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,
Raymond Burr doctorate. He supported medical and education institutions in Denver, and in 1993, the University of Colorado awarded him an honorary doctorate for his acting work. Burr also founded and financed the American Fijian Foundation that funded academic research, including efforts to develop a dictionary of the language. Burr made repeated trips on behalf of the United Service Organizations (USO). He toured both Korea and Vietnam during wartime and once spent six months touring Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He sometimes organized his own troupe and toured bases both in the U.S. and overseas, often small installations that the USO did