Raymond William Stacey Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain. He won two Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons between 1957 and 1966. His second hit series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy nominations, and two Golden Globe nominations. He is also known for his role as Steve Martin in both Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and Godzilla 1985.
In addition to acting, Burr owned an orchid business and had begun to grow a vineyard. He was a collector of wines and art, and was very fond of cooking.
After his death from cancer in 1993, Burr's personal life came into question as details of his known biography appeared to be unverifiable. Gradually, it was revealed that Burr had possibly contrived a life story that hid his homosexuality.
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Barbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in 30 made-for-TV movies.
Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, and his wife, Wilma Colvin. She is of Scots-Irish ancestry. Hale graduated from high school in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to become an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago when she started modeling to pay for her education. She moved to Hollywood in 1943, and made her first screen appearances playing small parts (often uncredited).
Hale was under contract to RKO Radio Pictures through the late 1940s. She appeared in Higher and Higher (1943) with Frank Sinatra; played leading lady to Robert Mitchum in West of the Pecos (1945); enjoyed top billing in both Lady Luck (1946) opposite Robert Young and The Window (1949) with Arthur Kennedy; and co-starred in Jolson Sings Again (1949), with Larry Parks playing Al Jolson and Hale as Jolson's wife, Ellen Clark. She played the top-billed title role in Lorna Doone (1951) and portrayed Julia Hancock in The Far Horizons (1955) with Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston.
Her flourishing movie career more or less ended when Hale accepted her best known role, Della Street, secretary to attorney Perry Mason, in the TV series with Raymond Burr. The show ran from 1957 to 1966, and she reprised the role in several television movies. Her last performance to date was in 2000 at age 78. In 1967 she guest starred on the ABC series Custer. Hale also had a featured role in the 1970 ensemble film Airport, playing the wife of a jetliner pilot (Dean Martin).
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William Theodore Katt (born February 16, 1951) is an American film and television actor, best known as the star of The Greatest American Hero. He is also known for playing Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie White in the film version of Carrie and Paul Drake Jr. in the Perry Mason TV movies. His mother is Barabra Hale who played Della Street in the TV series Perry Mason .
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Jason Bernard (May 17, 1938 – October 16, 1996) was an American film and television actor.
Bernard was born in Chicago, Illinois. His first starring role was in the pilot episode of the television series The White Shadow as Jim Willis. His other well-known television roles are in the 1980s television series Cagney & Lacey as Inspector Marquette from 1982–1983, Days of Our Lives as Preston Wade in 1982, and a recurring role in the first season of Night Court as Judge Stone's arrogant rival Judge Willard. His big role came in the 1983 hit NBC miniseries V as Caleb Taylor. Bernard reprised his role in the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle. His other big television role was in the 1990s Fox comedy series Herman's Head as Herman's boss, Mr. Paul Bracken. He appeared in the video games Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom as Captain William Eisen.
Bernard's first role in a feature film was a cameo in the Charles Bronson film Death Wish, and his first major role was in the 1974 movie Thomasine & Bushrod. He later appeared in Car Wash, WarGames, No Way Out, While You Were Sleeping, and Blue Thunder.
Bernard made many guest appearances on a variety of television shows, ranging from Starsky & Hutch, Flamingo Road and The Jeffersons to The Flash, Murder, She Wrote, Wiseguy and Partners. He also appeared, as the chief security guard, in The Dukes of Hazzard episode "The Dukes in Hollywood".
He played the blind musician Tyrone Wattell in the film All of Me. Bernard's final appearance was in the 1997 film Liar Liar as Judge Marshall Stevens.
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Anthony Geary (born May 29, 1947) is an American actor. He has starred on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital as Luke Spencer from 1978 to 1984 and from 1993 to present.
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Bill Macy (born Wolf Martin Garber) was an American actor best known for portraying the long-suffering husband of the title character on the 1970s television situation comedy Maude.
The son of a Dallas wholesale coal dealer, Noble spent much of his youth attending pool halls and movie houses. He retained his expertise with a pool cue throughout his life, while his stronger interest in acting (fueled by movies) manifested itself in local stage productions and drama studies at Southern Methodist University. Following Navy service in World War II, Noble went to New York to study at the Actors Studio, then went on to a stage revival of Pygmalion wherein he met his future wife, actress Carolyn Coates. The actor appeared on such TV soap operas as As the World Turns (1956), A World Apart (1970) and such Broadway productions as "1776" (a role he took to the movie 1776 (1972)), spending much of his spare time in psychotherapy to handle his ongoing feelings of self-doubt. In films from the mid '70s, Noble principally played small roles as authority figures and politicians (Being There (1979), The Nude Bomb (1980)), with occasional larger roles. such as Bo Derek's father in 10 (1979). In 1979, Noble was cast as the genially absent-minded "Governor Gene Gatling" on the sitcom, Benson (1979), a role in which he remained until the series' 1986 cancellation. Two years later, he resurfaced on TV in the role of a Nebraska-based recording engineer on the very short-lived sitcom, First Impressions (1988).
John Rhys-Davies (born 5 May 1944) is a Welsh actor and vocal artist. He is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic Arab excavator Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which he also voiced the ent, Treebeard. He also played Agent Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of the 1950s television series The Untouchables, Professor Maximillian Arturo in Sliders, King Richard I in Robin of Sherwood, General Leonid Pushkin in the James Bond film The Living Daylights, and Macro in I, Claudius. Additionally, he provided the voices of Cassim in Disney's Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Man Ray in SpongeBob SquarePants, and Tobias in the computer game Freelancer. He is also the narrator for the TV show Wildboyz.
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Ann Jillian (born January 29, 1950) is an American actress, who started acting at age 10. Her career reached its zenith in the 1980s, with her best-known role being that of waitress Cassie Cranston on the sitcom It's a Living.
David Ogden Stiers (October 31, 1942 – March 3, 2018) was an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his role in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy. He was also known for his character Attorney Michael Reston in the Perry Mason TV Movies.
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Richard Portnow (born January 26, 1947) is a prolific American character actor who played Howard Stern's father, Ben in the movie Private Parts. He has appeared on The Sopranos and many other films, video games, and television shows such as Hannah Montana and Boston Legal.