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Canada Post and the City of New Westminster unveil a Raymond Burr commemorative stamp |
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Friends and family of Raymond Burr, including his 98 year-old cousin, were on hand at Century House in New Westminster today to witness the unveiling of a set of commemorative stamps entitled The Sequel, which celebrate the achievements of Canadians in Hollywood. "Raymond Burr is perhaps one of our city's best known citizens," said mayor Wayne Wright. "Many of us enjoyed following his distinguished career over the years and were always proud of the fact that he was born and raised right here in New Westminster." |
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Over his lengthy career he performed in more than 5,000 radio plays, 200 stage plays and 90 movies. He is best known for his television roles as lawyer Perry Mason and wheelchair-bound chief of detectives Robert Ironside. Burr was also involved in many humanitarian causes throughout his life including the Cerebral Palsy Association, the March of Dimes, B'nai B'rith and the Raymond Burr Foundation, which supports charitable, educational and literary causes. "At Canada Post, we're delighted to be able to recognize the on and off-screen accomplishments of Raymond Burr with the stamp we're unveiling today," said Ron Pasini, Canada Post's Pacific Manager of Sales. "Paying tribute to great Canadians is what our stamp program is all about - capturing Canada and what it means to be Canadian and showcasing it for the world." The set of four stamps were designed by John Belisle and illustrated by Kosta Tsetsekas of Vancouver's Signal Design. |
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| In addition to Raymond Burr, the set features stamps commemorating the achievements of other notable Canadians in Hollywood; Marie Dressler (1868 - 1934), Norma Shearer (1900 - 1983) and Chief Dan George (1899 - 1981). | ||
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| Raymond Burr was born Raymond William Stacey Burr on May 21, 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, a suburb of Vancouver. Burr spent part of his childhood in China where his father worked as a trade agent. After his parents divorced when he was 6, Burr moved to Vallejo, California with his mother and younger sister and brother. As soon as he came of age, Burr went to work as a ranch hand and a photo salesman to help support his mother and younger sister and brother. After two years in the Navy during World War II, Burr returned home after being wounded on Okinawa. | ||
 New Westminster mayor Wayne Wright |
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| In 1937, Burr began his acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1941, he landed his first Broadway role in “Crazy with the Heart”. He became a contract player at RKO studio, playing mostly villains, and had roles in over 60 movies between 1946 and 1957.
Burr received favourable notice for his role as a prosecutor in A Place in the Sun (1951), co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, and perhaps his best-known film role of the period was as the "heavy" in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window (1954), starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. During this time, Burr's distinctive voice could also be heard on network radio, appearing alongside Jack Webb in the short-lived Pat Novak for Hire on ABC radio, as well as in early episodes of NBC's Dragnet. Burr also emerged as a prolific television character actor in the early to mid 1950's He made his guest-starring television debut on an episode of The Amazing Dr. Malone. This part led to other television roles in such programs as Dragnet, Chesterfield Sound Off Time, Four Star Playhouse, Mr. & Mrs. North, Schlitz Playhouse of Stardom, The Ford Television Theatre and Lux Video Theatre. In 1955, Burr took on the part of Steve Martin in Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, a role he would reprise again almost 30 years later in Godzilla 1985. |
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 Unveiling by Mayor Wayne Wright and Canada Post's Ron Pasini |
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| In 1956, Burr auditioned for the role of District Attorney Hamilton Burger in Perry Mason, a new courtroom drama created for the CBS TV network. Mason eventually became the role with which Burr was most closely identified in the public mind. Also starring were Barbara Hale - a 1940's movie actress and old friend of Burr’s - as Mason’s secretary, Della Street, and B-actor William Hopper as Mason’s private investigator, Paul Drake.
William Talman played the district attorney, Hamilton Burger, who was destined to lose every case (at least against Perry Mason), and Ray Collins was the homicide detective, Lt. Arthur Tragg. On every show Mason built a defense case with extraordinary precision and succeeded in proving his client's innocence, often provoking an emotional confession from the true culprit. |
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 A very yummy lemon-filled cake |
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| Burr won two Emmy Awards for his role as Perry Mason which originally ran from 1957 to 1966, and has been re-run in syndication ever since. In 2006, the first season became available on DVD. | ||
 It was on the set of Perry Mason that Raymond Burr first met Robert Benevides, the man who would eventually become his companion and partner of more than thirty years. As the story goes, Burr and Benevides’ relationship blossomed after they discovered their individual interest in, and knowledge of, the hybridization of orchids.
Together they started Sea God Nurseries with orchid ranges in Fiji, Hawaii, the Azores Island, and Southern California. Over a twenty-year period, their hybridization was responsible for more than fifteen hundred new orchids being added to the worldwide catalogue. Also with |
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| Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale and Robert Benevides |
Benevides, Burr opened a successful Rodeo Drive art gallery and to further their second hobby, they purchased a winery in Dry Creek Valley in California's Sonoma district. Benevides still operates both the Nursery and the winery, now called Raymond Burr Vineyards. To acknowledge both of these, all of the presenters at the unveiling | |
 wore orchids and Ellie King (seen here), former Director of the The Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre offered a toast to Raymond with a bottle of Raymond Burr Vintage Port taking pride of place on the table.
In contrast to the "bad guys" and hard, unbending heroes he often played, Burr was an extraordinarily giving man. Many servicemen remember him for his participation in United Service Organizations tours in Korea and Vietnam. He gave enormous sums of money (including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies) to charity. He once sponsored 27 foster children through the Christian Children's Fund. He would sponsor children with the greatest medical needs. Burr always insisted that TV executives and directors treated his co-stars with the same respect shown to him. He also gave generously over many years to the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, including the donation of some of his Perry Mason scripts. In January 1993, Burr was diagnosed with cancer in his left kidney. But he refused to undergo |
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 surgery, as this would have interfered with the shooting schedule of his final two television movies. After filming was completed, it was determined that the cancer had spread to several other organs, making it inoperable.
Burr threw several "goodbye parties" before his death aged 76 on September 12, 1993 on his Sonoma County, California ranch near Healdsburg, California. Burr was interred with his parents at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster. The unveiling ceremony concluded with cake and first day covers being signed by John Belisle, the designer. A biography of Burr's life, produced by the Discovery Channel was playing on the TV. |
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