Where To Watch
Later in his career, Raymond Burr vowed he'd never act in another weekly television series
Playing Perry Mason had made Burr a star, but it also wore him down.
Despite the fact that it was a television series that made him famous, Raymond Burr wasn't necessarily in love with television. The actor is known for programs like Perry Mason and Ironside, two crime shows that he certainly took to heart.
"I always felt that both those characters represent the fact that our Anglo-Saxon system of law is the best in the world, the fact that justice does prevail, and hopefully, that it is available to all people," said Burr during an interview with the Spokesman-Review. "I'm very big on the fact that we have to make this a better world and I have a necessity to fight for the underprivileged."
Despite the alignment with his moral judgment, playing Perry Mason had worn Burr out behind the scenes. "After 20 years of it," he said. "Twenty years of being trapped indoors and not growing one thing except orchids in a hothouse? No fun at all. If I had been married during those years, I would have become unmarried. If I had been a father, I would have been the worst father in the world. I couldn't do anything or be anything but Perry Mason."
After filming for Perry Mason had wrapped, Burr was determined not to make the same mistakes.
"When we started Ironside, they built me a bungalow equipped with every convenience on the Universal lot," said Burr. "I'd told them not to. I thanked them kindly, but I wasn't about to sleep in the studio. Not even when we worked until 4 a.m."
Even so, Burr's experiences as a television actor affected the rest of his career and left him with a strong separation between the professional and personal.
"I'd never shoot another weekly series," said Burr. "You have no time for friends or for self."
Related
2 Comments
.jpg)
