What was the deal with Robert T. Ironside?

Cafe Society
1

Ironside had two notable mannerisms:

  1. Anytime he finished his line(s), he sorta tightened his mouth, and gave an almost-imperceptible head nod, and. . .
  2. Excessively loud inspirations when he started his lines, almost as if he were gasping for breath.
    My suspicion about the first one is that was a “nod,” as it were, to Nero Wolfe. I’ve never read a Wolfe novel, but I’ve been told he gave a similar nod.

The second point could have been to show that as a paraplegic, he suffered from labored breathing, but that’s just a guess.

And, it’s possible that since the character was wheelchair-bound, it limited his range as an actor, and those were about the only things he could do.

Anyway, I don’t recall Perry Mason doing those things, but I could be wrong.

Any ideas???

2

The inhalation was just a trait of Raymond Burr. You’re not the first to notice it. Rich Little noted it, too, when developing his impression of Burr.

Little later met Burr and asked him about it:

Little: “Why do you always take a deep breath before saying your lines?”

Burr: <deep breath> “To stay alive.”