's life explain that he hid his homosexuality to protect his career. "That was a time in Hollywood history when homosexuality was not countenanced," Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas recalled in a 2000 episode of Biography. "Ray was not a romantic star by any means, but he was a very popular figure … If it was revealed at that time in Hollywood history it would have been very difficult for him to continue."

Arthur Marks, a producer of Perry Mason, recalled Burr's talk of wives and children: "I know he was just putting on a show. … That was my gut feeling. I think the wives and the loving women, the Natalie Wood thing, were a bit of a cover." Dean Hargrove, executive producer of the Perry Mason television films, said in 2006, "I had always assumed that Raymond was gay, because he had a relationship with Robert Benevides for a very long time. Whether or not he had relationships with women, I had no idea. I did know that I had trouble keeping track of whether he was married or not in these stories. Raymond had the ability to mythologize himself, to some extent, and some of his stories about his past … tended to grow as time went by."

Hobbies and businesses

Burr had many hobbies over the course of his life: cultivating orchids and collecting wine, art, stamps, and seashells. He was very fond of cooking. He was also interested in flying, sailing, and fishing. According to A&E Biography, Burr was an avid reader with a retentive memory. He was also among the earliest importers and breeders of Portuguese Water Dogs in the United States.

He developed his interest in cultivating and hybridizing orchids into a business with Benevides. Over 20 years, their company, Sea God Nurseries, had nurseries in Fiji, Hawaii, the Azores, and California, and was responsible for adding more than 1,500 new orchids to the worldwide catalog. Burr named one of them the "Barbara Hale Orchid" after his Perry Mason costar. Burr and Benevides cultivated Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Port grapes, as well as orchids, at Burr's farmland holdings in Sonoma County, California.

In 1965, Burr purchased the Naitauba, a 4,000-acre (16 km2) island in Fiji, rich in seashells. There, he and Benevides oversaw the raising of copra (coconut meat) and cattle, as well as orchids. Burr planned to retire there permanently. However, medical problems made that impossible and he sold the property in 1983.

Philanthropy

Burr was a well-known philanthropist. He gave enormous sums of money, including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies, to charity. He was also known for sharing his wealth with friends. He sponsored 26 foster children through the Foster Parents' Plan or Save The Children, many with the greatest medical needs. He also gave money and some of his Perry Mason scripts to the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California.

Burr was an early supporter of the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, raising funds and chairing its first capital campaign. He also donated a large collection of Fijian cowries and cones from his island in Fiji. In 1993, Sonoma State University awarded Burr an honorary doctorate. He supported medical and education institutions in Denver, and in 1993, the University of Colorado awarded him an honorary doctorate for his acting work. Burr also founded and financed the American Fijian Foundation that funded academic research, including efforts to develop a dictionary of the language.

Burr made repeated trips on behalf of the United Service Organizations (USO). He toured both Korea and Vietnam during wartime and once spent six months touring Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He sometimes organized his own troupe and toured bases both in the U.S. and overseas, often small installations that the USO did not serve, like one tour of Greenland, Baffinland, Newfoundland and Labrador. Returning from Vietnam in 1965, he made a speaking tour of the U.S. to advocate an intensified war effort. As the war became more controversial, he modified his tone, called for more attention to the sacrifice of the troops, and said, "My only position on the war is that I wish it were over." In October 1967, NBC aired Raymond Burr Visits Vietnam, a documentary of one of his visits. The reception was mixed. "The impressions he came up with are neither weighty nor particularly revealing", wrote the Chicago Tribune; the Los Angeles Times called Burr's questions "intelligent and elicited some interesting replies".

Burr had a reputation in Hollywood as a thoughtful, generous man years before much of his more-visible philanthropic work. In 1960, Ray Collins, who portrayed Lt. Arthur Tragg on the original Perry Mason series, and who was by that time often ill and unable to remember all the lines he was supposed to speak, stated, "There is nothing but kindness from our star, Ray Burr. Part of his life is dedicated to us, and that's no bull. If there's anything the matter with any of us, he comes around before anyone else and does what he can to help. He's a great star—in the old tradition."

Illness and death

During the filming of his last Perry Mason movie in the spring of 1993, Raymond Burr fell ill. A Viacom spokesperson told the media that the illness might be related to the malignant kidney that Burr had removed that February. It was determined that the cancer had spread to his liver and was at that point inoperable. Burr threw several "goodbye parties" before his death on September 12, 1993, at his Sonoma County ranch near Healdsburg. He was 76 years old.

