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| Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Seth Starr
Publisher: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $11.95
You Save: $13.00 (52%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 134480
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 268
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 1557836949
Dewey Decimal Number: 790
EAN: 9781557836946
ASIN: 1557836949
Publication Date: April 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Disappointing.... April 30, 2008
44 out of 47 found this review helpful
I received the book yesterday and read it comfortably in two hours. The book really has nothing new or insightful about the life of one of my favorite all time actors, Raymond Burr. In a nutshell, he was only married once to Isabella Ward for a very short period of time, and the other two wives and son he claimed to have were bogus, designed to be able to tell the public and columnists, "I don't talk about that," when they pressed for info which might reveal his homosexuality. One tryst is mentioned which is nothing more than a supposed one night stand with another man, a bartender/female impersonator Raymond met...nothing shocking or particularly interesting. The bottom line is Raymond Burr was a loving, kind, generous and giving man. I would love to read a book/memoir by Barbara Hale, a true friend, or Robert Benevides, Raymond's significant other for his entire lifetime, who shared his home and life including the beautiful vineyard in California; that would be worth buying and reading...not this book. Such a disappointment and waste of time. Save your money.
No Secret to Me May 11, 2008
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Starr, Michael Seth. "Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr", Applause, 2008.
No Secret to Me
Amos Lassen
Michael Seth Starr has written the "complete" story of actor Raymond Burr's career which includes his "secret" gay life. However I am not so sure his gay life was such a secret. Burr was a frequent visitor to New Orleans when I was out and about and we all knew him and saw him in the gay bars so it was no surprise to me. In other places he may have covered his steps but in New Orleans he was just another face. With that said let's have a look at the book.
Burr was a film noir star as well as a television personality. His two shows, "Perry Mason" and "Ironside" were hits and received high ratings and we saw Burr on our small screens for a twenty year stretch. At the time he was popular being gay was a career ender so he had to keep his secret life out of the headlines or he would have committed career suicide. Burr manages to have a convenient life story ready which covered his lifestyle by claiming to be a "heartbroken husband and father" and there were rumors of an affair with Natalie Wood who was two decades younger than him. Here was a man who, on our TV screens, fought for truth but was not honest about who he really was. He lived with another man, an actor by the name of Robert Benevides and they shared their lives for thirty-five years, attempting to keep their secret away from everyone but their inner circle of friends.
The book is a quick and easy read but for me had really nothing new to say. Burr's sexual escapades are barely dealt with and there is mention of one affair that really was not explicit. Starr does, however, do a fine job of reporting Burr's life in an easy, readable style but the title on the book leads the reader to believe that he is going to get some really hot and juicy information which is not there. It is fun to read about how Burr tried to his sexuality but that is only part of the story. Burr does come across as a kind, loving and generous man but I had the feeling of "so what"? Does anyone really care?
 Out, Out! June 8, 2008
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
This is the second star bio of a fat dead celeb I've read in a week: what with the new Chris Farley book maybe there's a new market for "husky guys." Raymond Burr gave a lot to the troops, including taking part in dozens of USO tours overseas. Starr claims that he was as patriotic in this respect as Bob Hope! Funny how neither Burr nor Hope was born in the USA and yet they did far more than some of their native-born counterparts. However the sinister side is that Burr's familiarity with the armed services enabled him to claim two Purple Hearts despite the fact that he never served a day in his life (except for a stint in the CCC, an altogether different affair.) In short, he was a liar as well as a commanding screen and television actor.
Mostly he lied about his sexuality, and butched it up while the cameras were rolling. He constructed an incredible string of lies of women with whom he was involved (and married) and even had a dead son who never existed, for the benefit of the fan magazines. In fact his lies were so obvious that even during his lifetime, skeptics were decrying his fictitious dead wives. He did have one actual wife, an actress he met at the Pasadena Playhouse, while his affair with Natalie Wood was perhaps his one real interest in a girl, but I suppose he could wing it with Natalie, who was after all a teenager at the time, and he far too old for their studios to allow it to continue. So maybe it was safe for him because he knew the studio Montagues and Capulets would tear them apart
Michael Seth Starr writes serviceably, though he sometimes gets tangled up in his own extended metaphors and when that happens, sense srops out of the picture. "If Robert Mitchum, Dick Powell, and Humphrey Bogart were the undisputed kings of noir, then Raymond, Mazurski, et al, were their dark princes." Even a stylist like George Santayana would have found it difficult to correlate the two cliches of "undisputed king" and "dark prince" into the same sentence, though you'd think on the face of it both expressions are dealing with the same sort of thing--yet they're not. And sometimes he identifies his players in awkward or naive ways: the actress Eleanor Parker was a classmate of Mrs. Raymond Burr, but it seems like a discredit to Parker to introduce her by saying that she "would later be featured on the big screen in The Sound of Music." Yes, and about a zillion other pictures of which she was the top billed star!
He haas done a lot of research and interviewed many who knew Burr well, and his back story on Erle Stanley Gardner and the Perry Mason phenomenon brings to light some new material. Over one hundred actors were tested, Starr tells us, including Fred MacMurray, William Holden, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., William Hopper, Richard Egan, Mike Connors, and Richard Carlson. I don't know about the others, but I find it hard to believe that William Holden--at the time the most popular box office star in the world--would have auditioned for Perry Mason (and none of the biographies mention this fact), and if he had, what producers would have passed on him? It would be like if Brad Pitt came in to audition for my courtroom drama and I said, "Oh sorry, Brad Pitt, you're unworthy and we are hiring the King of Queens guy."
 Out of Proportion... June 23, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Raymond Burr was one of the most distinguished actors in television history. Although his early career was dominated by film work, he became identified with the small screen after playing the title character in Perry Mason. His work did much to bring credibility to a medium which was often seen as inferior to the silver screen.
Raymond Burr's homosexuality was an open secret in Hollywood when he died in 1993, and common knowledge shortly thereafter. There was no "scandal" when this information was revealed, mainly because Burr had led an honorable life which was marked by his generosity to those in need. That he was closeted while in a 35 year relationship with actor Robert Benevides is more a reflection on the era and the Hollywood mentality than on Burr himself. The author, Michael Seth Starr, does not seem interested in reflecting on those subjects, rather than the lengths to which Burr went to conceal his private life.
Starr seems obsessed with Burr's weight, arguably more than Burr or his fans ever were. Hardly a page goes by without mention of Burr's "corpulent girth" or "morbid" obesity. Not all gay men, closeted or otherwise, are body fascists, yet Starr's personal attitudes on the subject seem to pervade the book.
At times, the book is bogged down in irrelevant detail. Starr gives a blow-by-blow account of the plot of Rear Window and several other films. While it expands a slim book, it's not necessary. Really, what film fan, not to mention Burr fan, does not know the plot of Rear Window?
Since his death, Burr's many fans have wanted a definitive telling of his story. Hiding in Plain Sight isn't it.
 fascinating life May 6, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I knew very little about "Perry Mason" but love that era of TV. Also "Rear Window" is my favorite Hitchcock film and Burr is so menacing in that. The author is very thorough in covering the story of this Canadian born (did not know that) and his career route through stage acting, into films and then into his famous TV roles. His efforts to hide his sexuality is amusing, especially considering the times, but is only a part of this famed actor's saga. Recommended for fans of TV and film who want a glimpse of behind the scenes life in Hollywood in the 40's. 50's and 60's.
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