Raymond William Stacey Burr net worth is $15 Million
Raymond William Stacey Burr Wiki Biography
Raymond William Stacy Burr was born on 21 May 1917, in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, of German, Scottish, Irish, and English descent. Raymond was an actor, best known for being part of series such as “Ironside” and “Perry Mason”. He was also part of the film “Rear Window”, and all of his efforts helped put his net worth to where it was prior to his passing in September 1993.
So just how rich was Raymond Burr? As of mid-2016, sources estimate a net worth that was at $15 million, mostly earned through a successful career on television. Aside from that, Burr also had various roles in film, and on radio and stage. He was part of the “Perry Mason” franchise from 1957 to 1993, and all ensured the position of his wealth.
Raymond Burr Net Worth $15 million
Raymond attended a military academy and later matriculated from Berkeley High School. He made his stage debut at 12 years old, later finding consistent acting work while in his teens.
Burr had hoped to study at the Pasadena Playhouse, but since tuition was expensive he joined a theatre group in Toronto that toured around Canada. He then joined a group which would travel to several countries including England, India, and Australia. Afterwards, he attended Long Beach Junior College, and started working as a radio actor before making his way back to Pasadena Playhouse. In 1940, he moved to New York and made his Broadway debut in “Crazy With the Heat”. Two years later, he became a part of the production “Quiet Wedding” as a replacement, and would go on to act in around 30 plays, including “The Duke in Darkness”, and “French Wars of Religion”. These provided a solid start to his net worth.
Starting from 1946, Burr started to appear in many more films, becoming well known for his villainous roles. Some of the films he was a part of during this time include “Red Light”, “M”, “Raw Deal”, and “Crime of Passion”. His performances drew mixed reviews, but he became an icon of the noir genre. He would then go on to make a lot more notable films, including “Rear Window”, “Affair in Havana”, and “FBI Girl”. In between these, Raymond tried his hand at other roles, but he was playing significantly older roles because of his weight.
Raymond became popular thanks to his film and television roles but he also had a lot of uncredited radio roles. He had a very good radio voice and often played either villains or romantic leads in various radio productions. According to reports, he earned a significant amount of income from radio, with some of his projects including “Pat Novak for Hire”, “Suspense”, “Family Theatre”, and “Dragnet”. He was also part of “Fort Laramie” in which he portrayed the character Lee Quince who was a captain of cavalry during the post-Civil War period. Over time he would develop a significant following, receiving numerous fan mails, and improving his net worth.
The peak of Burr’s career would come in the 1950s, when he would establish himself as a television actor. In 1956, he auditioned for the show “Perry Mason” as District Attorney Hamilton Burger, however, the producers thought that he would be great as Perry Mason, and he would then go on a diet to fit the role. The series would run from 1957 to 1966 and would gain multiple nominations.
After “Perry Mason”, Burr would become part of the drama series “Ironside” in which he portrayed a police officer with a disability. He earned more nominations this time around as the series ran from 1967 until 1975. Ten years later, after a string of other series, Raymond returned to reprise his role of “Perry Mason” in numerous television movies. A lot of the original cast members returned for their respective roles too, and he would go on and make a total of 26 films before his health started to fail him.
For his personal life it is known that Burr married actress Isabella Ward in 1952 but it only lasted a few months before they divorced. Both of them never married again. Raymond Burr died from cancer in September 1993.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Series (1961, 1959)
Nominations
Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama/for Best TV Star (1972, 1969), 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time (by TV Guide, 1996)
Movies
“Rear Window” (1954), “Godzilla, King of the Monsters!” (1956), “Perry Mason Returns” (1985), “Affair in Havana”, “FBI Girl
TV Shows
“Crazy With the Heat”, “Quiet Wedding”, “The Duke in Darkness”, “French Wars of Religion”, “Ironside” (1967-1975), “Perry Mason” (1957-1966)
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Trademark
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His beard.
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Deep commanding voice.
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Heavyset stature.
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Quote
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Try and live your life the way you wish other people would live theirs.
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[about his character in Perry Mason (1957)] Let's just say that the part isn't conducive to leisurely living the way I once knew it. I only hope that I can regain my own identity, once I decide that Perry Mason and myself have come to the parting of the road. Perry Mason has become a career for me . . . all I know is that I work, eat and sleep Perry Mason.
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Fact
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He was known to be a very private man.
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His father was of Northern Irish descent. His mother had English, German, Scottish, and Northern Irish ancestry.
Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
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Best remembered by the public for his starring roles as the title characters of both series: Perry Mason (1957) and Ironside (1967).
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Appears as lawyer Perry Mason, with William Talman as District Attorney Hamilton Burger, on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the "Early TV Memories" issue honoring Perry Mason (1957), issued 11 August 2009.
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Was considered for the role of Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke (1955). In an August 23, 1975, article in TV Guide called "When Chester Forgot to Limp" commemorating trivia from the show as it was about to leave the air, the show's first producer Charles Marquis Warren recalled, "His voice was fine, but he was too big. When he stood up, his chair stood up with him". William Conrad, who played Matt Dillon on radio, was rejected for the TV version for similar reasons. In a memorial article in TV Guide published shortly after Burr's death, the original producers of Perry Mason (1957) almost rejected Burr for that role, again because Burr was overweight. He went on an intensive diet to get down to a size acceptable to the producers.
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His parents were married in Canada in 1914, after they migrated from Chicago, Illinois.
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Dropped out of San Rafael Military School at age 17 to join the Civilian Conservation Corps, where he learned to fight forest fires and plant trees.
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His mother Minerva died in 1974, at age 81 of cancer, while his father, William, died in 1985, at age 96.
His parents, Minerva and William Burr, after 33 years of separation, remarried in 1955.
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Featured in "Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir" by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry (McFarland, 2003).
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Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pages 84-85. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
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He is commemorated on a 2008 Canadian postage stamp, one of four honoring achievements of Canadians in Hollywood. The other three depict Norma Shearer, Marie Dressler, and Chief Dan George.
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He had an interest in, and knowledge of, the cultivation and hybridization of orchids. He and partner of 35 years, Robert Benevides, set up Sea God Nurseries, becoming, in the 20-odd years of its operation, an international presence with ranges in Fiji, Hawaii, the Azores and Southern California. They were responsible for over 1,500 new orchids added to the worldwide catalog. Burr cultivated an orchid that he named after his former Perry Mason (1957), co-star, Barbara Hale, as the symbol of friendship.
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In 1990, not long before he grew ill with cancer, Burr and longtime partner Robert Benevides started a vineyard at their Dry Creek Valley ranch, and released their first vintage. The wine was bottled in November 1992 and released after Burr's death in 1995.
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Was the original host of Unsolved Mysteries (1987), hosting only its first special in January 1987. He was then briefly replaced by Karl Malden. However, both actors requested salaries that producer John Cosgrove deemed astronomical. So by the time the show became a regular series in 1988, Robert Stack had been hired as the permanent host at what the producer believed to be a more reasonable salary.
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His official biography stated that he had been married three times, but two of his wives and one child had died. However, these details were fabricated in an attempt to hide the fact that Burr was gay. Only one brief marriage had actually occurred, and it had ended in divorce. The other two marriages and the child were fiction.
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Longtime companion of Robert Benevides. Benevides was a young actor Burr met on the set of the original Perry Mason (1957) television series. He was 13 years Raymond's junior. He had a small role in the sci-fi film The Monster That Challenged the World (1957), billed as Bob Benevedes.
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He was incredibly generous, giving most of his money to charities and sharing it with friends.
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He taught drama at Columbia University.
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He attended Stanford, Columbia and Chungking Universities.
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He was the director of the Pasadena Community Playhouse before entering the United States Navy in World War II.
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He, Michael J. Fox and Jim Carrey head a list of top Canadians in United States television compiled by Banff Television Festival in June 2002.
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The Columbia Theatre on Columbia Street in New Westminster, British Columbia, was renamed in his honor in 2000.
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Left his $32-million estate solely to long-term partner Robert Benevides.
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Bought his own 3,000-acre island 165 miles northeast of Suva in Fiji in 1965 and named it Naitamba, where he raised cattle and copra.
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Interred at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminister, British Columbia, Canada.
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Before dying from cancer he threw parties to say farewell to many of his friends.
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Was a lounge singer in his younger days.
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Suffered eye strain from always having to look upwards while in a wheelchair on the Ironside (1967) set.
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On October 1, 1993, a memorial service was held at the Pasadena Playhouse. It was the very same theater in which Burr had made his acting debut 50 years before. A director's chair with his name on it, placed at center stage, played host to friends who paid tribute.
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While working with Errol Flynn, Flynn told him that if he died with ten dollars in his pocket he hadn't done a good job. This inspired him to always share his wealth with all.
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Loved to cook and throw intimate dinner parties.
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Had an art gallery on Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive in the early 1950s.