The day after Burr's death, American Bar Association president R. William Ide III released a statement: "Raymond Burr's portrayals of Perry Mason represented lawyers in a professional and dignified manner. … Mr. Burr strove for such authenticity in his courtroom characterizations that we regard his passing as though we lost one of our own." The New York Times reported that Perry Mason had been named second—after F. Lee Bailey, and before Abraham Lincoln, Thurgood Marshall, Janet Reno, Ben Matlock and Hillary Clinton—in a recent National Law Journal poll that asked Americans to name the attorney, fictional or not, they most admired.

Burr was interred with his parents at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia. On October 1, 1993, about 600 family members and friends paid tribute to Burr at a private memorial service at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Although Burr had not revealed his homosexuality during his lifetime, it was an open secret and was reported in the press upon his death. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that People magazine was preparing a story on Burr's "secret life" and asked, "Are the inevitable rumors true?" It received sensational treatment in the tabloid press; biographer Michael Starr wrote of the "wild stories about Raymond's private life spiced up with quotes from unidentified 'friends' who described his closeted homosexual lifestyle in almost cartoonish terms."

Burr bequeathed his estate to Robert Benevides and excluded all relatives, including a sister, nieces, and nephews. His will was challenged, without success, by the two children of his late brother, James E. Burr. Benevides' attorney said that tabloid reports of an estate worth $32 million were an overestimate.

Accolades

For his work in the TV series Perry Mason, Burr received the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series at the 11th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1959. Nominated again in 1960, he received his second Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series (Lead) at the 13th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1961.

Burr was named Favorite Male Performer, for Perry Mason, in TV Guide magazine's inaugural TV Guide Award readers poll in 1960. He also received the second annual award in 1961.

In 1960 Burr was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Blvd.

Burr received six Emmy nominations (1968-72) for his work in the TV series Ironside. He was nominated twice, in 1969 and 1972, for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama.

A benefactor of legal education, Burr was principal speaker at the founders banquet of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, in June 1973. The Raymond Burr Award for Excellence in Criminal Law was established in his honor.

Burr was ranked #44 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time in 1996.

Completed in 1996, a circular garden at the entrance to the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum in Sanibel, Florida, honors Burr for his role in establishing the museum. Burr was a trustee and an early supporter who chaired the museum's first capital campaign and made direct contributions from his collection. A display about Burr as an actor, benefactor and collector opened in the museum's Great Hall of Shells in 2012.

From 2000 to 2006, the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Society leased the historic Columbia Theatre from the city of New Westminster, and renamed it the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre. Although the nonprofit organization hoped to raise funds to renovate and expand the venue, its contract was not renewed. The group was a failed bidder when the theater was sold in 2011.

In 2008, Canada Post issued a postage stamp in its "Canadians in Hollywood" series featuring Burr. Burr received the 2009 Canadian Legends Award and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto. The induction ceremony was held on September 12, 2009.

A 2014 article in The Atlantic that examined how Netflix categorized nearly 77,000 different personalized genres found that Burr was rated as the favorite actor by Netflix users, with the greatest number of dedicated microgenres.

Theatre credits

Date	Title	Role	Notes
December 26, 1940	Crazy With the Heat		Boston
January 14-18, 1941	Crazy With the Heat		44th Street Theatre, New York City
November 11-22, 1942	Quiet Wedding	Dallas Chaytor	Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Lenore Shanewise
December 23, 1942 - January 3, 1943	Charley's Aunt		Pasadena Playhouse
February - February 21, 1943	Arsenic and Old Lace	Jonathan Brewster	Pasadena Playhouse
March-April 1943	Jason	Mike Ambler	Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Onslow Stevens
July 1943	The Intimate Strangers	Mr. Ames	Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Lenore Shanewise
July-August 1943	Monsieur Beaucaire		Pasadena Playhouse
January 24 - February 12, 1944	The Duke in Darkness	Voulain	Playhouse Theatre, New York City
June 12-23, 1946	While the Sun Shines		Pasadena Playhouse
December 1, 1946 -	Murder Without Crime		Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Raymond Burr (also actor)
May 26, 1948 -	Gauguin	Paul Gauguin	Pasadena Playhouse, directed by Catherine Turney
1983	Underground		Tour including Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, and Prince of Wales Theatre, London

