WhatFinger


Raymond Burr: Orchid Grower and Vintner



When in 2008 actor Raymond Burr was featured in a Canada postage stamp "Canadians in Hollywood" it came as a surprise to many of his countrymen. 'Perry Mason' and 'Ironsides,' yes, but a Canadian? There was many another surprise behind the portly façade of the well-known legal eagle. Not the least was that, with his long-time partner Robert Benevides, he was a highly successful orchid grower and vineyard owner. Raymond William Stacy Burr was born 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia--and returned there after his death to be buried with his parents in Fraser Cemetery. Between those two incidents he led a full and eventful life for 76 years.
Touring across Canada on stage from 1934 he landed, almost inevitably in Hollywood where, from 1946 through 1957 he appeared in more than 50 feature films, as often as a villain. (Remember him as the suspected murderer Lars Thorwald in the Alfred Hitchcock 1954 thriller Rear Window?) Success came as the iconic L.A. district attorney Perry Mason series 1957-66 followed by the acclaimed Ironside (1967-75), a police officer confined to a wheelchair. Burr, often challenged by weight, had to go on a crash diet to drop 50-pounds off his 300-pound frame to be cast as Perry Mason. It was worth it. An assured and growing income permitted him to expand his orchid growing hobby into a highly successful business along with partner Robert Benevides, a fellow actor he met on the set of Perry Mason in 1960. Sea God Orchids rose to operate nurseries in Fiji, Hawaii, Azores and California. In 1965, Burr purchased a private, three-square-mile island, Naitauba, in the Lau Group of Fiji from Elizabeth Hennings. He expanded the existing coconut palms for copra, introduced cattle, erected new buildings and brought the 120 islanders up-to-date medical services, electricity and education. There were also orchids, thousands of them. Getting to the island was not easy. A long, tiring flight from California, then a local plane ride to a nearby island followeed by a small boat ride through rip tides and reefs. As a stop-over, Burr purchased a 2¬Ω-hectacre estate outside Nadi on the main island. This became the 'Garden of the Sleeping Giant' in the late 1970s. His vacation house is on the grounds, where orchids are still everywhere to be enjoyed by visitors.

Support Canada Free Press


Burr and Benevides are estimated to have hybridized over 1,500 orchids through Sea God Nurseries in Fiji, Hawaii, California and Azores

Burr and Benevides are estimated to have hybridized over 1,500 orchids through Sea God Nurseries in Fiji, Hawaii, California and Azores. The latter was the only failure. Burr noted than Pan Am flights were returning from the Atlantic islands empty and determined to fly orchids from nurseries he established and trained staff to fill them. Unfortunately, as he ruefully admitted, Pan Am went out of business before the operation could get fully under way. Failing health forced Burr to sell his Fiji island in 1983. It is name an ashram and discourages visitors. He consolidated Sea King Orchids with a winery established back in mainland California. There in Dry Creek Valley of the famed Sonoma County north of San Francisco may be found to this day the Raymond Burr Vineyards (raymondburrvineyards.com). Starting with a 1986 planting of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Portuguese grapes, the first vintage was bottled in 1992, allowing Burr a sample before he died of kidney cancer the following year. Amongst those many orchids he added to the world registry, was a hybrid named for Barbara Hale, the actress who played Perry Mason's loyal secretary Della Street. The master orchid grower himself is remembered in another creation, Ascodena 'Raymond Burr.'


View Comments

Wes Porter -- Bio and Archives

Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.


Sponsored