Paul Drake (character)
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Paul Drake is a fictional private detective in the Perry Mason series of murder mystery novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Drake is described as tall and slouching, nondescript, and frequently wearing an expression of droll humor. He often smoked cigarettes especially when he had a subject of interest under surveillance. He is friend and right-hand man to Mason, a highly successful criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles.
William Hopper as Paul Drake in the CBS-TV series Perry Mason, with guest star Bette Davis (1963)
Erle Stanley Gardner
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Erle Stanley Gardner was an American author and lawyer, best known for the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories, but he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces and also a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.
Gardner in 1966
The First National Bank Building in Ventura, where Gardner wrote drafts for the first Perry Mason novels
Perry Mason executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson (left) and Erle Stanley Gardner speak with Hollywood columnist Norma Lee Browning during filming of the last episode, "The Case of the Final Fade-Out" (1966)
The Court of Last Resort (1952) earned Gardner his only Edgar Award, in the Best Fact Crime category.