Film credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1940	Earl of Puddlestone	Mrs. Millicent Potter's chauffeur
1946	San Quentin	Jeff Torrance
1946	Without Reservations	Paul Gill
1947	Code of the West	Boyd Carter
1947	Desperate	Walt Radak
1948	I Love Trouble	Herb
1948	Sleep, My Love	Sgt. Strake
1948	Ruthless	Peter Vendig
1948	Raw Deal	Rick Coyle
1948	Fighting Father Dunne	Prosecuting attorney
1948	Walk a Crooked Mile	Krebs
1948	Station West	Mark Bristow
1948	Adventures of Don Juan	Captain Alvarez
1949	Bride of Vengeance	Michelotto
1949	Red Light	Nick Cherney
1949	Black Magic	Dumas, Jr.
1949	Abandoned	Kerric
1949	Love Happy	Alphonse Zoto
1950	Borderline	Pete Richie
1950	Unmasked	Roger Lewis
1950	Key to the City	Les Taggart
1951	M	Pottsy
1951	His Kind of Woman	Nick Ferraro
1951	Place in the Sun, AA Place in the Sun	District Attorney R. Frank Marlowe
1951	New Mexico	Pvt. Anderson
1951	Bride of the Gorilla	Barney Chavez
1951	Magic Carpet, TheThe Magic Carpet	Boreg
1951	Whip Hand, TheThe Whip Hand	Steve Loomis
1951	FBI Girl	Blake
1952	Meet Danny Wilson	Nick Driscoll
1952	Mara Maru	Benedict
1952	Horizons West	Cord Hardin
1953	Bandits of Corsica, TheThe Bandits of Corsica	Baron Cesare Jonatto
1953	Blue Gardenia, TheThe Blue Gardenia	Harry Prebble
1953	Serpent of the Nile	Marc Antony
1953	Tarzan and the She-Devil	Vargo
1953	Fort Algiers	Amir
1954	Casanova's Big Night	Bragadin
1954	Immortal City, TheThe Immortal City	Narrator	Documentary
1954	Gorilla at Large	Cyrus Miller
1954	Rear Window	Lars Thorwald
1954	Thunder Pass	Tulsa
1954	Khyber Patrol	Ahmed
1954	Passion	Capt. Rodriguez
1955	They Were So Young	Jaime Coltos
1955	You're Never Too Young	Noonan
1955	Man Alone, AA Man Alone	Stanley
1955	Count Three and Pray	Yancy Huggins
1956	Please Murder Me	Craig Carlson
1956	Godzilla, King of the Monsters!	Steve Martin
1956	Great Day in the Morning	Jumbo Means
1956	Secret of Treasure Mountain	Cash Larsen
1956	Cry in the Night, AA Cry in the Night	Harold Loftus
1956	Brass Legend, TheThe Brass Legend	Tris Hatten
1957	Crime of Passion	Tony Pope
1957	Ride the High Iron	Ziggy Moline	Pilot for proposed ABC-TV series Command Performance, released as a feature film
1957	Affair in Havana	Mal Mallabee
1960	Desire in the Dust	Col. Ben Marquand
1961	"Interrupted Morning"	Himself (introduction)	Short film on traffic safety for the U.S. Public Health Service
1962	"When Sally Fell"	Himself (introduction, conclusion)	Short film on home safety
1962	"Look Alive"	Himself	Short film on pedestrian safety
1962	"Midsummer's Nightmare"	Himself	Short film on water safety
1962	"Giant Steps"	Himself	Short film on child safety
1962	"Why Daddy?"	Himself	Short film on fire prevention
1962	"No Defense"	Himself	Short film on community organization for accident prevention
1968	P. J.	William Orbison
1980	Out of the Blue	Dr. Brean
1980	Return, TheThe Return	Dr. Kramer
1982	Airplane II: The Sequel	The Judge
1985	Godzilla 1985	Steve Martin
1991	Showdown at Williams Creek	Judge Webster
1991	Delirious	Carter Hedison

