Hiding In Plain Sight by Michael Seth Starr

Hiding In Plain Sight details the life of actor Raymond Burr, famous for his TV portrayal of Defense Attorney Perry Mason. His private life as a gay man rounds out this accomplished biography.

After a stint on Broadway for clout, he acted at the Pasadena Playhouse and debuted with RKO Pictures. The Hollywood publicity machine had him chasing women around the world—a fictional biography that followed him his whole life. With his large size and baritone voice he was usually cast as the heavy, bringing complexity to roles in Noir films. 'Confirmed bachelors' of the time, like Randolph Scott and Cary Grant, were accepted (they lived together, but no one mentioning they were a couple), but publicity made Burr a football star with colorful war heroics and a fictional wife (who died tragically in a plane crash), with whom he had a phantom child (who died of leukemia). He never corrected this biography, even embellishing it, needing any woman, even a dead one, to offset his homosexuality.

Burr became a household name and one of TV's highest-paid actors with Perry Mason, a fighter for truth and justice, which began as a radio series. TV's first one-hour crime drama, this Emmy award-winning show ran eight seasons, with Barbara Hale as Della Street at his side. When it premiered in 1959, publicity added another fictional wife, whom he 'married' just before she lost her battle with cancer. Popular in the industry, it was an open secret he was gay. His business partner Robert Benevides was his lifetime companion, with Hedda Hopper swearing his secret was safe. After Perry Mason ended, he had another hit series with Ironside, which ran for nine seasons.

This was a fascinating and well-researched biography. Fans of his work will find information about many of his early films, some synopses of the hits, with a majority detailing the Perry Mason series. A quality biography befitting the man.

Michael Seth Starr is a television reporter for the New York Post and a celebrity biographer.

2008 / Tradeback / 266 pages