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Statistics

Trivia and Factoids About the Credited Casts
Revised 7/10/07. Wikified 3/27/08.

Keeping in mind who prepared this and that the database is no doubt sprinkled with typographical errors, here are some cast factoids:

There are 1,903* actors appearing in the 271 episodes
The average actor appeared in 2.1 episodes
Lee Miller appeared credited 57 times, mostly as Sgt. Brice, and many more times un-credited
The total cast size is 3,937 averaging 14.5 actors per episode
The most common and median cast sizes were 14 actors
The largest cast size is 25 (Episode #249)
The smallest cast size is 8 (Episode #35)

* Actors are counted, not names. Some actors appear credited under different names. See Credits Anomalies for a list.

For more statistics about the series, see the Is There Life After Cancellation section of The Perry Mason TV Show Book.

Actor's Appearance Frequency List

The names have been omitted on the first four frequencies to keep the size of the list under control. Of the named actors, many are as familiar as old friends. Higher frequency actors had more or less recurring roles as Judges, Court Clerks, Doctors, Coroners and Autopsy Surgeons. Multiply-named actors have been combined into to one name for counting. A complete listing listing can be found in the Statistics section at the Database site.

1 time: (1090 actors)
2 times: (381 actors)
3 times: (197 actors)
4 times: (103 actors)
5 times: (61 actors): John Archer, Malcolm Atterbury, Joan Banks (aka Joan Lovejoy), Bruce Bennett, Barney Biro, Sheila Bromley, Walter Burke, Robert Carson, John Conte, Melora Conway, Ben Cooper, Jeanne Cooper, Robert Cornthwaite, Pepper Curtis, June Dayton, Francis De Sales, Sue England, Bill Erwin, Lee Farr, Paul Fix, Arthur Franz, Allison Hayes, Harry Holcombe, Jonathan Hole, Jennifer Howard, John Hoyt, Arch Johnson, Jason Johnson, Patricia Joyce, Robert Karnes, William Keene, Paul Langton, Mary La Roche, Norman Leavitt, Ruta Lee, Rita Lynn, Maurice Manson, Lori March, Vera Marshe, Ralph Moody, George Neise, Philip Ober, Wynn Pearce, Mala Powers, Ed Prentis, Paula Raymond, Robert Rockwell, Hugh Sanders, Simon Scott, Chet Stratton, Phillip Terry, Constance Towers, Harry Townes, June Vincent, Harlan Warde, Rebecca Welles, Maurice Wells, Jesse White, William Woodson, Frederic Worlock and John Zaremba
6 times: (27 actors): Barry Atwater, Parley Baer, Barry Brooks, John Bryant, Richard Erdman, Tommy Farrell, Virginia Field, Lisa Gaye, Seamon Glass, Tom Harkness, Douglas Henderson, Len Hendry, John Holland, Clark Howat, Alexander Lockwood, Hugh Marlowe, Walter Mathews, Gregory Morton, Jeanette Nolan, Denver Pyle, Bartlett Robinson, Max Showalter (aka Casey Adams), Sydney Smith, Olan Soulé, Ted Stanhope, Lurene Tuttle and Geraldine Wall
7 times: (13 actors): Don Dubbins, Neil Hamilton, Robert Bice, Douglas Dick, Robert H. Harris, Henry Hunter, Harry Jackson, Berry Kroeger, David Lewis, Byron Morrow, Tom Palmer, Mark Roberts and Dan Seymour
8 times: (8 actors): William Boyett, Dabbs Greer, John Harmon, Jack Harris, Mort Mills, Vaughn Taylor, Les Tremayne and Frank Wilcox (A Judge)
9 times: (2 actors): Alex Bookston and Nelson Leigh (A Judge)
10 times: (4 actors): Douglas Evans, Gilbert Frye, Karl Held (mostly as Perry's law student aide) and H. M. Wynant
11 times:: Charles Irving (A Judge)
12 times:: Jon Lormer (Doctor, Coroner or Autopsy Surgeon)
13 times:: Richard Geary (Often a diver)
14 times:: Richard Gaines (A Judge)
15 times:: Jack Gargan (mostly as the Court Clerk)
16 times: (3 actors): Connie Cezon (Perry's Receptionist), Pitt Herbert (A Doctor, Coroner or Autopsy Surgeon) and Grandon Rhodes (A Judge)
17 times: (2 actors): Wesley Lau (Mostly Lt. Anderson) and Charles Stroud (Mostly the Court Clerk)
20 times:: John Gallaudet (A Judge)
22 times:: Morris Ankrum (A Judge)
23 times:: Willis Bouchey (A Judge)
25 times:: Michael Fox (Autopsy Surgeon, mostly)
32 times: (2 actors): S. John Launer and Kenneth MacDonald (Both Judges)
45 times:: George E. Stone (mostly as the Court Clerk)
57 times:: Lee Miller (mostly as Sgt. Brice)

Actors as Defendants

Category suggested by Thom Smith, N8DXR. From trailing credits only. Updated 5/5/05.