Radio credits

Date	Title	Role	Notes
December 30, 1947	Favorite Story		"The Suicide Club"
October 18, 1948	The New Adventures of Michael Shayne		"The Case of the Eager Victim"
October 26, 1948	Favorite Story		"The Jest of Hahalaba"
November 4, 1948	Suspense		"Death Sentence"
December 25, 1948	Wrigley Christmas Party
January 23, 1949	Screen Directors Playhouse		"The Exile"
February 13 - June 26, 1949	Pat Novak, for Hire	Inspector Hellman
February 17, 1949	Suspense		"Catch Me If You Can"
April 21, 1949	Suspense		"The Copper Tea Strainer"
May 15, 1949	Screen Directors Playhouse		"Hold Back the Dawn"
June 17, 1949 - August 24, 1950	Dragnet	Ed Backstrand
July 16, 1949	Dangerous Assignment
August 24, 1949	Family Theater		"Robert of Sicily"
September 21, 1949	The Amazing Mr. Malone	Paul Conrad	"The Paul Conrad Case"
September 27, 1949 -	Dr. Kildare	Repertory cast	Eight transcribed episodes
October 17, 1949	Screen Directors Playhouse	MacDonald	"Pitfall"
November 23, 1949	Family Theater		"The Courtship of Miles Standish"
January 25, 1950	Family Theater		"Lodging for the Night"
February 19, 1950	The Amazing Mr. Malone	Alan Walsh	"When the Cat's Away the Mice Will Play"
March 8, 1950	Family Theater		"The Prince and the Pauper"
March 24, 1950	Screen Directors Playhouse		"Chicago Deadline"
April 7, 1950	Screen Directors Playhouse		"The Fighting O'Flynn"
April 11, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Dead First Helpers"
May 9, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Harold Trandem Matter"
June 28, 1950	Family Theater		"Lancelot of the Lake"
July 20, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Henry J. Unger Matter"
July 26, 1950	Family Theater		"Julius Caesar"
August 10, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Hartford Alliance Matter"
September 21, 1950	Presenting Charles Boyer		"The Adventure of Painting 137"
October 7, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Richard Splain Matter"
October 16, 1950	Lux Radio Theatre		"House of Strangers"
October 28, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Joan Sebastian Matter"
November 11, 1950	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Adam Kegg Matter"
November 15, 1950	Family Theater		"The Story of Peter Zenger"
November 16, 1950	The Lineup		"The Candy Store Murder"
December 6, 1950	Family Theater		"Robert of Sicily"
December 21, 1950	The Lineup		"The Holstedter Case"
December 28, 1950	Screen Directors Playhouse		"Alias Nick Beale"
1950	This Is the Story		"Hometown U.S.A.: Seattle, Washington"
January 4, 1951	Screen Directors Playhouse		"Prince of Foxes"
January 11, 1951	The Lineup		"The Mad Bomber"
March 24, 1951	Dangerous Assignment
April 19, 1951	The Pendleton Story		"The Declaration"
April 24, 1951	The Lineup		"The Brommel and Bellows Bloody Bullet Case"
June 15, 1951	The Pendleton Story		"The Warning"
July 18, 1951	Escape		"Macao"
October 28, 1951	The Silent Men		"The Case of the Rubber Gloves"
November 8, 1951	Hallmark Playhouse		"Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"
1951	The Pendleton Story		"The Mischianza"
February 24, 1952	The Whistler		"A Matter of Time"
March 9, 1952	The Whistler		"Breakaway"
April 4, 1952	Richard Diamond, Private Detective		"The Enigma of Big Ed"
April 7, 1952	The Pendleton Story		"The Homecoming"
April 16, 1952	The Pendleton Story		"The Child"
May 1, 1952	Hallmark Playhouse		"Lorna Doone"
May 15, 1952	Hallmark Playhouse		"The Marquis de Lafayette"
May 22, 1952	Hallmark Playhouse		"Marcia Burns"
May 26, 1952	The Railroad Hour		"My Maryland"
June 10, 1952	The Lineup		"Lobdell's Poodle-Cut Tomato Case"
July 17 1952	Night Beat
July 22, 1952	The Lineup		"The Drinkler Kidnapping Case"
August 25, 1952	Dangerous Assignment
September 7, 1952	The Whistler		"The Secret of Chalk Point"
October 8, 1952	The Lineup		"The Teacher's Pet"
November 23 1952	Errand of Mercy		"Jimmy is for Luck"
January 30, 1953	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Kay Bellamy Matter"
August 10, 1953	The Railroad Hour		"Trilby"
August 23, 1953	Richard Diamond, Private Detective		"The Hollywood Story"
September 20, 1953	Hallmark Hall of Fame		"George Gershwin"
September 26, 1953	Romance		"Treadmill"
September 30, 1953	Family Theater		"Journey of the Pegasus"
October 18, 1953	Hallmark Hall of Fame		"Joseph McCoy"
November 22, 1953	Hallmark Hall of Fame		"Squanto, The Cockney Indian"
December 6, 1953	Hallmark Hall of Fame		"Major Charles Yeager"
March 2, 1954	Rocky Fortune		"Honor Among Thieves"
March 24, 1954	Family Theater		"Night Caller"
October 27, 1954	Family Theater	Narrator	"The Hound of Heaven"
January 12, 1955	Family Theater		"Stranger in Town"
January 22 - October 28, 1956	Fort Laramie	Lee Quince
March 9, 1956	CBS Radio Workshop		"Report on ESP"
May 25, 1956	CBS Radio Workshop		"The Little Prince"
December 30, 1956	Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar		"The Ellen Deer Matter"
March 10, 1957	Suspense		"The Paralta Map"
April 21, 1957	CBS Radio Workshop	Narrator	"The Son of Man"
June 30, 1957	CBS Radio Workshop		"Battle of Gettysburg"
July 14, 1957	CBS Radio Workshop		"The Silent Witness"
July 28, 1957	Suspense		"Murder On Mike"
August 28, 1957	Family Theater	Host	"Sylvia"
October 27, 1957	Suspense		"The Country of the Blind"
October 12, 1958	Suspense		"The Treasure Chest of Don Jose"
December 21, 1958	Suspense		"Out for Christmas"
June 7, 1959	Suspense		"The Pit and the Pendulum"
1968	An American Gallery	Narrator	"Portrait of a Photographer"
August 24, 1969	Special Delivery: Vietnam		"History's First Nationwide Radiothon"

