Barbara Hale, a movie actress who found her most famous role on television as steadfast secretary Della Street in the long-running \u00ab\u00a0Perry Mason\u00a0\u00bb series, has died. She was 94.
Hale was surrounded by family when she died Thursday at her Los Angeles area home, said Jaqueline Stander, an agent for Hale’s son, actor William Katt (\u00ab\u00a0The Greatest American Hero,\u00a0\u00bb \u00ab\u00a0Carrie\u00a0\u00bb).
\u00ab\u00a0She was gracious and kind and silly and always fun to be with,\u00a0\u00bb Katt posted on his Facebook page Thursday, calling Hale a wonderful actress and a \u00ab\u00a0treasure as a friend and mother. \u00a0\u00bb
Stander declined to provide the cause of death.
Hale appeared in \u00ab\u00a0Perry Mason\u00a0\u00bb on CBS from 1957 to 1966, winning an Emmy as best actress in 1959. When the show was revived in 1985 on NBC as an occasional TV movie, she again appeared in court at the side of the ever-victorious lawyer played by Raymond Burr.
She continued her role after Burr died in 1993 and was replaced by Hal Holbrook for the movies that continued into 1995.
\u00ab\u00a0I guess I was just meant to be a secretary who doesn’t take shorthand,\u00a0\u00bb she once quipped. \u00ab\u00a0I’m a lousy typist, too \u2014 33 words a minute. \u00a0\u00bb
Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, daughter of a landscape gardener and a homemaker. The family moved to Rockford when she was 4, and she later took part in a local theater. But her goals were to be a nurse or journalist.
When her ambition turned to art she studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where she was often sought as a model. Her work for a modeling agency prompted an offer for a routine contract at the RKO studio in Hollywood.
When she reported to the casting director, he was speaking on the phone to someone who needed an immediate replacement for an actress who was sick.
\u00ab\u00a0It hit every paper the next day: the Cinderella story,\u00a0\u00bb she recalled in a 1993 Chicago Tribune interview. \u00ab\u00a0Of course they said it was a starring role. I had one line, but you know about those things. \u00a0\u00bb
The movie was a quickie, \u00ab\u00a0Gildersleeve’s Bad Day,\u00a0\u00bb but she went on to appear with Pat O’Brien in \u00ab\u00a0The Iron Major,\u00a0\u00bb Frank Sinatra in \u00ab\u00a0Higher and Higher\u00a0\u00bb and Robert Young in \u00ab\u00a0Lady Luck. \u00a0\u00bb
Another co-star was a blond actor named Bill Williams (real name: William Katt), with whom she appeared in \u00ab\u00a0West of the Pecos\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0A Likely Story. \u00a0\u00bb They had met over coffee in the studio commissary and married in Rockford in 1946. The couple had three children: Nita, William and Jody.
Williams, who died in 1992, later gained TV fame as star of \u00ab\u00a0The Adventures of Kit Carson. \u00a0\u00bb Their son goes by his father’s original name, William Katt.
After her RKO contract ended, Hale worked at other studios, usually as the adoring wife of the leading man. She played opposite Larry Parks in \u00ab\u00a0Jolson Sings Again,\u00a0\u00bb James Stewart in \u00ab\u00a0Jackpot\u00a0\u00bb and James Cagney in \u00ab\u00a0A Lion Is in the Streets. \u00a0\u00bb
In 1957, she joined the memorable cast of \u00ab\u00a0Perry Mason\u00a0\u00bb that included Burr as the defense attorney who solved his cases in the courtroom, William Hopper as investigator Paul Drake, William Talman as never-winning prosecutor Hamilton Burger and Ray Collins as police lieutenant Arthur Tragg.
\u00ab\u00a0When we started, it was the beginning of women not working at home,\u00a0\u00bb Hale said in the 1993 interview. \u00ab\u00a0I liked that she was not married. My husband, Bill, didn’t have to see me married to another man, and our children didn’t have to see me mothering other children. \u00a0\u00bb
In the early 1970s, Hale took on another widely recognized role, touting Amana Radarange microwave ovens in TV commercials and print ads.
Burr and Hale were the only original cast members when the show resumed on NBC in 1985 in the movie format. Her son, William Katt, appeared in nine of the two-hour shows, as the investigator son of Paul Drake.
Hale’s later films included the original \u00ab\u00a0Airport,\u00a0\u00bb playing the wife of Dean Martin’s pilot character; \u00ab\u00a0The Giant Spider Invasion,\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Big Wednesday,\u00a0\u00bb in which she appeared with her son.
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This story has been corrected to say that Barbara Hale played the wife of Dean Martin’s pilot character in the film \u00ab\u00a0Airport. \u00ab\u00a0<\/p>\n

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