215 actors are credited playing 270 defendants
137 defendants were female played by 102 actresses and 133 defendants were male played by 113 actors
Lurene Tuttle appeared as a defendant 4 times
171 actors appeared as a defendant once, 34 appeared twice, 9 actors, Patricia Breslin, Kathie Browne, Linden Chiles, Dick Foran, Mona Freeman, Nancy Gates, Douglas Henderson, Bethel Leslie and Mala Powers, appeared three times and Lurene Tuttle appeared four times
258 shows had one defendant, 6 shows had two and 7 shows had none credited

Actors as Murderers

Category suggested by Thom Smith, N8DXR. From trailing credits only. Updated 4/28/05.

228 actors are credited playing 272 murderers
83 murderers were female played by 69 actresses and 189 murderers were male played by 159 actors
193 actors appeared as a murderer once, 26 appeared twice and 9 actors, Malcolm Atterbury, Joan Banks, Richard Erdman, Alan Hewitt, Dabbs Greer, Robert H. Harris, Jeanette Nolan, Denver Pyle and Mary La Roche, appeared three times.
268 shows had one murderer, 2 shows had two and 1 show had none credited

Actors as Victims

Category suggested by Thom Smith, N8DXR. From trailing credits only. Updated 1/3/06.

229 actors are credited for playing 278 victims
42 victims were female played by 42 actresses and 236 victims were male played by 187 actors
George Neise appeared as a victim 4 times
188 actors appeared as a victim once, 35 appeared twice, 5 actors, John Conte, John Holland, Arch Johnson, Dennis Patrick and Liam Sullivan, appeared three times and George Neise appeared four times
Two shows, #25, The Case of the Empty Tin, and #62, The Case of the Howling Dog, had 3 victims
247 shows had one victim, 13 shows had two, 2 shows had three and 10 shows had none credited

Actors as Defendants, Murderers and Victims

Category suggested by Thom Smith, N8DXR. From trailing credits only. Updated 8/16/04.

There are 12 actors who are credited for all three roles: Robert Armstrong (dmv), John Conte (dmvvv), Robert H. Harris (dmmmv), Stacy Harris (dmv), Hugh Marlow (dmvv), Diana Millay (dmv), Mala Powers (dddmv), Denver Pyle (ddmmmv), Herbert Rudley (dmv), Vaughn Taylor (dmvv), Bill Williams (dmmv) and H. M. Wynant (dmvv).

H. M. Wynant (dmvvppp) gets a special mention for also appearing as a prosecutor three times. [D. A. Supernaw, 4/28/05]

Actors as Prosecutors

A total of 28 actors are credited in 43 Prosecutor or District Attorney roles. Paul Fix is credited five times, three times as District Attorney Hale and once each a Prosecutor Hale and Prosecutor. Richard Karnes is credited four times as Deputy D.A. Chamberlin. H. M. Wynant is credited three times as Deputy D.A. Sampson. Kenneth Tobey is credited as Prosecutor, Deputy D.A. Alvin and Asst. District Attorney Alvin. Don Dubbins is credited as Deputy D.A. Vincent once but played the role twice credited as Bill Vincent. Added 5/31/05.

Gender of Victim, Accused and Murderer

Trey W. provided this data. While watching the shows, he noted the sex of the victim, the accused (Perry's client) and the murderer. He assigned each episode a letter code of 'm' for man and 'w' for woman for each actor category. For example, 'mwm' means the victim was a man, a woman was accused and the murderer was a man. Most episodes have three letter codes, but there are 8 anomalous episodes that have none or more than one actor in one or more of the categories. For the non-anomalous episodes, there are 76 mmm, 73 mwm, 39 mww, 32 mmw, 21 wmm, 12 wwm, 6 www and 4 wmw codes. A complete list of the codes, including the anomalies, by season and title, can be found here. Added 12/28/10.

Judges Frequency List

A total of 54 actors played the 278 judges credited. Two were female: Lilian Bronson and Paula Winslow. Fay Roope was a man. Robert Middleton was not the presiding judge (reported by Trey W., 11/7/10). There were 21 shows without a judge credited. Added 8/15/04.

32 times:: S. John Launer and Kenneth MacDonald
23 times:: Willis Bouchey
22 times:: Morris Ankrum
20 times:: John Gallaudet
16 times:: Grandon Rhodes
14 times:: Richard Gaines
11 times:: Charles Irving
9 times:: Nelson Leigh
8 times:: Frank Wilcox
6 times:: Tom Harkness and Sydney Smith
5 times:: Barney Biro, Byron Morrow and Frederic Worlock
4 times:: Lewis Martin and Bill Zuckert
3 times:: Lillian Bronson, Jamie Forster, Harry Holcombe, Ed Prentiss and Pierre Watkin
2 times:: Frank Biro, Douglas Dumbrille, Douglas Evans, Ed Jerome, Jason Johnson, William Keene, Nolan Leary, Fay Roope and Harry Stanton
1 time:: John Barclay, Edgar Buchanan, Charles J. Conrad, Owen Cunningham, Frederic Downs, Edmund Glover, Raymond Greenleaf, Stacy Keach, Sr., Otto Kruger, John Litel, Robert Lynn, Charles Martin, Robert Middleton, James Nusser, Kenneth Patterson, Vincent G. Perry, Bill Quinn, Ken Renard, Albert A. Vail, Howard Wendell, Mack Williams, Paula Winslowe and Arthur Wong