Television credits

Date	Title	Role	Notes
March 14, 1951	Stars Over Hollywood		"Prison Doctor"
April 4, 1951	Stars Over Hollywood		"Pearls from Paris"
April 23, 1951	Bigelow Theatre, TheThe Bigelow Theatre		"The Big Hello"
December 16, 1951	Dragnet		"The Human Bomb" (series debut)
March 21, 1952	Rebound		"Joker's Wild"
April 11, 1952	Rebound	Gomez	"The Wreck"
April 24, 1952	Gruen Playhouse		"The Tiger"
July 2, 1952	Unexpected, TheThe Unexpected	Doctor	"The Magnificent Lie"
September 9, 1952	Gruen Playhouse		"The Leather Coat"
September 23, 1952	Gruen Playhouse		"Face Value"
1952	Family Theater	Balthazar	"A Star Shall Rise"
January 2, 1953	Tales of Tomorrow		"The Mask of Medusa"
January 16, 1953	Your Favorite Story		"How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
April 28, 1953	Chevron Theatre		"No Escape"
December 10, 1953	Four Star Playhouse		"The Room"
January 7, 1954	Ford Theatre	Red Letwick	"The Fugitives"
January 28, 1954	Lux Video Theatre		"A Place in the Sun"
February 11, 1954	Lux Video Theatre	Major Blakestone	"Shall Not Perish"
April 20, 1954	Mr. and Mrs. North		"Murder for Sale"
July 1, 1955	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Dr. Sutton	"The Ordeal of Dr. Sutton"
October 7, 1955	Star and the Story, TheThe Star and the Story		"The Force of Circumstance"
November 2, 1955	20th Century Fox Hour, TheThe 20th Century Fox Hour	Major Tetley	"The Ox-Bow Incident"
December 1, 1955	Lux Video Theatre		"The Web"
March 1, 1956	Climax!	Lieutenant Shea	"The Sound of Silence"
March 1, 1956	Ford Theatre	Robert Drayton	"Man Without Fear"
May 24, 1956	Climax!	Philip Moran	"The Shadow of Evil"
October 18, 1956	Lux Video Theatre	Dan Reynolds	"Tobacco Road"
December 6, 1956	Climax!	Sergeant Ben Gurnick	"Savage Portrait"
1956	Chevron Hall of Stars	Jud	"The Lone Hand"
January 31, 1957	Playhouse 90	Lester Friedman	"The Greer Case"
March 12, 1957	Celebrity Playhouse	George	"No Escape"
September 21, 1957 - May 22, 1966	Perry Mason	Perry Mason	271 episodes Winner, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, 1959 and 1961; nominee in 1960
December 26, 1957	Playhouse 90	Charles Bent	"The Lone Woman"
May 6, 1959	11th Emmy Awards	Host
November 5, 1961	Jack Benny Program, TheThe Jack Benny Program	Perry Mason	"Jack On Trial for Murder"
March 28, 1967	Ironside	Robert T. Ironside	World premiere television film Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Drama (1968)
September 14, 1967 - January 16, 1975	Ironside	Robert T. Ironside	194 episodes Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972 Nominee, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Drama, 1969 and 1972
September 19, 1972	Bold Ones: The New Doctors, TheThe Bold Ones: The New Doctors	Robert T. Ironside	"Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown"
April 22, 1973	A Man Whose Name Was John	Pope John XXIII
February 8, 1976	Mallory	Arthur Mallory
July 3, 1976	The Inventing of America	Co-host	NBC-BBC co-production for the U.S. Bicentennial, co-hosted by James Burke
September 15, 1976	Kingston: The Power Play	R. B. Kingston
March 23 - August 10, 1977	Kingston: Confidential	R. B. Kingston	13 episodes
October 16-18, 1977	79 Park Avenue	Armand Perfido	Miniseries
