Moving to America in the late 1930’s Burr began his acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse and soon landed his first Broadway role in ‘Crazy with the Heart’. After the success on Broadway Burr’s career really took off and between 1946 and 1957 he acted in over sixty movies.

It was the roles of Perry Mason in 1956 television courtroom drama series that made Burr a household name and saw him performing with the then B-actor, William Hopper. This role won Burr two Emmy awards and the move from CBS to Universal where his role of, wheel bound detective, Robert T Ironside was offered to him. 

During his time in Hollywood Burr was rumoured to have been romantically involved with Natalie Wood but with the consequent revelation that the actor was in fact gay, has been brought into debate. It was also rumoured that Burr had been twice married but this also has been denied. In a 2005 book by author Robert Hofler it is suggested that Burr and Rock Hudson hosted gay parties at a home in Palm Springs, California.

With the wealth and success of his career Burr was bale to bring huge donations to charities and frequently sponsored foster children from the Christian Children’s Fund. Among his other charitable donations were generous amounts given to the McGeorge School of Law in California and The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in Florida. 

During the filming of his last two movies in 1993, Burr was diagnosed with kidney cancer but refused to undergo treatment as he felt it would interfere with his shooting schedule. By the time he had completed the projects and sought treatment the disease had spread to many organs throughout his body and he lost his fight with cancer in September 1993.

ABB