I didn't know Raymond Burr was gay.
And I thought I knew everything.
More from the "hidden from history" dept.
>>>>In the mid-1950s, Burr met Robert Benevides (born 1929), a young actor and Korean War veteran, on the set of Perry Mason. According to Benevides, they became a couple about 1960. Benevides gave up acting in 1963[49][50] and later became a production consultant for 21 of the Perry Mason TV movies.[51] Together they owned and operated an orchid business and then a vineyard,[52] in the Dry Creek Valley. They were partners until Burr's death in 1993.[51] Burr left Benevides his entire estate, including "all my jewelry, clothing, books, works of art,...and other items of a personal nature."[53]
Later accounts of Burr's life explain that he hid his homosexuality to protect his career. In 2000, AP reporter Bob Thomas recalled the situation:[49][54]
It was an open secret...that he was gay. He had a companion who was with him all the time. That was a time in Hollywood history when homosexuality was not countenanced. Ray was not a romantic star by any means, but he was a very popular figure...if it was revealed at that time in Hollywood history [that he was gay] it would have been very difficult for him to continue.
Art Marks, a producer of Perry Mason, recalled Burr's talk of wives and children: "I know he was just putting on a show....That was my gut feeling. I think the wives and the loving women, the Natalie Wood thing, were a bit of a cover."[55] In 2006, Dean Hargrove, who worked on Perry Mason Returns, said: "I had always assumed that Raymond was gay, because he had a relationship with Robert Benevides for a very long time. Whether or not he had relationships with women, I had no idea. I did know that I had trouble keeping track of whether he was married or not in these stories. Raymond had the ability to mythologize himself, to some extent, and some of his stories about his past...tended to grow as time went by."[56]
A 2007 memoir by actor Paul Picerni described several experiences with Burr on the set of Mara Maru, when he felt Burr expressed sexual interest in him. He wrote, "I saw him staring at me. With his big blue eyes. And with this strange expression on his face. For the first time in my life, I felt like a DAME. Then it hit me: He'd been giving me all this bullshit about his wife and his two kids in London, when in fact he was gay, and he was makin' a move on me!" He remembered Burr "was a great guy and very subtle in his homosexuality."[57]>>>> wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Burr
Your witness, Mr Mason.
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