Raymond Burr: Hollywood’s Master Of Deceit

Raymond Burr had an extraordinary life filled with fame and deep sorrow. His son died of leukemia at just 10 years old, and shortly after, his wife died of cancer too. Well, that is if you believe his story. Raymond Burr, best known as the star of TV’s Perry Mason, was a notorious liar, so separating truth from fiction is difficult. What we do know is all his lies were covering up a secret that could have destroyed his career. What do you think his secret was? Let me know in the comments. Join me as I do a deep dive on the tumultuous life of Raymond Burr, the man of a thousand lies.

Let’s start with what we do know. We know that on May 21st, 1917, a boy named William Raymond Stacy Burr came into this world in New Westminster, BC, Canada. There’s no reason to bother lying about his early childhood because it was just so ordinary. His father was a hardware salesman, and his mother taught piano. Although the more I hear it, the more it sounds like a made-up story, it’s just that bland. Well, it may have started out bland, but Raymond Burr’s life quickly got unbelievable.

Raymond Burr claims that when he was just 12 years old, he quit school and started looking for work. This could be true as the Great Depression had just started, and things must have been tough for a single mother with three children. Burr said that he went to New Mexico and got a job as a ranch hand at 12 years old. Well, this could also be true because Burr later confessed that he was large for his age, and people at the ranch mistook him for an adult.

Burr eventually joined the Pasadena Playhouse in 1937, which soon led to appearances on Broadway and on the radio. Burr was a large child—12 lbs at birth—and obviously an even larger adult. Always self-conscious about his body, Burr started taking roles on the radio where size didn’t matter. His deep voice allowed him to play romantic leads, something he never got on stage because he didn’t have the body type they wanted. Burr could have continued on as a radio actor and been quite comfortable, but then a life-changing opportunity came his way.

In the mid-1940s, the film noir period of Hollywood was just beginning. While Hollywood had plenty of hunky leading men, they needed actors to play big, bruising thugs. Raymond Burr found that his plus-size was a plus when it came to playing the heavy. Literally, Burr had struck Hollywood gold, and ironically, it was all because of his extra weight. But Raymond Burr’s success only masked his hidden pain. Years later, Burr bitterly called himself the fat heavy of film noir. He was in his 20s, and the characters he played were much older than he actually was. In fact, something astonishing started happening: he would sometimes even play the father of an actor that was younger than him. The way Burr saw it, it was all because of his weight. He would always be the villain, and there was something the villain never got: the girl. He was in a rut, and it was only going to get worse.

It was true that Burr’s characters never walked off into the sunset with a beautiful starlet in one film. However, he again didn’t get the girl, but he did get the gorilla. In 1954, Burr appeared alongside Academy Award-winning actress Anne Bancroft in Gorilla at Large. This 3D movie was, according to TV Guide anyway, unintentionally hilarious, but at least it was a change for Burr. Burr had tasted what it was like to be a lead actor, and to continue doing it, he went from gorilla to Godzilla.

In 1954, a new kind of film was taking Japan by storm, starring a giant lizard named Godzilla. Film distributor Edmund Goldman had an idea that would do well in America, but at the time, American audiences weren’t keen on watching foreign films. That’s when Goldman had an unorthodox idea: he would Americanize the film by making just two tweaks: changing the title from Godzilla to Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and inserting an American actor into the already finished movie. I bet you can guess now which actor he chose.

Putting Raymond Burr into an already finished film was going to be tough. Doing it in a couple of days? Even tougher. They decided they would only redo the scenes that Burr was in, and they decided to do it in America. They rebuilt the sets and hired Asian-American actors to double for the ones already in the film. The pressure on Burr was intense, but leave it to the constantly fabricating Burr to exaggerate this. The story goes that Burr’s contract was for just one day’s work on Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The contract said one day, but the money-pinching producers read it literally: 24 hours. This was the reason why the filming was so intense; Burr had to do it all in 24 straight hours. It certainly is a great story; too bad it’s not true. Burr told more than one story about his time filming Godzilla, King of the Monsters. One is the working 24 straight hours story. Later, he claimed that he actually worked for six days, not one.

