This was a beloved young man and the prince of the city, and how did that affect people? *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. The two surviving stars of the CBS-TV series, Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, reprised their roles as Mason and Della Street. 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. Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason in a series of novels, was a very prolific author, who simultaneously employed three secretariesall sistersto keep up with his output. Drake is described as tall and slouching, nondescript (as suits his profession), and frequently wearing an expression of droll humor. German-born carpenter Bruno Hauptmann was convicted and executed for the crime, despite flimsy evidence. CBS Television via Wikimedia (Public Domain) It was 3 o'clock in the morning, and Perry Mason, in defense, as usual, of a client wrongly accused of murder, was hot on the trail of the real killer. Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on 21 May 1917 in New Westminster, From the page to the screen, here's a look into the curious case of Perry Mason. Four of the Perry Mason telefilms were made after the death of Burr, with Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook stepping in. In the later TV movies, Mason used the services of attorney Ken Malansky, played by William R. Moses. One such change was how Street ended up married to Mason.[3]. Reruns of the show have long been a reliable presence on American TV stations and cable networks, but it was arguably the most popular, and for the longest period of time, in Portland, Oregon. In the first novel (The Case of the Velvet Claws, 1933), Mason describes himself in the following way: "You'll find that I'm a lawyer who has specialized in trial work, and in a lot of criminal workI'm a specialist on getting people out of trouble. By 2014, however, ratings had finally started to slip. 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 (1957-1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a minute. He turned to me and asked, Honey, can you say a line? I said, I dont know., He said into the phone, Theres a kid in the office right now. Hale received two Emmy nominations (winning in 1959) for playing the quiet beauty who was the rock of stability on Masons team. In this series, he lives on what remains of a dairy farm which has been in his family for at least two prior generations. Begler says the character is based on Anita Loos, an extremely powerful screenwriter at the time who studied under The Birth of a Nation director D. W. Griffith. William Hopper was born on 26 January 1915 in New York City, New York, USA. Burr's early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. It's a firm re-imagining and a redefining of Perry Mason, in a very interesting way.". Her last on-screen appearance was in a 2000 biographical documentary TV series episode about Raymond Burr in Biography. Gardner was disappointed by the initial set of movies. Dressed as Karl Lagerfelds beloved cat, Choupette. . 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 Drowsy Mosquito (1943) he says: "How does it feel to be the victim for once? Raymond Burr returned as Perry Mason, and so did Barbara Hale as secretary Della Street. Up until the late 40s, the area that is now known as Chavez Ravine was home to more than 1,100 families who made up three Mexican American neighborhoods; it was one of the few places in the city where the members of these communities could own homes. He does; just not the way he expected. Begler says shes rooted in Summers, an oil baroness who came out west as a piano teacher and used the small amount of money she had to buy some wells. "I got the sense that a lawyer could do good things for folk and was important to our community. Other examples include Sean Astins grocer Sunny Gryces use of advertising to help squash a protg turned competitor and a radio personality inspired by real-life antisemitic and conservative Catholic radio personality Father Charles Coughlin. He is also a veteran of World War I, having been discharged with a "blue ticket" (i.e. Michael Reston: District attorney in eight of the television films. Once again the 1930s-set legal drama is heavily inspired by real Los Angeles history, including the death of Ned Doheny . . This was Jean Gardner, born Agnes Helene Walter. Amy Hastings: Ken Malansky's girlfriend and assistant to Mason in three of the television films. A total of 26 Perry Mason movies aired between 1985 and 1993. He admitted Thinking Out Loud was actually inspired by Van Morrison, not Marvin Gaye. Hamilton Burger is the fictional Los Angeles County District Attorney (D.A.) He took the call and as he listened, he started looking at me. Garry Owen played the investigator, now known simply as Paul Drake, in 1936's The Case of the Black Cat, and Joseph Crehan took over in 1937's The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. [6], 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. (June 22, 1946 - September 21, 1992) (his death, 3 children), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. William Hopper auditioned for both the Mason and Drake roles. [4] 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. Mason manipulates evidence and witnesses, resulting in the acquittal of the murderer in The Case of the Howling Dog (1934). She was very glamorous and a little avant-garde for the time, Begler says. Submitted by Mitch English, 5/8/2005. In 1972, Loos told Interview magazine that I think women can get a lot further by covering up and going underground than by waving a flag. The 'Real' Perry Mason Didn't Need Law School. The ace lawyer has been a part of the American cultural lexicon for the better part of a century, recently reemerging as a gritty HBO 1930s period piece that stayed faithful to Erle Stanley Garner's Mason novels. Has an orchid named after her (cultivated by, The daughter of Wilma (Colvin) and Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener, she married actor. Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason's creator, wasn't your typical lawyer. Perry Masons sophomore season tells a have and have nots story through the guise of a murder mystery: It revolves around the death of a wealthy and well-known white man and the brothers Mateo Gallardo (Peter Mendoza) and Rafael Gallardo (Fabrizio Guido) Chicano men from a completely different area of Los Angeles who are charged with the crime. Then when production got moving along, Rhys realized his initial aversion to remaking Perry Mason was even more misguided, because he had few concrete, preconceived notions of the show and its main character. The series was developed and written by Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald and stars Matthew Rhys in the title role. He is friend and right-hand man to Mason, a highly successful criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles. After he passed away in 1970, the New York Times called Garner "the best-selling American author of the century," on account of how he'd moved 170 million copies of his Perry Mason books in the U.S. alone. [citation needed], In June 2015, the American Bar Association announced that its new publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, would reissue Gardner's Perry Mason novels. Perry Mason, the fictional lawyer and protagonist of the long-running television series of the same name, was never married in real life. There's the truth: Burr was, in fact, legally married to approximately one woman. Critic Russel B. Nye saw a pattern in Gardner's novels, calling them as formal as Japanese Noh drama. Lt. Andy Anderson: Police homicide investigator in the CBS-TV series. Although commonly talked about as a murder-suicide, Dohney and Plunketts deaths have officially never been solved, and theories range from a lovers quarrel gone wrong to fallout from the Teapot Dome scandal. Theres even pictures of the police coming alongside but the people on the boat shooting hoses at them, Begler says. The 1950s and early '60s weren't too far in the past by the early 1970s, but a nostalgia for the period hit big anyway. Ill send her right over. He told his assistant, Take her to wardrobe, take her to makeup, take her to Stage 6. Barbara August: District attorney in two of the Perry Mason television films. youngster, his father moved his family to China, where the elder Burr In the episode "The Deadly Verdict," the client is found guilty but Mason discovers evidence at the end of . Michael Begler, who along with his writing partner, Jack Amiel, serves as the new showrunner for the series, broke down some of the historical influences for Vulture. 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. Loos is now best remembered for writing the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and the Broadway play Gigi, an adaptation of the Colette novel. Mrs. Gardner said she thought he put several women together to create the character. Played originally by Raymond Burr (above left), the character Perry Mason is a lawyer who first appeared in Erle Stanley Gardner's 1933 novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws. Camillas house and life are meant to reflect a modernist lifestyle. Paramount+ has made available most of the episodes from seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 on its website for streaming.[14]. His appearance and attitude are deceptive, however: he is personally dedicated, and physically tough in a fight. Within a month, Perry Mason had an audience of eight million, leading HBO to reclassify the series as a drama and then renew it for season two. In the first Perry Mason novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, written in the early days of the Great Depression, Della Street is revealed to have come from a wealthy, or at least well-to-do, family that was wiped out by the stock market crash of 1929. After he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, he refused to undergo surgery so that he could star in his final television movies: Before dying from cancer he threw parties to say farewell Gardner described her this way: "Della Street Secretary, twenty-seven, quiet, fast as hell on her feet, had been places. In 1950, Gardner published the short story "The Case of the Suspect Sweethearts" under the pseudonym Della Street. Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917 - September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside . When you turn your mind to the solution of a crime, you ferret out the truth. In The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (1935), his principal antagonist, District Attorney Hamilton Burger, says: "You're a better detective than you are a lawyer. However, the first season included nods to famous real-life Angelenos and incidents like radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and the horrific kidnapping and murder of Marion Parker. Not yet an established, nearly impossible to beat criminal defense attorney, the Mason portrayed by Matthew Rhys is more like the one from Erle Stanley Gardner's 1930s Mason novels. Not saying we should start prepping but we should start prepping. But it seems that no one else is liking the minty-fresh look. But in 2011, plans began in earnest to revive the crackerjack attorney and his cast of characters for a feature film starring one of the biggest movie stars in the world. American. Graduate of Rockford (IL) High School, class of 1940. Intriguingly, as Begler notes, Dohneys extremely powerful and corrupt dad brought in his own security force to take over the investigation which may have had something to do with the cases lack of resolution. