Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American
criminal defense lawyer
A criminal defense lawyer is a lawyer (mostly barristers) specializing in the defense of individuals and companies charged with criminal activity. Some criminal defense lawyers are privately retained, while others are employed by the various ...
who is the main character in works of
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...
written by
Erle Stanley Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. He is best known for the Perry Mason series of crime fiction, detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of ...
. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a client being charged with murder, usually involving a
preliminary hearing
Within some criminal justice, criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, preliminary inquiry, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecuto ...
or
jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions.
...
. Typically, Mason establishes his client's innocence by finding the real murderer. The character was inspired by famed Los Angeles criminal defense attorney
Earl Rogers
Earl Rogers (November 18, 1869 – February 22, 1922) was an American trial lawyer and professor, who later became the inspiration for Perry Mason.
Life
Earl Rogers was born in Perry, New York on November 18, 1869, the son of Methodist ministe ...
.
The character of Perry Mason was adapted for motion pictures and a long-running
radio series
A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.
Radio networ ...
.
These were followed by the best known adaptation, the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television series ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
'' (1957–1966) starring
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
. A second television series, ''
The New Perry Mason
''The New Perry Mason'' is a CBS TV series that ran from 1973 to 1974. It was a revival of the 1957 ''Perry Mason'' television series about Erle Stanley Gardner's brilliant defense attorney.
Plot
All of the major characters of the original serie ...
'' starring
Monte Markham
Monte Markham (born June 21, 1935) is an American actor. He has appeared in films, television series and on Broadway.
Early life
Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content (née Willbur) and Jesse Edward Markham Sr., ...
, ran from 1973 to 1974; and 30
Perry Mason television films ran from 1985 to 1995, with Burr reprising the role of Mason in 26 of them prior to his death in 1993. A third television series,
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
's ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
'' starring
Matthew Rhys
Matthew Rhys Evans ( ; born 8 November 1974) is a Welsh actor.
He is known for playing Kevin Walker in '' Brothers & Sisters'' (2006–2011) and Philip Jennings in ''The Americans'' (2013–2018), for which he received two Golden Globe Awar ...
, started airing in 2020.
The Perry Mason series ranks third in the top ten
best selling book series. In 2015, the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
's publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, began reissuing Gardner's Perry Mason books, which had been out of print in the United States.
Character
As a child, Gardner read the magazine ''
Youth's Companion
''The Youth's Companion'' (1827–1929), known in later years as simply ''The Companion—For All the Family'', was an American children's magazine that existed for over one hundred years until it finally merged with ''The American Boy'' in 1929. ...
'', published by the Perry Mason Company - a name Gardner later borrowed for his fictional attorney. Gardner provided more information about Mason's character in earlier novels while knowledge of his character is largely taken for granted in the later works, the television series and movies. In the first novel (''The Case of the Velvet Claws'', 1933), Mason describes himself in the following way:
Gardner depicts Mason as a lawyer who fights hard for his clients and who enjoys unusual, difficult or nearly hopeless cases. He frequently accepts clients on a whim based on his curiosity about their problem, for a minimal retainer, and finances the investigation of their cases himself if necessary. In ''The Case of the Caretaker's Cat'' (1935), his principal antagonist, District Attorney
Hamilton Burger
Hamilton Burger is the fictional Los Angeles County District Attorney (D.A.) in the long-running series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring Perry Mason, the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Ch ...
, says:
"You're a better detective than you are a lawyer. When you turn your mind to the solution of a crime, you ferret out the truth."
In ''The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink'' (1952), a judge who has just witnessed one of the lawyer's unusual tactics says:
"Mr. Mason...from time to time you seem to find yourself in predicaments from which you extricate yourself by unusual methods which invariably turn out to be legally sound. The Court feels you are fully capable of looking after your own as well as your clients' interests."
Another frequent antagonist, Lieutenant Arthur Tragg of the homicide squad, has a discussion with Mason about his approach to the law. Mason is recovering from having been poisoned, and Tragg is investigating. In ''The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito'' (1943) he says:
Other than what is learned of his character from the novels themselves, very little is known about Perry Mason. His family, personal life, background, and education are not depicted, although according to the first chapter of ''The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece'' (1935), his astrological sign was Leo. Mason has a professional relationship with
Paul Drake.