December 12, 1978	Jordan Chance, TheThe Jordan Chance	Frank Jordan
October 1, 1978 -	Centennial	Herman Bockweiss	Miniseries
February 3, 1979	Love Boat, TheThe Love Boat	Malcolm Dwyer	"Alas, Poor Dwyer"
May 20, 1979	Love's Savage Fury
September 21 + 28, 1979	Eischied	Police Commissioner	"Only the Pretty Girls Die"
October 23, 1979	Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, TheThe Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo
October 28, 1979	Disaster on the Coastliner
November 18, 1979	13th Day: The Story of Esther, TheThe 13th Day: The Story of Esther	Narrator
May 8 + 9, 1980	Curse of King Tut's Tomb, TheThe Curse of King Tut's Tomb	Jonash Sebastian
December 18, 1980	Night the City Screamed, TheThe Night the City Screamed
April 12 + 14, 1981	Peter and Paul	Herod Agrippa
December 1, 1985	Perry Mason Returns	Perry Mason	First of 26 television films
May 25, 1986	Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun	Perry Mason
November 9, 1986	Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star	Perry Mason
January 20, 1987	Unsolved Mysteries	Host	Special that launched the series
February 23, 1987	Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love	Perry Mason
May 24, 1987	Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit	Perry Mason
October 4, 1987	Perry Mason: The Case of the Murdered Madam	Perry Mason
November 15, 1987	Perry Mason: The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel	Perry Mason
February 28, 1988	Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace	Perry Mason
May 15, 1988	Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady in the Lake	Perry Mason
February 12, 1989	Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson	Perry Mason
April 9, 1989	Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder	Perry Mason
November 19, 1989	Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin	Perry Mason
1989-91	Trial by Jury	Judge Gordon Duane	Syndicated series
January 21, 1990	Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen	Perry Mason
March 11, 1990	Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception	Perry Mason
May 20, 1990	Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer	Perry Mason
September 30, 1990	Perry Mason: The Case of the Defiant Daughter	Perry Mason
January 6, 1991	Perry Mason: The Case of the Ruthless Reporter	Perry Mason
February 11, 1991	Perry Mason: The Case of the Maligned Mobster	Perry Mason
May 14, 1991	Perry Mason: The Case of the Glass Coffin	Perry Mason
September 24, 1991	Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion	Perry Mason
March 1, 1992	Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing	Perry Mason
May 5, 1992	Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo	Perry Mason
October 30, 1992	Perry Mason: The Case of the Heartbroken Bride	Perry Mason
February 19, 1993	Perry Mason: The Case of the Skin-Deep Scandal	Perry Mason
May 4, 1993	Return of Ironside, TheThe Return of Ironside	Robert T. Ironside
May 21, 1993	Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host	Perry Mason
November 29, 1993	Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss	Perry Mason

[ Source: Wikipedia ]