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
Charles Chauncey Burr famous writer of the era, George Lippard, held on a rock at sunset above the Wissahickon. Charles Chauncey Burr Charles Chauncey Burr (1817–1883) was an American journalist, author, and publisher. A native of Maine, he became an intimate friend of Edgar Allan Poe and his family, and published a number of magazines and newspapers. Burr had a variegated career (he had been the publicity agent for Lola Montez, the former mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria, and is credited with having written her autobiography. At some point he acquired the title "Reverend," though scholars do not know how; Jay Hubbell,