Della Street
Della Street is the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, short stories, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
In 1950, Gardner publ ...
is Mason's only evident (though not sharply delineated) romantic interest. It is known that he lives in an apartment because he is occasionally awakened from sleep to go to his office; he does not entertain anyone at home. His tastes in food are known because many scenes take place in restaurants, and that he is an excellent driver as shown by his participation in the occasional car chase. Other than those sketchy facts, there is so little physical description of him that the reader is not even sure what he looks like.
The 1930s films were not closely based on the character of Perry Mason as revealed in the books, and contain plot and character developments which are not accepted as canonical in the remainder of the books and adaptations. For instance, in one film, Mason marries his longtime secretary Della Street, while Paul Drake turns into comic sidekick Spudsy Drake.
Likewise the TV series diverges at times significantly from the books, which was a practical necessity considering that there were only about 80 Perry Mason novels written altogether and over 270 episodes of the TV series. Thus there was a need for a great deal of invented material, background, plots, and characters – none of which material Gardner incorporated into his ongoing series of Perry Mason novels. In fact, Gardner would write over 30 more Perry Mason novels from between 1957 when the TV series began up until his death in 1970.
The television series contains some hints of what Mason did in the past. In ''The Case of the Misguided Missile'', he says that he served in the Navy on
Ulithi
Ulithi ( yap, Wulthiy, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap.
Overview
Ulithi consists of 40 islets totaling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest i ...
atoll during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In ''The Case of the Travelling Treasure'', he says that he served aboard a minesweeper.
The HBO series presents him as being a private detective, becoming a lawyer by necessity in order to salvage the case he's working on. In this series, he lives on what remains of a dairy farm which has been in his family for at least two prior generations. He is also a veteran of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, having been discharged with a "
blue ticket" (i.e. with negative connotations), probably because he mercy-killed some comrades who were about to die from a poison gas attack which they were too severely wounded to escape. Episode 1 shows Mason with a tattoo of the
Cross of Lorraine
The Cross of Lorraine (french: Croix de Lorraine, link=no), known as the Cross of Anjou in the 16th century, is a heraldic two-barred cross, consisting of a vertical line crossed by two shorter horizontal bars. In most renditions, the horizont ...
with the number 79 and the inscription "infantry", indicating he was an infantryman in the
79th Division whose emblem of the cross signifies its service in France during the war. Mason is also an alcoholic, divorced father who is struggling to maintain ownership of his deceased parents' farm.
Novels
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons (originally Gustave Julian Symons) (pronounced ''SIMM-ons''; 30 May 1912 – 19 November 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was bor ...
noted that Erle Stanley Gardner "had spent more than twenty years practicing law in California, and the knowledge he gained was put to good use in the Perry Mason stories, which hinge on points of law, forensic medicine or science as clever as a watch mechanism … and also the total lack of characterization".
[ With revisions in Penguin Books 1974.]
While the Mason novels were largely a form of
pulp fiction
''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...
of the sort that began Gardner's writing career, they are unusual in that the
whodunit
A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the cl ...
mysteries usually involved two solutions: a very plausible but inaccurate one in which the authorities believed (wherein Mason's client was guilty) and an entirely alternative (and true) explanation, wherein Mason's client was innocent and another party had committed the crime. Almost always, the second half of each novel is devoted to a courtroom scene, during which Mason arrives at the alternative explanation and proves it to the satisfaction of the court. "It is perfectly true that our author works to formula; in one sense, the plot never varies," wrote
Jacques Barzun
Jacques Martin Barzun (; November 30, 1907 – October 25, 2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and ...
. "Having said this, one must add that the variety of persons and circumstances and the ingenuity in contriving the details that Gardner dreamed up in his dozens of cases are astonishing and entrancing."
