PMCastFilms
Perry Mason Cast in Films
Many of the actors in the series were very busy and have appeared in numerous films and television series. Here, we will indulge in some discussion of films. See the Movie People list on the Famous People page for some films that Perry Mason actors appeared in. See the TV Trivia Lists page for some of their television appearances.
Film With The Most
The first mention of this topic came as an aside in an item about music: "The music in the Hitchcock film, North By Northwest, is very similar to that in some seasons of Perry Mason. In at least one episode, #105, TCOT Loquacious Liar, you can find an exact match. The film's original music composer, Bernard Herrmann, also did work for Perry Mason. Another connection to the show is in the cast. As listed at the IMDb, you will find no less than 43 Perry Mason players in the film. Some kind of record I think. Submitted by Adam Kamil, 11/26/04."
This was followed up with: "Another contender for most Perry Mason players in a film is I Want to Live! Somebody please count them and let me know. The current record is 43 in North By Northwest (see below). Thanks to Charles Richmond for spotting this. Posted 3/24/10.
Charles' question was answered with: "By my count, North By Northwest has 46 Perry Mason actors out of a total of 85 actors listed for the film (54%). I Want to Live! has 39 Perry Mason actors out of a total of 60 (65%). So North By Northwest has a higher bulk number, but I Want To Live has a higher percentage." Submitted by Alan Jones, 10/5/10.
Alan provided the following supporting information: "Counting method: I went to the IMDb page for each film, and then to the "Full Cast and Crew" page for that film. On that page, I linked to each actor in turn, and used my browser's in-page search to look for "Perry Mason" on that actor's page of credits. Actors who show credits for any Perry Mason episodes in the original series were included in the listing for that film. So this is all dependent on the accuracy of the IMDb listings, and on my own accuracy in performing this rather error-prone manual process. In case you're interested, I've included the lists of Perry Mason actors that I found in each of these films a little lower down. I've also done the same sort of PM actor counts for To Kill a Mockingbird (15 of 42 = 36%) and White Heat (16 of 62 = 26%), both of which have much lower numbers and percentages of crossover, but there were enough to stir my interest. I'm planning to work my way through the Hitchcock films, but I already know that out of the 53 Hitchcock films, North By Northwest has the highest number of PM cast. Psycho, by the way, has 12 of 35 (34%)."
| North By Northwest (46 of 85 = 54%) Stanley Adams Malcolm Atterbury | I Want To Live (39 of 60 = 65%) Raymond Bailey Leonard Bell Olive Blakeney Peter Breck Ralph Brooks Gage Clarke Joe De Santis Gertrude Flynn Lew Gallo Paul Genge Dabbs Greer Brett Halsey Wendell Holmes Jason Johnson Kenner G. Kemp Lou Krugman Rusty Lane Wesley Lau S. John Launer Jon Lormer Herbert Lytton Gavin MacLeod James Maloney John Marley Marion Marshall William Mims Simon Oakland James Philbrook Joe Ploski Stafford Repp Bartlett Robinson Herman Rudin Evelyn Scott Dan Sheridan Hal Taggart Russell Thorson Virginia Vincent Jack Weston Than Wyenn |
So, the question that remains, are there any other contenders for Film With The Most?