Obituaries

Actor Paul Burke, 83, star of the television series The Naked City and best remembered by yours truly for his role as Lyon in the godawful camp classic Valley of the Dolls, of leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

One of the roles Burke was most proud of was Flint on "Naked City," the 1958-63 ABC series shot on location in New York City and known for its gritty realism. He joined the show in 1960, the year it expanded from half an hour to an hour.

When the series ended, Los Angeles Times TV columnist Cecil Smith wrote that it "may be remembered as television's finest weekly hour."

"It took the police show and gave it a dignity and compassion that at times approached high tragedy," Smith wrote. "And it shot them on the harrowing schedule of television, trying for impossible deadlines. But the end result was films and productions of such quality that they rivaled the finest theater films."

Burke did numerous stunts on the show, including climbing to the top of the 59th Street Bridge.

"Another time," he told Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper in 1963, "I had to jump from one roof to another when the stunt man refused because it was too windy to take the chance."

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