Barbara Hale and Raymond Burr in Perry Mason
One of my favorites, Barbara Hale, was born on this day in 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois. While she is best-known (and loved) as Della Street from Perry Mason, Barbara Hale also made a great number of films, many of which were Westerns (which means I’m certainly familiar with her filmography!).
The most recent role I enjoyed her in was in A Lion is in the Streets (1953, directed by Raoul Walsh). The movie co-starred James Cagney, Jeanne Cagney, Anne Francis, Lon Chaney Jr, John McIntire, and Warner Anderson and was pretty good. However, make no mistake about it… Barbara Hale was (as was the case with quite a few of her movies) better than the film she was in.
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I don’t recommend watching this film (or any of the others). In fact, the opposite is true. I’d LOVE for more people to see this remarkable actress in her film roles. She’ll blow you away. You won’t believe the number of times she steals scenes right out from under movie legends.
Truth is, she kind of made a habit of it!
The photos in this post are of her and the wonderful Raymond Burr in the roles they made famous: Perry Mason and Della Street. The extraordinary television series ran for 9 seasons, from 1957–1966. There were also many “Made for TV” Perry Mason movies which were all out of this world.
Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale
You can find Perry Mason on Prime Video (the series and movies) and, if you’re also a collector, the dvds are also available on Amazon (Amazon link).
You can also find the Complete Perry Mason Movie Collection (Amazon link) – the next purchase I, personally, plan to make!
Barbara Hale and Raymond Burr