Wesley Lau

Lieutenant Anderson from Perry Mason Ray Norman from Cannon

Wesley Lau came on-board courtesy of my Perry Mason Renaissance, but I was familiar with and liked him from the first time around.

Lieutenant Anderson was brought in as a character to ease the load of ailing actor Ray Collins. Wesley was chosen for the part when executive producer Gail Patrick Jackson liked what she saw when he guest-starred as Amory Fallon in The Impatient Partner.

Foolishly, they tried at first to recreate what they had with Lieutenant Tragg by giving Lieutenant Anderson the same dialogue. Wesley worked with it the best he could, but the character largely feels flat during those early attempts. Thankfully, they realized their mistake early on and started writing dialogue especially for Andy.

As a completely separate character, Andy is fairly congenial and definitely a nice guy, but unlike Tragg, he seems to keep Perry and company at arms' length and really doesn't want to socialize with them. Only once did he ever ask Perry how he solved a particular case, and that was in one of the early episodes where he was written more like Tragg (The Melancholy Marksman). He never once goes to lunch with them, as both Tragg and Steve Drumm do. He also becomes extremely uptight when it looks like law-bending is going on.

Wesley left the show after season 8 for reasons unknown, albeit I've been told his reasons were personal. The writers seemed to be losing track of how to write for Andy by season 8, and though Wesley did his best with the material, I really wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't happy with it and if that was a factor in his leaving. I know for a fact that he wasn't pleased with the small amount of screentime Andy often got. I'm not too pleased about it, either. So much of the time, they squandered the amazing gift they had of Wesley being part of the cast.

Wesley was one of the great talents in character acting. Good guys, bad guys, drama, humor ... he could do it all. Cold-hearted psychopaths, firmly upright policemen, unhappy men with tragic secrets, and even spoiled rich overgrown kids. He made them all real and a joy to watch. Ironic since he really wanted to be a writer, not an actor. He had a definite talent for acting that just couldn't be ignored or set aside.

Wesley was also a very private person and I've had extreme difficulty finding any interviews with him or about him. I've actually had members of his extended family contact me on my Perry blog looking for information on him. While I want to respect his privacy, I do wish I could help those family members learn more about him. I believe family ties are very important. If anyone stumbles on this website who knew Wesley or knows about him enough that they could help, I would greatly appreciate if they would consent to be interviewed!