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Terms of Service apply. The trial became an awakening for the progressive white community about just what minorities in Los Angeles are facing, Cooper tells Vulture. 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. "You have this image of who Perry Mason is. Barbara Hale as Della Street. That would become a signature move of his literary creation, Perry Mason, when in the 1920s, Gardner adopted a side hustle of writing legal thrillers. For instance, in one film, Mason marries his longtime secretary Della Street, while Paul Drake turns into comic sidekick Spudsy Drake. Join. In 1932, his infant son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped from his bedroom for ransom and later found deceased. That got her tryout at RKO. In talking with Mason, he generally likes to slouch in an armchair with his back over one arm and his legs over the other. Gertrude Warner was the first actress to portray Street regularly, albeit on the radio series, followed by Joan Alexander and Palmolive's "Madge", Jan Miner. The character was inspired by famed Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Earl Rogers.[1]. One of Brookss last conversations with his father happens at an exclusive beachfront club called the Oceano Club, which was inspired by Jonathan Club. 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 or jury trial. If you look me up through some chap in the District Attorney's office, he'll tell you that I'm a dangerous antagonist but he doesn't know very much about me." "He defined the role. When Rhys received the full context of the offer from his agent, that it was an HBO reimagining of Perry Mason, his interest piqued. As a youngster, his father moved his family to China, where the elder Burr worked as a trade agent. Instead, producers hired Monte Markham, a little-known actor best known for some guest spots on TV westerns and the one-season flop The Second Hundred Years, to take over for Burr in the iconic role of Perry Mason. Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, producer Susan Downey, set it up at Warner Bros., with the Iron Man actor also serving as the lead actor and co-writer the script was to be based on a brand new Perry Mason story, set in the dark and seedy Los Angeles of Erle Stanley Gardner's novels, that he wrote with production associate David Gambino. The Perry Mason series of TV movies continued until Burr's death from kidney cancer in 1993. After appearing in such films as The First Yank in Tokyo (1945), The Boy With the Green Hair (1948), The Window (1949) and, with her husband, The Clay Pigeon (1949), Hale delivered perhaps her most notable movie performance in the Columbia sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949), playing a nurse and the singers new wife. Robert Benevides and Raymond Burr started dating in 1960. When the family returned to Canada, Raymond's parents separated. Her photo can be see at the Dr Pepper Museum in Dublin, Texas (not to be confused with the Waco Dr Pepper Museum). After 46 years on KPTV, and two years on sister station KPDX in an 8 a.m. slot, it was case closed for Perry in Portland. In The Case of the Travelling Treasure, he says that he served aboard a minesweeper. If facts can be shuffled in such a way that it will confuse a witness who isn't absolutely certain of his story, and if the attorney doesn't suppress, conceal, or distort any of the actual evidence, I claim the attorney is within his rights. Rounding up our favorite funny videos of the month. Thats what I wanted to do. She later reprised her role of Street in the TV film 'Perry Mason Returns'. 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. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google The Oliver Twist-inspired February 1966 installment "The Case of the Twice-Told Twist" is otherwise a run-of-the-mill Perry Mason episode, except for the fact that it was produced in full color the only episode in the original series run not presented in black-and-white. Perry Mason wasn't a serialized show each episode generally focused on a single case, wrapped up within the self-contained story so even dedicated fans probably wouldn't notice that the rerun package was one episode short for years. When a new station general manager took over in 2009, bosses gave him just one rule: Don't move Perry Mason. The movie was such a resounding success that it led to the production of further 29 films. Perry Mason showed up on TV three or four times a season for a two-hour time slot in these formulaic, Matlock-esque films, in which a crime was investigated and then tried in intense courtroom scenes. In 2015, the American Bar Association's publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, began reissuing Gardner's Perry Mason books, which had been out of print in the United States. The six Perry Mason films are available on DVD as a single-set release from the Warner Bros. Archive Collection. A total of 15 episodes aired before being cancelled halfway through its first season. The two had two sons, namely, Clayton and Emerson, before parting ways in 1992. [6]. The movie was such a resounding success that it led to the production of further 29 films. In 1957, Barbara Hale was cast as Della Street in the legal drama series Perry Mason. 