Was raymond burr gay
Screening: Hiding in Plain Sight: The Case of Lgbtq+ Life
Screening
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Case of Male lover Life
Wednesday, May 8 at pm
Michelson Theater, Broadway, 6th Floor
Perry Mason (–, CBS-TV) is known for its formulaic plots—attorney Mason (Raymond Burr) defends an innocent client and forces the real murderer to confess in a courtroom finale. With its elegant noir filming, outdoor locations, and deep background characterizations, the series arguably also featured a prescient lgbtq+ subtext. Burr was a gay man who led a covert life, but on the show, Mason is consistently paired with his investigator, Paul Drake (William Hopper), in consonant, sometimes domestic contexts—especially notable in the episode we’ll screen: The Case of the Borrowed Baby (). 50 min. With commentary by Drake Stutesman, Adjunct Professor of Cinema Studies (TSOA) and Costume Studies (Steinhardt), NYU.
Co-sponsored by NYU’s Department of Cinema Studies and Grey Art Gallery.
Free of charge, no reservations, capacity limited, and subject to change. Photo ID required for entrance to NYU buil
Actor Raymond Burr was a regular TV presence for almost 20 years, first as crusading lawyer Perry Mason and then as wheelchair-bound detective Robert Ironside.
He was a familiar name for millions of fans, but in the era before blogs and tabloid magazines nobody knew very much about his private life.
"There had always been rumors about him," Michael Seth Starr, creator of the new Burr biography, "Hiding In Plain Sight" told The ShowBuzz. "He was in television from to almost non-stop. You knew his characters, but you didn't really know anything about him personally. He was an icon and also a terrific actor."
According to the book, Burr was same-sex attracted, but kept his orientation a secret by maintaining an elaborate back story that included a defunct wife and child.
"He always was a very private man anyway, and he would never, ever, ever discuss his personal life," said Starr. "He would always just speak 'we don't talk about that' or he might go into one of the stories about the 'dead ex-wives.' It must have been quite a burden carrying that around and thinking that if your 'secret' gets ou
Raymond Burr was in excruciating pain as he filmed the final “Perry Mason” episodes in Almost no one on the set knew he was dying of cancer. Biographer Michael Seth Starr is not surprised. According to Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Existence of Raymond Burr (published by Applause), secrecy was second nature to the actor. He became one of the world’s most familiar TV stars during the original sprint of “Perry Mason” () and went on to another popular if less remembered series, “Ironside” (). And there he was, instantly recognizable and in the public eye, a gay bloke who kept his sexuality concealed.
Any admission of homosexuality would have poisoned his career at any time before the s. Times changed but Burr kept his own counsel through the finish. He was actually once married, briefly, and went on to invent no less than two dead wives and even a gone son to occupy out the blank spaces in his life story. Along with false reports of his service during World War II, he repeated these additions to his autobiography so long and so often that they found their way into his obituaries. In the s h
Excerpt: Hiding in Plain Sight
May 26, &#; -- Raymond Burr, who played Perry Mason in the wildly popular television show "Perry Mason" and later in "Ironside," lived a secret gay animation in Hollywood when such a revelation would destroy a career.
Burr invented a biography for himself that included a wife and son who'd died, and used his busy schedule as a way to explain why he wasn't married. But Burr and his partner, Robert Benevides, had a relationship for 35 years that was secret to most of the world except for a handful of close friends.
Michael Starr, a writer for the New York Post, chronicles Burr's life in a new Burr biography, "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr." Read an excerpt from the book below.
Chapter Six: Howdy, Partner: A Little R&R
The number of magazine features and newspaper interviews focusing on Raymond's personal life grew as Perry Mason became more and more popular. The public was interested in this veteran actor who, save for what was portrayed in the media as his brief da