In the Alfred Hitchcock 1954 thriller "Rear Window", the U.S. TV icon who played the murderer was Raymond Burr (1917 - 1993). He was the star of the 1957–1966 major hit TV series "Perry Mason".

In the 1954 movie by Hitchcock, the late Raymond Burr plays Lars Thorwald, and he is the sole antagonist in the film. Here, Thorwald does not get along with his wife. They constantly argue with each other, and this in turn causes him to finally snap and kill her.

This film strongly makes the point that Lars Thorwald is a traveling salesman who is in a very unhappy marriage. Because of his sad life, he kills his wife in order to run off with another woman. Lars would have gotten away with his crime if it weren't for those nosy kids, a wheelchair-bound photographer, and true buddies of the photographer.

With Thorwald, he is at the center of the film's plot although he doesn't get a lot of screen time until the very end. Everything in the film comes from the adventurous L. B. "Jeff" Jefferies (Stewart). It is Jeff's behavior and observations which allow this drama to work as an outstanding thriller.

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