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Burr became interested in acting after Naval service in World War II (he was wounded at the Battle of Okinawa). Burr broke into films in 1946 and made 90 in the next decade. He co-starred in the classics A Place in the Sun and Rear Window. Burr usually played menacing villians on the screen although in 1956 he played the hero reporter Steve Martin in the Japanese "monster" hit Godzilla, a role he reprised in the American version of The Return of Godzilla, known as Godzilla 1985.

Burr became a television star in 1957 with the debut of Perry Mason where he played Erle Stanley Gardner's crafty defense attorney who always defended the innocent. The show was very popular and lasted nine years. In 1967, Burr started another long running television series IronsideIronside may refer to: Oliver Cromwell the English political leader who was nicknamed Old Ironsides . Ironside a cavalry trooper in the army formed by Cromwell. The USS Constitution which was nicknamed Old Ironsides Ironside the American television progra (known as A Man Called Ironside in the UK) in which he played a wheelchair-bound police detective. This show lasted until 1975. Burr had a couple of other shortlived series but was unable to repeat his earlier hits. He co-starred in such TV films as Love's Savage Fury (1979), Eischied : Only The Pretty Girls Die (1979), Disaster On The Coastliner (1979), The Curse Of King Tut's Tomb (1980), The Night The City Screamed (1980), and Peter And Paul (1981). Burr also had a supporting role in Dennis HopperDennis Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an American actor and film-maker. Born in Dodge City, Kansas, Hopper was voted most likely to succeed by his high school class and it was there he developed an interest in acting. He was especially fond of the plays of's controversial film Out of the BlueOut of the Blue is a 1980 movie featuring and directed by Dennis Hopper. (1980) and spoofed his Perry Mason image in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). In 1985, Burr made a comeback as Perry Mason and made a series of 26 two-hour movies that were enormous ratings blockbusters.

In contrast to the "bad guys" and hard unbending heroes he often played, Raymond Burr was in real life a generous man who gave enormous sums of money to charity. He once sponsored 20 foster children. He would insist that TV executives and directors treat his co-stars with the same respect shown him.

Burr died on September 12, 1993 in Sonoma, CaliforniaSonoma is a town located in Sonoma County, California, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 9,128. Geography Sonoma is located at 38°17'20" North, 122°27'32" West (38. 288771, -122. According to the United States Census Bureau, t and was interred in the Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Raymond Burr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6656 Hollywood Blvd.

Since the theatre began producing plays, it has been the custom always to have a picture of Raymond Burr included somewhere on each set, and the first toast on the opening night of every production is always dedicated to his memory.