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Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr By Michael Seth Starr ( Applause Theatre and Cinema Books )
Release Date: 2008-04-15
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List Price: $24.95
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Product Description
The complete story of the actor's career, including his secret gay life. Raymond Burr (1917-1993) was an enigma. A film noir star regularly known for his villainous roles in movies like Rear Window, he delighted millions of viewers each week with the top-rated shows Perry Mason and Ironside, which ran virtually uninterrupted for 20 years. But Burr was leading a secret gay life at a time in Hollywood when such a lifestyle was akin to career suicide. He invented a tragic biography for himself in which he was mythologized as a heartbroken husband and father. There was even an invented affair with a teenage Natalie Wood, 21 years his junior. He fought for truth as Perry Mason and Robert T. Ironside, yet he couldn't admit his own deception. Burr met his partner, struggling actor Robert Benevides, on the set of Perry Mason, and they remained together for over 35 years until Burr's death. Together, they built a business empire, traveled the world, and shared their passion for orchids and fine wine - keeping the true nature of their relationship a secret from all but their closest friends - a secret revealed here for the first time in depth.
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 Disappointing Biography!
I was really looking forward to reading this biography about Raymond Burr as I knew little about his private life. Like many others, I admired him as an actor in both films and T.V.
Mr. Drake apparently discovered that there few facts about Mr. Burr's private life available since he used many pages to give us three basics facts. First, Mr. Burr was gay and allowed disguising profiles to be made up about him by the studios. Second, he was overweight for most of his life. Last, his typical response to inquiries was "I don't talk about that."
This book is a waste of your money for sure! Perhaps you will find it mildly interesting if you check it out from the library. It certainly can be read quickly!
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 An engrossing read ( vin3a2 )
Michael Seth Starr has given us an engrossing read about a complex and endearing television icon. Raymond Burr's sexuality may have been "hiding in plain sight" but his generous, caring, and charming self was in the open for all to see. It is easy to forgive his fabricated story of a wife and son when you read about the number of foster children Burr cared for. Or his fictionalized military service when you discover his numerous trips to entertain the troops on the frontliines. These stories were an unforunate necessity in 1950's Hollywood. As a person with a disability working in television I truly appreciated Raymond Burr taking up the cause of disability rights during his Ironside series. This is a true sign of a caring, generous television professional. I learned a great deal from Michael Seth Starr's latest biography.For me Raymond Burr is no longer hiding in plain sight.
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 A bad read
One of the all time worst book I have ever read. Nothing about him as a person. I did not get to know Raymond Burr. All it was about was his work, movies and t.v.
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Why Does Starr Hate Burr? ( jasonburn )
Michael Seth Starr's bio of Raymond Burr offers nothing new. Starr recounts well-known and better-told episodes from Burr's life with an almost snarling tone. Starr mercilessly criticizes Burr's weight, his perfectionism, his closeted life, and his oft-repeated stories used to cover his homosexuality. Not only are Starr's parenthetical asides and editorializing in bad taste, they ensure that his mediocre account will turn off any reader with the slightest fondness for his subject.
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He's Still Hiding
This is a workman-like account of Burr's life and career. Unfortunately, author Michael Starr relies almost exclusively on second-hand sources for his text-- newspapers, magazines, and other print material. There are few first-hand sources which could relate all-important private aspects of the celebrity's life and career. Thus what emerges is largely a portrait of the public man-- the beloved figure of television melodrama-- instead of the carefully guarded private one.
There is, however, one highly significant exception to this public account. Starr makes no bones about Burr's secret life as a gay man during the homophobic decades in which he became a revered public figure. Nor does Starr soft-peddle the many cover stories Burr concocted to hide his sexual orientation. This is the book's main virtue and should lay to rest the many stories and confusions about this controversial phase of the actor's personal life.
However, as a result of Starr's reliance on secondary sources, we can only guess at Burr's private emotions during the key Perry Mason period. For better or worse, his character came to stand for the American criminal justice system to much of the public. Yet the man himself could have been arrested in many parts of the country as a "deviate". The anxiety must have been difficult at times. Too bad author Starr could not give us an inside glimpse of a period when great success also meant great apprehension. Perhaps, by Ironside's more tolerant era, Burr could have "outed" himself without too great of a career risk. But likely the cover story of dead wives and child had become too embedded to undercut. Anyway, these fictitious stories continued to define the private man in the public's eye right up to the end.
Also, the book doesn't provide much of a handle on the actor's behind-the-scenes personality. We do get glimpses, but mainly we have to read between the lines to get anything like a life-size portrait. Perhaps, his friends and co-workers were unavailable for the kind of interview that would provide revealing anecdotes. Whatever the reason, there's a noticeable absence of detail. Starr's style is easy and readable, but he's also not above padding the text with synopses of key films in the actor's career. Just what the significance of these to the man himself escapes me. I wish the author had discussed his sources more forthrightly in a Foreward, which could have shed some light on important aspects of the narrative that follows. The absence of an informative Foreward, standard to this kind of biographical work, amounts to another significant defect. Thus, aside from tackling the most controversial aspect of the revered actor's life, the book stands as a considerable disappointment.
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