Raymond Burr Burr went on a crash diet. When he returned, he tested as Perry Mason and won the role. While Burr's test was running, Gardner reportedly stood up, pointed at the screen and said, "That's Perry Mason." William Hopper also auditioned as Mason, but was cast instead as private detective Paul Drake. Also starring were Barbara Hale as Della Street, Mason's secretary; William Talman as Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who loses nearly every case to Mason; and Ray Collins as homicide detective Lieutenant Arthur Tragg. The series ran from 1957-66. Burr received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations and won the
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