2023 Met Gala Carpet Is Approved by Your Dentist. Occupation. Barbara Hale was born on April 18, 1922, in DeKalb, Illinois, USA to Luther Ezra Hale and Wilma. In 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh became an American hero and prominent celebrity after a solo, nonstop airplane voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The two met five years earlier at the Pasadena. Holcomb in the novels is portrayed as a mean, Carl Jackson: Junior attorney in Mason's law firm, appearing in the novels and a few episodes of the CBS-TV series. From The Perry Mason TV Show Book . CBS was apparently so confident in the project that according to Markham, they bypassed a pilot and ordered it straight to series, asking for 26 episodes. Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, producer Susan Downey, set it up at Warner Bros., with the Iron Man actor also serving as the lead actor and co-writer the script was to be based on a brand new. One of them he eventually married, after his first wifefrom whom he was separated for 30 yearsdied. Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on 21 May 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Burr spent most of his early life traveling. Freevees new series will determine whos the greatest reality-TV contestant across. The second season, which premiered on March 6, is no different. The character of Perry Mason was adapted for motion pictures and a long-running radio series. Thereafter, the title of the series was changed to A Perry Mason Mystery and starred either Paul Sorvino or Hal Holbrook as lawyers and friends of Mason. Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Mason in a series of novels, was a very prolific author, who simultaneously employed three secretariesall sistersto keep up with his output. In the successful series of Perry Mason television films that began in 1985, the Paul Drake character was part of the back story: his son Paul Jr. served as Mason's private investigator in the first nine films. May 26, 2008 -- Raymond Burr, who played Perry Mason in the wildly popular television show "Perry Mason" and later in "Ironside," lived a secret gay life in Hollywood when such a . Such police corruption targeting gambling boats had historical precedents. According to its website, it is ironically, given its exclusive nature named for Brother Jonathan, a caricature predecessor of the iconic Uncle Sam. Theres a downtown and a beachfront location, the latter opened in 1927. The most gripping TV drama of the year is happening behind closed doors. Things you buy through our links may earnVox Mediaa commission. Now I'm amused to read Gardner's new books. In World War II, Burr served in the United States Navy. debut in, - IMDb Mini Biography By: Kelleher, Brian. The Perry Mason character has appeared in comic books and a short-lived (October 16, 1950 June 21, 1952) comic strip. ), Della was to a great degree, a woman who knew what everybody was thinking, Hale said in a 1993 interview with the Chicago Tribune. From 1950 to 1954, the actress starred in five episodes of the dramatic anthology show Family Theater.. "I play him my way. Warner Bros. released a series of six Perry Mason films in the 1930s. brother. Survivors include her son William Katt, best known as the star of the 1980s ABC series The Greatest American Hero. She continued to make uncredited appearances in movies, until her first credited role in the musical Higher and Higher the same year. The couple married in June 1946 and stayed together for 46 years until Williams' death on September 21, 1992. In The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (1935) he breaks the law several times, including manufacturing false evidence (glass eyes). It focuses on the origin story of famed defense lawyer Perry Mason. Barbara is best remembered as Della Street, long-time secretary to attorney Perry Mason on the TV series. This article about a fictional character from a novel is a stub. By 1993, when Burr signed with NBC for another season of Mason films, he was using a wheelchair full-time because of his failing health. Was one of the original 'Dr Pepper" girls featured in the soda company's calendars in the 1940s and 50s. So in some sense, the Perry-Della thing was modeled on his real life. The influence of the television series has given the general public the impression that Mason is highly ethical. District Attorney. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us. "When we got to the end of nine, they asked me for one more year in color, and they shot one show in color and I said 'no,'" star Raymond Burr told the Washington Post. [5] The character portrayed in the radio series was reworked into Sara Lane on the daytime show Edge of Night, which was to be the daytime Perry Mason until Gardner pulled his support for the project. [6]. The original Perry Mason TV series ran from 1957 to 1966, and as a full season of a show back then ran around 30 episodes, a whopping 271 installments were produced. HBO's 'Perry Mason,' starring Matthew Rhys, is back for season two. Actor: Perry Mason. These books give us a record of our times via the moments best comic minds. Begler says the murder is inspired by a real-life killing, the 1929 shooting deaths of 35-year-old Edward Laurence Ned Doheny Jr. and his assistant, 32-year-old Hugh Plunkett. As a young Barbara Hale, a wavy-haired model and Hollywood leading lady of the 1940s and 1950s who warbled with Frank Sinatra in his first big film role and had a long television career as the devoted . William Hopper was born on 26 January 1915 in New York City, New York, USA. to many of his friends. Drake's son was played by William Katt, real-life son of Barbara Hale, who played Della Street both in the TV series and the TV movies. This was followed by her guest roles in the shows Proudly We Hail and Lux Radio Theatre. What If a Whole Stand-up Special Were About Peanut Butter? [11]:760. Begler references a government-sponsored program in the 30s that deported Mexicans and even native-born Americans of Mexican descent so that they