A hallmark of the stories is that as soon as Perry Mason (with the assistance of his secretary Della Street and private investigator Paul Drake) accepts a case, he will juggle the evidence using unusual (even bizarre) tactics to mislead the police – but (except for the very earliest novels) always in an ethical fashion:
The influence of the television series has given the general public the impression that Mason is highly ethical. In the earliest novels, however, Mason was not above skulduggery to win a case. In ''The Case of the Counterfeit Eye'' (1935) he breaks the law several times, including manufacturing false evidence (glass eyes). Mason manipulates evidence and witnesses, resulting in the acquittal of the murderer in ''The Case of the Howling Dog'' (1934). ''The Case of the Curious Bride'' (1934) is
In the later novels, the only crime which he can be seen to commit might be illegal entry, when he and Paul Drake are searching for evidence. And even then, he would expect to put up a strong and effective defense leading to an acquittal. Hamilton Burger is constantly under the impression that Mason has done something illegal, but is never able to prove it. Gardner prefaced many of his later novels with tributes to coroners and forensic pathologists whose work was instrumental to solving cases. Gardner inserts his ideas about the importance of proper autopsies into many of his Mason novels. In ''The Case of the Fugitive Nurse,'' for instance, close scrutiny of dental records in the identification of burned bodies is a key point. In that same story, the possible use of additives to track illegal resale of medical narcotics is examined.
Critic
Russel B. Nye saw a pattern in Gardner's novels, calling them as formal as
Japanese Noh drama. He described fairly rigid plot points:
* Attorney Perry Mason's case is introduced.
* Mason and his crew investigate.
* Mason's client is accused of a crime.
* Further investigations ensue.
* The trial begins.
* In a courtroom coup, Mason introduces new evidence and often elicits a confession from the lawbreaker.
The Perry Mason series ranks third in the top ten
best selling book series, with sales of 300 million.
In June 2015, the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
announced that its new publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, would reissue Gardner's Perry Mason novels. ''The Case of the Velvet Claws'', ''The Case of the Sulky Girl'', ''The Case of the Lucky Legs'', ''The Case of the Howling Dog'' and ''The Case of the Curious Bride'' were the first five novels announced for trade paperback release. The Perry Mason books had been out of print in the United States.
Adaptations
Film
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
released a series of six Perry Mason films in the 1930s.
* ''
The Case of the Howling Dog
''The Case of the Howling Dog'' is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Alan Crosland, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Erle Stanley Gardner. The film stars Warren William and Mary Astor. This was the first in a series of four film ...
'' (1934), with
Warren William
Warren William (born Warren William Krech; December 2, 1894 – September 24, 1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, immensely popular during the early 1930s; he was later nicknamed the "King of Pre-Code". He was the first actor to play Perry ...
as Perry Mason and Helen Trenholme as Della Street.
* ''
The Case of the Curious Bride
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (1935), with Warren William and
Claire Dodd
Claire Dodd (born Dorothy Arlene Dodd; December 29, 1911 – November 23, 1973) was an American film actress.
Life and work
Dorothy Arlene Dodd was born on December 29, 1911, in Baxter, Iowa, to Walter Willard Dodd, a farmer whose family ...
as Della Street. Notable for the first-released American screen appearance of
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...
as the corpse, who is seen alive but not speaking in a brief flashback.
* ''
The Case of the Lucky Legs
''The Case of the Lucky Legs'' is a 1935 mystery film, the third in a series of Perry Mason films starring Warren William as the famed lawyer.
Plot
Margie Clune wins the "Lucky Legs" beauty contest concocted by Frank Patton, but has trouble col ...
'' (1935), with Warren William and
Genevieve Tobin as Della Street.
* ''
The Case of the Velvet Claws
''The Case of the Velvet Claws'' is a 1936 mystery film, based on the first Perry Mason novel (1933) by Erle Stanley Gardner and featuring the fourth and final appearance of Warren William as defense attorney Mason.
Plot summary
Mason finally ...
'' (1936), with Warren William and Claire Dodd as Della Street Mason.
* ''
The Case of the Black Cat
''The Case of the Black Cat'' is a 1936 American mystery film directed by William C. McGann and an uncredited Alan Crosland, based on the 1935 Perry Mason novel '' The Case of the Caretaker's Cat'' by Erle Stanley Gardner. The film stars Ricardo ...
'' (1936) (from ''The Case of the Caretaker's Cat''
935
Year 935 ( CMXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Spring – Arnulf I ("the Bad") of Bavaria invades Italy, crossing through the Upper ...
