Rusty Burrell: a Bailiff in Three Courtroom Series

This is the 15th in a series of “55-Plus” columns on courtroom reality shows. To read the previous column on the subject, click here.

Roy J. “Rusty” Burrell was a deputy sheriff who was urged in the early 1950s to become a court bailiff by a judge (Elmer Doyle) who liked his sense of humor. Burrell obliged — and became the most famous bailiff in history.

There is surely no other bailiff you might name who was known across the globe.

And Burrell, who died April 15 of last year at the age of 76, held the distinction of appearing on more sessions of simulated court proceedings than any other person. He was the bailiff on “Divorce Court” (1957-1969), “The People’s Court” (1981-93), and “Judge Wapner’s Animal Court” (1998-2000).

Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Wapner, who presided over the two latter courts, remembers watching “Divorce Court.” It was natural that he would have done so. The parties on that show, played by actors, were represented by actual attorneys — and appearing with frequency was his father, Joseph Max Wapner (since deceased).

It was Burrell who recruited lawyers for the show — ones he knew from the courthouse.

“Rusty liked my dad,” Joseph A. Wapner told me. “He thought that he was a good lawyer.”

In the days of “Divorce Court,” Burrell was a real-life bailiff-by-day, and a bailiff on a Hollywood set by night, or at least those nights of the week when the weekly show was taped.

Among notable trials in which Burrell served as bailiff before that show went on the air was that of Caryl Chessman, a serial rapist known as the “Red Light Bandit” (executed in 1960); in the post-“Divorce Court” days, he kept guard on slayer Charles Manson.

“I said to hire him,” Wapner recounted, explaining how Burrell came to serve as the bailiff on “The People’s Court.” That was 1981. Burrell had just retired from the Sheriff’s Department after 31 years, the last 25 of them being spent as a bailiff.
The show’s executive producer, Stu Billett, said he wanted a “sexy girl” to play the bailiff, but Wapner had insisted: “No, you need Rusty.”

So it was that at the start of each daily session of “The People’s Court,” for the next 12 years, the voice of Rusty Burrell boomed out, “All rise.” He was seen throughout each episode, rendering him a well-recognized television figure.

Wapner described Burrell as “an all-around good guy.” The former judge elaborated:

“He had a tremendous sense of humor. He knew people, he knew how to handle people.

“He was a charitable man. He was a religious person.”

Wapner termed Burrell “a great family man.” Burrell and his wife, Clara, had two sons, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

“He was a good athelete,” Wapner added. “He used to be a professional baseball player.”

Burrell was an outfielder and pitcher in the St. Louis Brown’s farm system for two years before coming to California in 1950 with the objective of playing baseball. He wound up, however, as a police officer in Pomona before switching to the Sheriff’s Department.

When Wapner was asked to preside over “Animal Court” on the Animal Planet cable network, he agreed — with a proviso: that Burrell be his bailiff. For two seasons, starting in 1998, the two once again were paired in a five-day-a-week, half-hour courtroom simulation show.

Burrell was sort of a “sidekick” to the judge.

Ironically, each celebrated his birthday on the same day. Burrell was born Nov. 15, 1925, and Wapner on Nov. 15, 1919.

Reruns of “Animal Court” are still being aired by Animal Planet.

Burrell was thus on courtroom TV shows in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘80s, ‘90s and in the current decade.
Harvey Levin, consulting producer of the current version of “The People’s Court,” wanted both Wapner and Burrell to appear in 2000 on the 3000th session of the “court,” taped in New York. Wapner recounted that Burrell had been offered “X number of dollars” to do the show, and that he asked the former bailiff if he wanted him to negotiate on his behalf for a higher amount.

“Sure, judge,” he recalled Burrell responding. (“He always called me ‘Judge,’ he never called me by my first name,” Wapner noted.)

“I got him ‘X’ plus ‘Y,’” he said.

Levin hailed Burrell as “truly, one of the nicest, most gentle human beings I have ever met.” He described him as “kind, gracious, patient with people.”

Billett remarked:

“He had a sense when people were getting agitated. He would take a step forward and plant his foot down. That would calm them down.”

•      •      •

Next week: A look at the decision to bring back “The People’s Court” without Wapner.

The "55-Plus" column is written especially for those over the age of 55, by a veteran California journalist who is himself eligible for the club. Roger M. Grace has written and edited newspapers for more than four decades, and has been a lawyer for more than three.