Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside and his lead role as Steve Martin in Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Godzilla 1985.
He was born Raymond William Stacey Burr in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada (although the 1930 census states Burr was born in Illinois), to William Johnston Burr (1889-1985), an Irish hardware salesman from County Cork, Ireland, and his wife Minerva Smith (1892-1974), a concert pianist and music teacher who had emigrated to Canada from Chicago, Illinois, United States, in 1914. Burr spent part of his childhood in China, where his father worked as a trade agent. After his parents divorced, 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 in the stomach on Okinawa.
Burr’s parents, William and Minerva, remarried in 1955 after 33 years of separation. Burr had remained close to them, both during their separation and after their second marriage.
Raymond Burr was homosexual, but hid his sexuality for most of his life out of fear that it would damage his career. He had a 35-year romantic relationship with Robert Benevides (born 1930), a young actor and Korean war veteran whom Burr had met on the set of Perry Mason. For several years in the 1950s, according to an excerpt from Hiding in Plain Sight, a 2008 biography of Burr written by Michael Starr, another young Korean War veteran named Frank Vitti shared Burr’s home and was identified in some publications as his nephew. The actor was guarded about his sexuality, even among acquaintances such as William Hopper (Paul Drake). Hopper’s mother was Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
For most of his life, however, the public had no apparent reason to suspect that Burr was homosexual. In fact, in the late 1950s, Burr was rumored to be romantically involved with the young Natalie Wood. “When I was talking to Dennis Hopper about that,” Wood biographer Suzanne Finstad says, “he was saying, I just can’t wrap my mind around that one. But you know, I saw them together. They were definitely a couple. Who knows what was going on there?”. This is explained by Robert Hofler in his book on Henry Willson entitled The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson. Hofler writes that Willson, Natalie’s agent at the time, sent her on public dates with Burr and with other gay men so that she could be seen and noticed by directors and producers and so that the actors could publicly demonstrate their purported heterosexuality. The dates also made Natalie seem to be unattached, which prevented the tabloids from discovering the seriousness of her relationship with Robert Wagner, whom she later married.
In the mid-1950s, Burr met actor Robert Benevides (sometimes spelled Benevedes). In 1963, after having “been together” for about three years, Benevides gave up acting and later became a production consultant for 21 Perry Mason TV movies. He was still Burr’s “long-time companion” in 1993 upon Burr’s Death. Together the couple owned and operated first an orchid business, then a vineyard, in the Dry Creek Valley. After Burr died, his niece Minerva began a public feud with Benevides over whether he should have been given the bulk of Burr’s estate. Benevides remains the proprietor of the Raymond Burr Vineyards in Healdsburg, California.
In late 1992, Burr was diagnosed with cancer in his left kidney, but he refused to undergo 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 on September 12, 1993 at his Sonoma County, California ranch near Healdsburg. Burr was interred with his parents at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
On October 1, 1993, friends of Burr mourned him at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California. The private memorial was attended by Robert Benevides, Barbara Hale, Don Galloway, Don Mitchell, Barbara Anderson, Elizabeth Baur, Dean Hargrove, William R. Moses