, with
Ricardo Cortez
Ricardo Cortez (born Jacob Kranze or Jacob Krantz; September 19, 1900 – April 28, 1977) was an American actor and film director. He was also credited as Jack Crane early in his acting career.
Early years
Ricardo Cortez was born Jacob K ...
as Perry Mason and
June Travis
June Travis (born June Dorothea Grabiner; August 7, 1914 – April 14, 2008) was an American film actress.
Background
Born June Dorothea Grabiner, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner, vice-president of the Chicago White Sox in the 1930s.
...
as Della Street.
* ''
The Case of the Stuttering Bishop
''The Case of the Stuttering Bishop'' is a 1937 drama film directed by William Clemens. It stars Donald Woods as Perry Mason and Ann Dvorak as Della Street, his secretary. Edward McWade plays the role of stuttering Bishop William Mallory. It i ...
'' (1937), with
Donald Woods
Donald James Woods (15 December 1933 – 19 August 2001) was a South African journalist and Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the ''Daily Dispatch'', he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Bik ...
as Perry Mason and
Ann Dvorak
Ann Dvorak (born Anna McKim; August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979) was an American stage and film actress.
Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told ''The Literary Digest'' in 1936: "My fake name is properly pronounced ''vor'shack ...
as Della Street.
The six Perry Mason films are available on DVD as a single-set release from the Warner Bros. Archive Collection.
The 1940 Warner Bros. film, ''
Granny Get Your Gun
''Granny Get Your Gun'' is a 1940 American comedy western film directed by George Amy and written by Kenneth Gamet. The film stars May Robson, Harry Davenport, Margot Stevenson, Hardie Albright, Clem Bevans and Clay Clement. It is based primaril ...
'', was loosely based on the 1937 Perry Mason novel ''The Case of the Dangerous Dowager''.
May Robson
Mary Jeanette Robison (19 April 1858 – 20 October 1942), known professionally as May Robson, was an Australian-born American-based actress whose career spanned 58 years, starting in 1883 when she was 25. A major stage actress of the late 19t ...
stars as Minerva Hatton. The film does not include Perry Mason or any of the regular characters.
Radio
Perry Mason was adapted for radio as a 15-minute daily crime series that aired from 1943 to 1955 on
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
. It had little in common with the usual portrayal of Mason, so much so that Gardner withdrew his support for a TV version of the daytime serial that began airing on CBS in 1956. The general theme of the radio series was continued, with a different title and characters, as ''
The Edge of Night
''The Edge of Night'' is an American television mystery crime drama series and soap opera, created by Irving Vendig and produced by Procter & Gamble Productions.
It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that networ ...
''.
Television
''Perry Mason'' (1957–1966)
The best-known incarnation of Perry Mason came in the form of a
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
TV series simply titled ''Perry Mason'' which ran from 1957 to 1966, with
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
in the title role. The series also featured
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series ''Perry Mason (1957 TV series), Perry Mason'' (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award f ...
as Della Street,
William Hopper
William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor ro ...
as Paul Drake,
William Talman as Hamilton Burger and
Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg. The entire series has been released on DVD and reruns are a staple in syndication.
Paramount+
Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to:
Entertainment and music companies
* Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...
has made available most of the episodes from seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 on its website for streaming.
''The New Perry Mason'' (1973–1974)
Several years after ''Perry Mason'' was cancelled, a new series, ''
The New Perry Mason
''The New Perry Mason'' is a CBS TV series that ran from 1973 to 1974. It was a revival of the 1957 ''Perry Mason'' television series about Erle Stanley Gardner's brilliant defense attorney.
Plot
All of the major characters of the original serie ...
'', aired in 1973 featuring
Monte Markham
Monte Markham (born June 21, 1935) is an American actor. He has appeared in films, television series and on Broadway.
Early life
Markham was born in Manatee County, Florida, the son of Millie Content (née Willbur) and Jesse Edward Markham Sr., ...
in the title role. A total of 15 episodes aired before being cancelled halfway through its first season.
