Raymond Burr (May 21, 1917 – September 12, 1993)

We all love our heroes, even willing to forgive their foibles, whatever they were. The portrayer of Perry Mason was no different, especially those of us who watched him when we were children in the 1950’s.

Raymond Burr was gay (and sometimes even dapper, as evidenced by the photo of him in his later years). But he hid the fact, for fear of being ‘outed’ and then shunned by Hollywood. Only when his will was read did the public learn that he had a ‘partner’ to whom alone he left his very valuable estate.

The timing of this chart is randomized, just to see what would appear without being tied to a correct time. Neptune conjunct the Midheaven could be the clue of his acting ability (and career), but it also implies that he was hiding the truth. The two inconjuncts may give us further clues to his personal ‘struggles’.

Sun Inconjunct Ascendant (perhaps)

Your relationships with other people can be very intense. While you are young, they may be quite difficult, because you feel that others will accept you only if you deny yourself in some way. Or you may constantly feel you should put off doing what you want in order to do what you have to do. Usually your ideas about what you have to do come from the people around you. Also, contacts with other people will frequently force you to make serious, major psychological changes. Difficulties in your relationships with friends and family are signs of profound internal changes.

You may find that no matter how hard you try to show others who you really are, they misunderstand you somehow. This is because the angular relationship between your rising sign and Sun sign indicates that your internal energies are quite different from the energies that you show to the world. You are not intentionally dishonest with the world, you simply present a confusing complex of energies.

Saturn Inconjunct Uranus (definitely)

This aspect indicates a serious tension in your life between freedom and restriction. Many people have this conflict, but in your case the tensions may be so severe that you express them physically as muscle tension and possibly nervousness. You feel that somehow you must keep everything in your life under tight control, that if you let go, the whole structure will fall apart. In a very real and direct sense, even while you are young, you must learn to relax.

Your parents should understand that sometimes you have to let go and act in an undisciplined manner. Otherwise you will go through periods of great turmoil when you become extremely nervous and tense, so that you have to suddenly release all of the built-up emotional tension. This can be quite a difficult experience. And if this pattern of sudden disruptive emotional release continues into adulthood, it could be very disruptive in your career as well as in your personal life.

He was not the first actor to express a hidden side that the public would probably have condemned. Rock Hudson and Richard Chamberlain are a couple of ‘heartthrobs’ who turned out to be batting for the other side. But we didn’t stop loving them. They were our heroes, after all is said and done.

Amen.