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The month of January 2017 is hardly finished yet and Barbara Hale has joined up with Mary Tyler Moore, John Hurt, Mike Connors, and Gordon Kaye as having passed over the other side. A friend of mine said that this is almost like a continuation of 2016. I pointed out that we "baby boomers" will have to get used to the passing of so many figures from our youthful enjoyment of television and the movies - and now it will be television and movie figures mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. Ms Hale, of course, was one of the co-stars supporting Raymond Burr in his first big television role of "Perry Mason", and while that show was playing in the early 1960s, it actually began in the 1950s. Ms Hale is the last survivor of the main cast members from the original show: Burr, William Hopper (Hedda Hopper''s son by old time stage star DeWolf "Casey at the Bat" Hopper, who played "Paul Drake", Perry's detective assistant), William Talman ("Hamilton Burger"), and Ray Collins ("Lt. Tragg" of the regular police).
It is interesting to think of this bunch. Burr had played memorably in many 'film noir", most notably as the murdering husband ("Lars Thorwald") in Hitchcock's "Rear Window", and as the District Attorney determined to avenge Shelley Winters in "A Place in the Sun". Mason was the key to his real stardom, as it led to a second major popular television detective series, "Ironside". Collins was one of Orson Welles' original "Mercury Theatre" group on stage and on radio, and went to Hollywood where he played the angry and vindictive "Boss Jim Gettys" in "Citizen Kane". Later he'd be in many other films (including Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersoms" as "Uncle Jack" Ambersom, and as a beleaguered District Attorney in "Touch of Evil"). Talman would be (like Burr) in many film noir, such as "While the City Sleeps" and his best film role (the title one) "The Hitchhiker" (based on an actual southwestern murder spree and chase). He also did an unusual public service commercial as he was dying of throat cancer. Talman addressed the audience directly in this commercial from 1965 explaining that he while he never minded losing all the cases to "Mason", he was upset was going to end due to the cancer he got from smoking. It was the first time a television celebrity ever discussed a critical health issue as a warning. Later actors William Gargan and Yul Brenner would do the same thing. Hopper was in a number of films in the 1940s and 1950s, and fortunately he could act - his mother's position as one of the leading gossip columnists of the day was always there, but Hopper fooled them by having talent. He is best remembered for playing the unsympathetic father of Natalie Wood in "Rebel Without A Cause". And Ms Hale like Burr and Talman was in many "B features". For all this was high water mark. Later, in the 1980s, Burr revived his Mason role, and Hale returned to be his assistant again, in a series of television movies based on the books (the original series was in hour long episodes). Hopper having died, his role was filed by Hale's real-life son who played Paul Drake's son.
Burr and Hale survived Collins, Talman, and Hopper, and Burr died in the 1990s. Now they are all gone. Again an end to an era.
It is interesting to think of this bunch. Burr had played memorably in many 'film noir", most notably as the murdering husband ("Lars Thorwald") in Hitchcock's "Rear Window", and as the District Attorney determined to avenge Shelley Winters in "A Place in the Sun". Mason was the key to his real stardom, as it led to a second major popular television detective series, "Ironside". Collins was one of Orson Welles' original "Mercury Theatre" group on stage and on radio, and went to Hollywood where he played the angry and vindictive "Boss Jim Gettys" in "Citizen Kane". Later he'd be in many other films (including Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersoms" as "Uncle Jack" Ambersom, and as a beleaguered District Attorney in "Touch of Evil"). Talman would be (like Burr) in many film noir, such as "While the City Sleeps" and his best film role (the title one) "The Hitchhiker" (based on an actual southwestern murder spree and chase). He also did an unusual public service commercial as he was dying of throat cancer. Talman addressed the audience directly in this commercial from 1965 explaining that he while he never minded losing all the cases to "Mason", he was upset was going to end due to the cancer he got from smoking. It was the first time a television celebrity ever discussed a critical health issue as a warning. Later actors William Gargan and Yul Brenner would do the same thing. Hopper was in a number of films in the 1940s and 1950s, and fortunately he could act - his mother's position as one of the leading gossip columnists of the day was always there, but Hopper fooled them by having talent. He is best remembered for playing the unsympathetic father of Natalie Wood in "Rebel Without A Cause". And Ms Hale like Burr and Talman was in many "B features". For all this was high water mark. Later, in the 1980s, Burr revived his Mason role, and Hale returned to be his assistant again, in a series of television movies based on the books (the original series was in hour long episodes). Hopper having died, his role was filed by Hale's real-life son who played Paul Drake's son.
Burr and Hale survived Collins, Talman, and Hopper, and Burr died in the 1990s. Now they are all gone. Again an end to an era.
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