Television films (1985–1995)
American television producers
Dean Hargrove
Dean Hargrove (born July 27, 1938 in Iola, Kansas) is an American television producer, writer, and director. His background includes graduating the St. John's Military School, Wichita State University, and attending the UCLA Film School as a gradu ...
and
Fred Silverman
Fred Silverman (September 13, 1937 – January 30, 2020) was an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at all of the Big Three television networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as '' ...
resurrected the Perry Mason character in a series of
television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...
s for
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
beginning in 1985. The two surviving stars of the CBS-TV series,
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
and
Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series ''Perry Mason (1957 TV series), Perry Mason'' (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award f ...
, reprised their roles as Mason and Della Street. In the first telefilm, ''Perry Mason Returns'', Mason is an
appellate court
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
judge who resigns his position to successfully defend his secretary Della on murder charges.
William Katt
William Theodore Katt (born February 16, 1951) is an American actor and musician best known as the star of the television series ''The Greatest American Hero''. He first became known for playing Tommy Ross, the ill-fated prom date of Carrie W ...
, Hale's son, was cast as Paul Drake, Jr.
William Hopper
William DeWolf Hopper Jr. (January 26, 1915 – March 6, 1970) was an American stage, film, and television actor. The only child of actor DeWolf Hopper and actress and Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper, he appeared in predominantly minor ro ...
, who played private investigator Paul Drake in the original TV series, had died years earlier; Hopper's photograph appears on Paul Drake Jr.'s desk. In the later TV movies, Mason used the services of attorney Ken Malansky, played by
William R. Moses
William Remington Moses (born November 17, 1959) is an American actor.
Early life
Moses was born in Los Angeles, the son of actress Marian McCargo (1932–2004) and advertising executive Richard Cantrell Moses Sr., who married in 1951 and divor ...
.
The Perry Mason series of TV movies continued until Burr's death from kidney cancer in 1993. ''The Case of the Killer Kiss'' was Burr's final portrayal of Mason. The film aired after his death, and was dedicated to Burr's memory. Thereafter, the title of the series was changed to ''A Perry Mason Mystery'' and starred either
Paul Sorvino
Paul Anthony Sorvino (, ; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor. He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law.
Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese cri ...
or
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called ''Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...
as lawyers and friends of Mason. Hale and Moses continued in their roles; Mason was ostensibly out of town.
''Perry Mason'' (2020)
In August 2016,
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
announced a potential new series. In August 2017 a change in the writing staff for the project was announced, with
Rolin Jones
Rolin B. Jones (born September 22, 1972) is an American playwright and television writer. His plays include ''The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow'', for which he was a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and ''Sovereignty.'' His work in television in ...
and
Ron Fitzgerald taking over for
Nic Pizzolatto
Nicholas Austin Pizzolatto (born October 18, 1975) is an American writer, producer and director. He is best known for creating the HBO crime drama series ''True Detective''.
Early life
Pizzolatto was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is of Ita ...
. In January 2019,
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...
announced on his Twitter page that
Matthew Rhys
Matthew Rhys Evans ( ; born 8 November 1974) is a Welsh actor.
He is known for playing Kevin Walker in '' Brothers & Sisters'' (2006–2011) and Philip Jennings in ''The Americans'' (2013–2018), for which he received two Golden Globe Awar ...
would be portraying Perry Mason in the new production; Downey was originally going to portray Mason, but was forced to bow out due to scheduling conflicts. The HBO revival and reboot adapted its setting to
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
-era Los Angeles, some twenty years earlier than the CBS show (but in line with the earliest novels by Gardner). It features
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow ( ; born , 1945) is an American actor. Lithgow studied at Harvard University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before becoming known for his work on the stage and screen. He has been the recipient of numerous ...
and
Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Gabriele Maslany ( ; born September 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series ''Orphan Black'' (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy ...
in additional roles.
This miniseries was created with a budget of around $74.3 million and released its first episode on June 21, 2020. In July 2020, HBO announced that the mini-series had been picked up for a second season, and that the show would become a regular series.
Other adaptations
The Perry Mason character has appeared in
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s and a short-lived (October 16, 1950– June 21, 1952)
comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...
. He was also the inspiration for ''The Whole Truth'' (1986) by
James Cummins, a book-length collection of
sestina
A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse, fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The wor ...
s.