Many people thought it was weird that Burr was participating in a creature feature in the first place. He’d already established a solid career playing noir bad guys, and this Godzilla thing seemed beneath him. Of course, many assumed it was just a cash grab for Burr. The truth, however, was even more surprising: he actually enjoyed making the movie and was proud of his work. To be honest, I love those old Godzilla movies; let me know if you do too.

Maybe Hollywood could tell that Burr was coming into himself, because his life was about to change forever. Before playing opposite Godzilla, Burr had played a supporting role as a district attorney in A Place in the Sun with heartthrobs Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. Five years later, Burr’s courtroom performance caught the eye of a producer. He was preparing to adapt a series of novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner starring a lawyer named Perry Mason. Burr got the call to audition, not for the lead, but for a supporting character. But he was in for a big surprise.

Even though it was for a supporting role on a TV show arguably beneath him by then, Burr went to the audition. The producer of Perry Mason, Gail Patrick Jackson, took one look at Burr’s audition and realized something: Burr wasn’t right for the district attorney role. He was, in fact, perfect for Perry Mason himself. Well, not quite perfect. Before giving Burr the role, Jackson had one request, and it was a doozy. Jackson wanted Raymond Burr to lose weight. Now, Burr had struggled with his weight for most of his life, blaming it for the types of roles he got. But now Burr was up for a lead part, and nothing was going to stop him.

Burr went on a brutal crash diet, but he came back as a slimmer man to do one final test. When the author of the Perry Mason novel saw Burr’s test clip, he stood up and stated, “That’s Perry Mason.” Burr got the role, and he would never be the same again. The network had high hopes for Perry Mason, but no one knew just how huge it would be. The series ran from 1957 to 1966 and had an audience of 30 million every Saturday night. Burr, who hadn’t really stood out in his previous supporting film roles, was now receiving 3,000 letters from fans per week. Burr must have been on cloud nine, as America was finally in love with Raymond Burr.

Of course, fans wanted to know all about him, and that’s when the trouble started. More than anything, the public wanted to know about Raymond Burr’s love life, and he was more than forthcoming. He told reporters that about 10 years before he started playing Perry Mason, he married a fellow actress named Isabella Ward. He said that the two lived for a short time in the basement of Burr’s grandparents’ house in Hollywood. For some unknown reason, the marriage abruptly ended only a few months after the wedding. Ward packed her bags and returned to Delaware, where she was from. As far as we know, all of this is actually true. The only problem is Burr didn’t stop his story there.

For some reason, Burr thought he should create a second wife. This woman was Annette Sutherland, and apparently, she passed away in a plane crash. Burr even gave the story some details so it sounded more true. He said it was the same plane crash that killed movie idol Leslie Howard. But that was his first mistake. You see, there was no Annette Sutherland on the flight with Leslie Howard, and people could easily prove that. Worse still, Burr had also created something else: a son. Burr claimed that he and Sutherland had a child. Of course, fans and reporters wanted to see this child, so Burr had to think fast. His solution was disturbing. He told people his son had passed from leukemia at just 10 years old.

According to the stories, the star of Perry Mason wasn’t just a great actor; he was a sad widower with a deceased son. But the problem was, it was all a lie. Unfortunately, the more Burr said, the more curious reporters became. But just as reporters and fans gave up on knowing more about the man behind Perry Mason, Burr did something truly ridiculous: he made up another wife, Laura Andrina Morgan. But what happened to her? Three guesses. Burr concocted another cancer sob story, leaving him a widower once again. Clearly, Raymond Burr could just not stop lying.

But the thing is, for Raymond Burr, the truth was even more dangerous than the lies. While starring in Perry Mason, Burr was working a grueling schedule. On one of his rare moments of rest, Burr heard a knock at his dressing room door. Behind the door was Robert Benevides, a handsome, struggling actor who was there to deliver a script. Burr took a long look at the young, strapping man and decided to hire him as his assistant. Before too long, colleagues on Perry Mason saw that the two men were a little more than close friends. If we’re looking for a motive for Burr’s steady stream of untruths, we needn’t look further. Burr’s friendship with Benevides made something painfully clear: Burr was gay.

