"I wanted him to see the beauty of his country and its people."
This might be the most bizarre post in this Gay Icons tumblr - actor Raymond Burr
Many people know Raymond Burr from his television roles as the ace attorney in “Perry Mason” (1956-1966) and as the ace wheelchair detective in “Ironside” (1967-1975) as well as the multiple TV movies based on both in the 1980s and 1990s. And of course I have to mention he starred in the Americanized version of “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” (1956).
But like his role as the killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” (1954), Burr had something to hide.
Like other homosexual actors of that era, Raymond Burr needed to keep his secret under tight wraps, otherwise his successes as Mason and Ironside would never happen.
Burr weighed 12.5 lbs at birth, and was a chubby child. He once said: “When you’re a little fat boy in public school…you’re just persecuted something awful.” He developed a knack for invented stories of a happy childhood.
He initially found success in radio, where it didn’t matter how he looked. When he ventured into movies, Burr weighed more than 300 lbs and he only got parts as thugs or villains. “I was just a fat heavy,” he said. To get the role of Perry Mason, he had to go on a crash diet and lose 60 lbs before the producers would give him the role.
At some point, to deflect any suspicion, Burr and his managers began telling stories of his heroic military career and tragic personal life.
Burr claimed to have served in the Navy and been injured in a battle at Okinawa (no evidence of this was ever found).
He claimed he was married to a Scottish actress named Annette Sutherland, who was killed on the same airplane crash as Leslie Howard in 1943 (there is no evidence an Annette Sutherland ever existed, and her name was not on passenger manifests for the flight).
He claimed that he had a son who died of leukemia in 1953 at the age of ten (there is no record or evidence of this).*
He claimed to have married again in the early 1950s to Laura Andrina Morgan, who died of cancer (there is no record of the marriage).
*As part of the story of the son, in 1991 Burr told Parade magazine in an interview that when he realized his son was dying, Burr took him on a one-year tour of the United States. "I wanted him to see the beauty of his country and its people.” But eventually his publicist confirmed that Burr worked in Hollywood the year that he was supposedly touring with his son.
"I wanted him to see the beauty of his country and its people."
But eventually his publicist confirmed that Burr worked in Hollywood the year that he was supposedly touring with his son.
In the meantime, Burr met actor Robert Benevides on the set of Perry Mason (1960). They became “friends” and eventually moved in together. Benevides soon quit acting but is credited as production consultant for 21 of the Perry Mason TV movies.
Burr & Benevides owned and operated an orchid nursery and then a vineyard in California. They were together for 33 years until Burr’s death in 1993. Burr bequeathed his entire estate to Benevides.
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