In 2008, ''The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air'' began producing a series of full-cast audio theater dramatizations of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, adapted by M. J. Elliott.
Regular characters
Recurring characters in the Perry Mason stories include the following:
* Perry Mason: Los Angeles attorney introduced in the 1933 novel, ''The Case of the Velvet Claws''.
*
Della Street
Della Street is the fictional secretary of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, short stories, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
In 1950, Gardner publ ...
: Mason's confidential secretary introduced in the 1933 novel, ''The Case of the Velvet Claws''.
*
Paul Drake: Private investigator introduced in the 1933 novel, ''The Case of the Velvet Claws''.
*
Hamilton Burger
Hamilton Burger is the fictional Los Angeles County District Attorney (D.A.) in the long-running series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring Perry Mason, the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner.
Ch ...
: District attorney introduced in the 1935 novel, ''The Case of the Counterfeit Eye''.
* Lt. Arthur Tragg: Police homicide investigator introduced in the 1940 novel, ''The Case of the Silent Partner''.
* Gertie Lade: Mason's switchboard operator, an "incurable romantic" introduced in the 1939 novel, ''The Case of the Rolling Bones'',
and occasionally appearing in the CBS-TV series.
* Sergeant Holcomb: Homicide detective often featured in the novels but in only two episodes of the CBS-TV series.
* Carl Jackson: Junior attorney in Mason's law firm, appearing in the novels and a few episodes of the CBS-TV series ''Perry Mason''.
* David Gideon: Young legal assistant working with Mason in nine episodes of the CBS-TV series.
* Lt. Andy Anderson: Police homicide investigator in the CBS-TV series.
* Lt. Steve Drumm: Police homicide investigator in the CBS-TV series.
* Terrance Clay: Restaurateur and friend of Mason in the CBS-TV series.
* Paul Drake, Jr.: Paul Drake's son, also a private investigator, in the first nine Perry Mason television films.
* Ken Malansky: Attorney who replaced Paul Drake, Jr., in 21 of the television films.
* Lieutenant Ed Brock: Police commander in several of the television films.
* Michael Reston: District attorney in eight of the television films.
* Amy Hastings: Ken Malansky's girlfriend and assistant to Mason in three of the television films.
* Elinor Harrelson: Judge in seven of the Perry Mason television films.
* Barbara August: District attorney in two of the Perry Mason television films.
Title listings
Influence
In her
confirmation hearings before the
Senate Judiciary Committee
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...
in July 2009,
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
nominee
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...
prefaced her remarks on the role of the prosecutor by saying that she was inspired by watching the ''Perry Mason'' television series as a child:
I was influenced so greatly by a television show in igniting the passion that I had as being a prosecutor, and it was ''Perry Mason'' … In one of the episodes, at the end of the episode … Perry said to the prosecutor, "It must cause you some pain having expended all that effort in your case to have the charges dismissed." And the prosecutor looked up and said, "No. My job as a prosecutor is do justice and justice is served when a guilty man is convicted and when an innocent man is not." And I thought to myself that's quite amazing to be able to serve that role …
The Perry Mason novels inspired
Robert M. Bell, former Chief Judge of the
Maryland Court of Appeals
The Supreme Court of Maryland is the state supreme court, highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. Its name was changed on December 14, 2022, from the Maryland Court of Appeals, after a voter-approved change to the state constitution. The cou ...
, to become a lawyer. "I used to read those growing up", he recalled in 2012. "I got the sense that a lawyer could do good things for folk and was important to our community. That’s what I wanted to do."
Cultural references
Notes
References
External links
Perry Mason at the
Museum of Broadcast Communications
The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is an American museum, the stated mission of which is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain through our archi ...
''Encyclopedia of Television''
Database and cover gallery for the Dell Comic book based on the TV show*
The Perry Mason TV Show Book' by Brian Kelleher and Diana Merrill
Perry Mason (radio)at the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
Perry Mason TV Series Wiki
{{Authority control
Mason, Perry
Mason, Perry
Literary characters introduced in 1933
Mason, Perry
Mason, Perry
1950 comics debuts
1952 comics endings
Comics based on television series
Series of books