wouldnt compete with white workers during the Depression. William Katt, Hale's son, was cast as Paul Drake, Jr. William Hopper, 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. (January 10, 1948 - August 22, 1952) (divorced), New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss (1993), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. children: Jody Katt, Juanita Ka, William Katt, place of death: Los Angeles, California, United States, Notable Alumni: Chicago Academy Of Fine Arts, Cause of Death: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, (Best Known for Her Role as Della Street in the TV Series Perry Mason), Barbara Hale made her first screen appearance in the comedy Gildersleeve's Bad Day (in an uncredited role), which was released in 1943. Actor: Perry Mason. Paul Drake is a fictional private detective in the Perry Mason series of murder mystery novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. [16][17] In January 2019, Robert Downey Jr. announced on his Twitter page that Matthew Rhys 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. April 26, 2023, 9:55 AM PDT. Jonathan (John Lithgow) hires Mason to investigate a case, and it's one that bears more than a passing resemblance to a real-life 1930s event, one so significant and sensationalized it was deemed the "Trial of the Century.". In 1957, the CBS television network launched a Perry Mason series based on Gardner's characters, which ran until 1966. "[2]:178 When Gardner submitted Reasonable Doubt to William Morrow, an editor suggested that "Della Street is a better character than the secretary." "[4]:65. Here was one of the wealthiest families in the city, and the scion of that family gets murdered, Begler says. Hale retired from acting after the last installment, 1995s A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Jealous Jokester. Hale and Moses continued in their roles; Mason was ostensibly out of town. Want to sound like you know the difference between the truth and Hollywood spin? [5]. Actor: Perry Mason. [11]:1463[13], Perry Mason was adapted for radio as a 15-minute daily crime series that aired from 1943 to 1955 on CBS Radio. Source: Passport Magazine If youre attracted to someone on the yacht, the worst thing you can do is tell Gary. He really won me over and I enjoy his character. The entire series has been released on DVD and reruns are a staple in syndication. William Talman is best known for his role as Hamilton Burger, the district attorney who perpetually lost to Perry Mason in the long-running series Perry Mason (1957). 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. parents separated. a good Perry Mason except for one great flaw, which the author would scarcely have been guilty of later on: he tampers with the evidence, by having a friend move into an apartment and testify to the state of the doorbells. The Perry Mason radio program, a 15-minute serial that ran five afternoons a week from 1943 to 1955 on CBS Radio, more closely resembled Gardner's crime-and-action-filled novels, as opposed to the somber, courtroom-dominated 1957-1966 TV series. Doja Cat Becomes an Actual Cat for Met Gala. A second television series, The New Perry Mason starring Monte Markham, 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. In the first telefilm, Perry Mason Returns, Mason is an appellate court judge who resigns his position to successfully defend his secretary Della on murder charges. Typically, Mason establishes his client's innocence by finding the real murderer. Were all a little lost without her, Katt wrote, but we have extraordinary stories and memories to take with us for the rest of our lives., Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. The private social club Jonathan Club has been around since the late-19th century. As a child, Gardner read the magazine Youth's Companion, published by the Perry Mason Company - a name Gardner later borrowed for his fictional attorney. On television, Della Street was played by Barbara Hale in the series, for which she received an Emmy Award, and in the 30 made-for-TV movies. (The real club is still up and running, but this scene was filmed at the Adamson House in Malibu, a national historic site that was a private residence built 1929 for Rhoda Rindge Adamson, the daughter Frederick Hastings Rindge, the last owner of Malibu, and her husband, Merritt). That provided syndicators with a huge volume of content to rerun on local stations hundreds of times over the ensuing 50-odd years. "[citation needed]. In order to preserve those shocking twists that must have thrilled and baffled regular viewers, but to also ensure Perry Mason's winning record, show writers used some courtroom maneuvering to give the lawyer technical victories after the fact. Nevertheless, Rhys was interested because it's "a very dark Perry Mason to which I was instantly attracted," as he told NPR. You can't remake Perry Mason,'" Matthew Rhys recalled to Collider. With no tenth season, there were no more color episodes of Perry Mason. Hale was mulling retirement to raise her three young children with her husband, actor Bill Williams (The Adventures of Kit Carson), when producer Gail Patrick Jackson approached her about playing Della on Perry Mason. "[citation needed], Other than what is learned of his character from the novels themselves, very little is known about Perry Mason. The role of investigator Paul Drake, played by the deceased William Hopper, was reworked as Paul Drake, Jr., and Hale's real-life son, William Katt, took the part. Recurring characters in the Perry Mason stories include the following: In her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2009, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor 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."