AS SEEN ON TV: LT. ARTHUR TRAGG

LT. ARTHUR TRAGG

AS SEEN IN:

'Perry Mason'

CREATED BY:

Erle Stanley Gardner

PORTRAYED BY:

Ray Collins

TV STATUS:

Recastaway (Original)

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Squidoo.com:
Ray Collins' Lt. Arthur Tragg was Perry Mason's big nemesis along with Hamilton Burger. He played a hard nosed police lieutenant who often butt heads with Perry and often suffered frustration at the hands of the lawyer and Paul Drake.

From Wikipedia:
Ray Collins played the part of the crusty, dedicated police lieutenant, Arthur Tragg, who often frustrated Mason. Collins' appearances diminished toward the end of the 1963–64 season (he was 67 when the series began and died in the summer of 1965), and he was assisted by Wesley Lau as Lt. Andy Anderson, who took the position by himself until the end of the 1964–65 season.

Ray Bidwell Collins (December 10, 1889 – July 11, 1965) was an American actor in film, stage, radio, and television. One of Collins' best remembered roles was that of Lt. Arthur Tragg in the long-running series 'Perry Mason'.

He may be best remembered for his work on television, playing Lieutenant Tragg on 'Perry Mason' in the 1950s and 1960s.

By 1960, while immersed in the 'Perry Mason' series, Collins found his physical health declining and his memory waning, problems which in the next few years brought an end to his career. On the difficulty he was beginning to encounter in remembering his lines, he commented, "Years ago, when I was on the Broadway stage, I could memorize 80 pages in eight hours. I had a photographic memory. When I got out on the stage, I could actually -- in my mind -- see the lines written on top of the page, the middle or the bottom. But then radio came along, and we read most of our lines, and I got out of the habit of memorizing. I lost my natural gift. Today it's hard for me. My wife works as hard as I do, cueing me at home."

On July 11, 1965, Collins died of emphysema at the age of 75.

O'BSERVATION:

Ray Collins made his final appearance in a 'Perry Mason' episode at the end of Season 8 in "The Case Of The Mischievous Doll" (May, 1965).  I'd like to think that Arthur Tragg retired from the force in June of that year and - even though Collins was dead by July of that year - enjoyed another five years in retirement before he passed away in 1970.......

 

Lt. Tragg is shooting rubber bands at a paper doll effigy of Perry Mason.

BCnU!