The invented wives and son were all a not-so-clever smokescreen for prying reporters. But now that Burr had found someone he wanted to be with, surely he could finally come clean, right? If you believed that, you don’t know Hollywood. Burr gave a very detailed explanation of how busy he was with Perry Mason; he simply didn’t have time for a wife. This didn’t explain, of course, how other TV stars seemed to have time for romantic partners, sometimes even more than one. Clearly, Burr was willing to say anything to explain his single lifestyle, but his lies would catch up with him sooner or later.

Burr never remarried after that first brief union. His excuse of having no time to find a mate was a valid one, but what about when Perry Mason ended? Would he have time then? Well, the show did eventually end in 1966. Burr didn’t, however, start looking for a spouse. He did the opposite: he started a new series. Ironside started one year after Perry Mason ended and ran for nine years. Again, Burr had an excuse for being single.

But nothing lasts forever. Burr was now a respected actor in both film and TV roles and suddenly received an odd offer: make a sequel to Godzilla, King of the Monsters. The original was now almost three decades behind him, and Burr had come a long way since then. To everyone’s surprise, Burr accepted the role in The Return of Godzilla (Godzilla 1985). Again, people accused Burr of selling out for the cash, and again, it wasn’t true. Burr played the same character as in the original Godzilla, but that created a problem: his name was Steve Martin. By now, there was another famous Steve Martin, so they just called Burr “Steve” or “Mr. Martin.” Regardless of his character’s name, Burr once again enjoyed making the creature feature and endeared himself to legions of Godzilla fans even more.

Even after Ironside ended, Burr continued to work in other TV series, fueling his “can’t find a wife” story. Most of these series did not last. It wasn’t until 1985 that Burr found success, and it was by going back to the beginning. He started making Perry Mason TV movies, and they were immensely popular once again. Being Perry Mason was keeping Burr busy, and it kept the rumors that surrounded a man of his age being single at bay.

In truth, Burr wasn’t single at all. Remember the strapping man who delivered the scripts to Burr? This was back somewhere in the 1960s, and the man’s name was Robert Benevides. Through the rest of Perry Mason, and all through Ironside, and every other project, Burr was in a committed relationship with Benevides. Friends and colleagues knew Benevides as Burr’s close companion, and in fact, they were together for the rest of Burr’s life. But how did they manage to hide their love for so long? Burr lived with Benevides on a large estate in Sonoma County in California all that time. If anyone asked, Burr simply referred to Benevides as his business partner and friend, both of which were true. To make it clear that they were not romantic partners, they even started a business together in the 1980s: they started a winery.

But surely these two would be able to go public eventually, right? Again, if you believe that, you still don’t know Hollywood. Hollywood and being gay have always made poor bedfellows. Even now, coming out of the closet has massive career implications. Imagine how it was back in the 1960s and 70s. There was an expression for the outcome of actors coming out: career suicide. Burr wanted to continue his career as a TV star, so what choice did he have but to hide his true self and his partner?

Sadly, Burr never had the chance to acknowledge that Benevides was his spouse. In 1993, Burr was filming yet another Perry Mason movie and became sick. His doctors reported to the media that it was because of a renal cell carcinoma that had spread to his liver. There was nothing they could do by then; the cancer was inoperable. However, at least Burr had the chance before passing to enjoy the last days of his life with friends. He even hosted a few farewell parties. After he said goodbye to everyone who was important to him, Raymond Burr passed on September 12th, 1993.

For anyone who doubted that Burr and Benevides were in a committed relationship, there was Burr’s final will to show the truth. Burr left everything to Benevides and left his family completely out of the will, a total sum speculated was over $30 million. Some members of Burr’s biological family attempted to overturn the will but had no success. Burr’s commitment to Benevides was just that strong.

In his lifetime, Burr received a huge number of awards and appeared on best lists in many publications. For Perry Mason, he won two Emmys, plus the six nominations he garnered for Ironside. In 1960, he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and won on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2009, and also a Canadian stamp in 2008. TV Guide named him their favorite male performer in 1960, and then in 1996, they put him on their list of 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. Thank you so much for watching. If you like the video, leave a like, consider subscribing, and I’ll see you next time.