Barbara Hale, the Emmy-winning actress who played the loyal legal secretary Della Street on the long-running TV series Perry Mason, died Thursday at her home in Sherman Oaks, California. She was 94.
Her son, the actor William Katt, confirmed Hale’s death on Facebook and remembered her as “gracious and kind and silly and always fun to be with.” She was a “wonderful actress and smart businesswoman,” Katt said, and “most of all a treasure as a friend and mother.”
Starring opposite Raymond Burr’s dogged defense attorney, Hale appeared all nine seasons of Perry Mason, which aired from 1957 to 1966 on CBS. She won her Emmy in 1959.