Raymond Burr the debut episode of "Dragnet". He went on to appear in such programs as "Gruen Playhouse", "Four Star Playhouse", "Ford Theatre", "Lux Video Theatre", "Mr. and Mrs. North", "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" and "Playhouse 90". In 1956, Burr auditioned for the role of District Attorney Hamilton Burger in "Perry Mason", a new CBS-TV courtroom drama based on the highly successful novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Impressed with his courtroom performance in the 1951 film "A Place in the Sun", executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson told Burr he was perfect for Perry Mason, but at least overweight. Over the next month,
Henry Burr Sherwood Burr Sherwood was born in 1829 into the Sherwood family of Connecticut's Sherwood Island State Park fame . He was an 8th generation Sherwood and a nephew of the Sherwood ship captain triplets, Francis, Franklin, and Frederick, famous for their roles running clipper ships in the China trade. The Sherwood family originally settled in Fairfield County from Ipswich England in 1634. A descendant, Daniel (b. 1761), built a homestead on Sherwood Island, east of today's Sherwood Mill Pond, and married Catherine Burr. Their son, Daniel (b. 1794), was the father of Henry Burr Sherwood (b. 1829), and built the house