New Westminster, B.C. - Head over to 530 Columbia St. for an evening of entertainment at the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre and you should be able to spot a picture of Burr somewhere on the set. Best known by his TV characters Perry Mason and Ironside, Burr was born in New Westminster on May 21, 1917. His father was a hardware salesman and his mother a concert pianist and music teacher. They separated when he was six and he moved to California with his mother, but he got his first acting job when he returned to Canada to visit his father at the age of 12. He was hired by local theatre company and spent the summer touring the country. After being wounded in the battle of Okinawa in WWII he persued an acting career, which included more than 50 feature films, such as the classic 'A Place in the Sun' and the westernized versions of the Godzilla films. In 1989 he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of British Columbia for his work with local charities. He died of liver cancer on Sept. 12, 1993 and is buried with his family in Fraser Cemetary, in this city on the north bank of the Fraser River, in Greater Vancouver. In New Westminster you can see the world's biggest Tin Solider, and take a short cruise on the Fraser.

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