Robert Benevides

Robert Benevides is a gay American actor turned production executive. He met actor Raymond Burr on the set of Perry Mason in 1960, and the two were partners for 33 years, until Burr's death in 1993. Benevides gave up acting in 1963 to work behind the scenes, becoming a production executive on 140 episodes of Ironside between 1969 and 1975 and later a production consultant on the revival Perry Mason TV movies. Together the couple established a vineyard in California's Dry Creek Valley, which Benevides renamed Raymond Burr Vineyards after Burr's death and continued to run in his memory. During Burr's lifetime, their relationship was framed publicly as a close friendship; only after Burr's death did Benevides speak openly about its true nature.