Raymond Burr and everybody thought I was out of my mind," Burr told Tom Shales of "The Washington Post". "But it wasn't the large sum of money. It was the fact that, first of all, I kind of liked 'Godzilla,' and where do you get the opportunity to play yourself 30 years later? So I said yes to both of them." He agreed to do the Mason movie if Barbara Hale returned to reprise her role as Della Street. Hale agreed, and when "Perry Mason Returns" aired in December 1985, her character became the defendant. The rest of the principal cast had
Raymond Burr fictional or not, they most admired. Burr was interred with his parents at Fraser Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia. On October 1, 1993, about 600 family members and friends paid tribute to Burr at a private memorial service at the Pasadena Playhouse. Although Burr had not revealed his homosexuality during his lifetime, it was an open secret and was reported in the press upon his death. The "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" wrote that "People" magazine was preparing a story on Burr's "secret life" and asked, "Are the inevitable rumors true?" It received sensational treatment in the tabloid press; biographer Michael Starr wrote