Barbara Hale, a movie actress who found her most famous role on television as steadfast secretary Della Street in the long-running "Perry Mason" series, has died.  She was 94. 

Hale was surrounded by family when she died Thursday at her Los Angeles area home, said Jaqueline Stander, an agent for Hale's son, actor William Katt ("The Greatest American Hero," "Carrie"). 

"She was gracious and kind and silly and always fun to be with," Katt posted on his Facebook page Thursday, calling Hale a wonderful actress and a "treasure as a friend and mother." 

Stander declined to provide the cause of death. 

Hale appeared in "Perry Mason" on CBS from 1957 to 1966, winning an Emmy as best actress in 1959.  When the show was revived in 1985 on NBC as an occasional TV movie, she again appeared in court at the side of the ever-victorious lawyer played by Raymond Burr. 

She continued her role after Burr died in 1993 and was replaced by Hal Holbrook for the movies that continued into 1995. 

"I guess I was just meant to be a secretary who doesn't take shorthand," she once quipped. " I'm a lousy typist, too - 33 words a minute."