Gavin MacLeod: Murray Slaughter Takes Up Sailing

October 31, 2022July 31, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

As we wind up our up close and personal blog series, we are focusing on Gavin MacLeod. I have mentioned Gavin MacLeod’s name a lot in my blogs, but I have never devoted an entire to blog to him, so today is the day. Gavin had an impressive career; he starred in three sitcoms but those three garnered him almost 500 episodes. In addition, he took on more than a hundred guest roles on both the small and big screen.

MacLeod was born Allan George See in 1931 in New York. His mother worked for Reader’s Digest, and his father was an electrician. In 1952, MacLeod graduated from Ithaca College with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, studying acting.

He served in the US Air Force where he wrote, produced, and directed plays. After his service, he moved to New York City. While tackling acting auditions, he worked at Radio City Music Hall. While working as an usher there, he met Joan Rootvik, a Rockette. They married in 1955 and had four children. About this time, he took on the name Gavin MacLeod. MacLeod was a tribute to his acting coach at Ithaca, Beatrice MacLeod.

His movie career began with three movies in 1958. He would make 20 more before 2005, including Operation Petticoat and The Gene Krupa Story.

His television appearances began in 1957 on The Walter Winchell File. He would make another lucky 13 performances during the fifties including The Thin Man and Whirlybirds.

The sixties kept him busy. He took on comedy in The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, Gomer Pyle USMC, The Andy Griffith Show, My Favorite Martian, The Flying Nun, and several different characters on Hogan’s Heroes. Westerns called him for Rawhide, The Iron Horse, Death Valley Days, and The Big Valley. He landed dramas including The Man from UNCLE, Perry Mason, Ironside, Hawaii Five-0, and Ben Casey.

From 1962-1964 he starred as Happy in McHale’s Navy. The show continued until 1966, but Gavin left the show halfway through. He was dealing with alcoholism, and he received an offer to make the movie The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen. However, he remained close friends with Ernest Borgnine, the star of the show, until his death in 2012. (He quit drinking in 1974.)

Murray and Mary Photo: showbizcheatsheet.com

During the 1970s, he appeared on Love American Style, Charlie’s Angels, and Wonder Woman, but the character we loved best during that decade was Murray Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. From 1970-1977, Murray sat next to Mary, helping her through the ups and downs of life. Gavin was originally auditioning for the role of Lou Grant, but ended up reading for Murray. He and Ted Baxter were enemies on the show, but he and Ted Knight were dear friends in real life. They had lived near each other before being cast in the show.

During the run of the show, Gavin and his first wife divorced, and he married his second wife Patti Steele. That marriage also ended in divorce in 1982. Patti became part of a Bible Study group after their divorce and became a Christian. Gavin reached out to her, also became a Christian, and they remarried in 1985.

Upon the ending of Mary’s show, he was immediately hired as Captain Stubing on The Love Boat. This time he was in charge of his coworkers. One of his best friends was Bernie Kopell who played Dr. Adam Bricker on the show. Gavin was on the seas for a decade. His best friend Telly Savalas (the lollipop-loving Kojak star) popped up on The Love Boat; the two were very close until Telly’s death in 1994.

When the show ended in 1987, he got a well-deserved break, but he still managed to find time to tour with Michael Learned in “Love Letters.”

Celebrating on Murder She Wrote Photo: imdb.com

He landed a variety of television show appearances in the 1990s and 2000s, including Murder She Wrote, King of Queens, JAG, and That 70s Show. His final appearance was in 2014 on The Comeback Kids; then he decided to retire. He also did several musicals after The Love Boat including “Gypsy,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” and “Gigi.”

MacLeod and his wife hosted a show on marriage on Trinity Broadcasting Network for 17 years. He also served as the honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades from 2006-2011 when Sugar Ray Leonard took over.

The Love Boat was a big part of his life. Instead of being bitter about being typecast, he embraced the role. He celebrated his 80^th birthday in 2011 aboard the Golden Princess with his family, celebrating with a 3D replica cake of The Pacific Princess, his boat on the show.

In 2013, MacLeod joined his former coworkers on The Talk for a cast reunion. Several members of the cast including Gavin took part in The Rose Bowl Parade in 2015.

The cast apparently was very close. Ted Lange who played bartender Isaac Washington mentioned the crew in an interview in 2017 with “The Wiseguyz Show,” saying “Oh yeah, sure, Gavin was wonderful. Gavin lives down here in Palm Springs and we’re still tight, all of us, Gavin and Bernie and Jill; we still see each other. Fred [who played Gopher] lives in a different state, we’re still close, we’re still good friends.”

In his spare time, Gavin enjoyed traveling, playing tennis, dancing, golfing, sailing, reading the Bible, and watching movies. Gavin passed away in May of 2021 at his home.

During the past decade, he released a memoir, This is Your Captain Speaking: My Fantastic Voyage Through Hollywood, Faith & Life. He explained his goal for writing this book: “My life has taken one incredible turn after another,” writes MacLeod. “I’ve gotten to do what I wanted to do. I’ve been a captain! I’ve been given this incredible gift of life and now I want to use it to give back. That’s why I’m sharing my story here, the fun parts and even some not-so-fun parts, in the hopes that maybe someone will take a nice walk down memory lane with me – and maybe I’ll even give someone a little bit of hope.”

Good memories and a little bit of hope is all we can ask for; thanks, Gavin, for giving that to us.

Robert Conrad: Go West Young Man

October 24, 2022October 22, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 4 Comments

We are in the midst of getting up close and personal with some of our favorite television stars. Up today is Robert Conrad. Conrad was born Conrad Robert Falk in 1935 in Chicago. His parents were practically kids themselves when he was born at 17 and 15. His mother, Alice Hartman, was later the first publicity director for Mercury Records when she went by the name Jackie Smith. After divorcing Robert’s father, she later married Eddie Hubbard, a Chicago radio personality in 1948. They gave Robert one sibling before divorcing in 1958.

Conrad grew up in Chicago. He dropped out of school at age 15 to work for Consolidated Freightways and later was a milk truck driver for Bowman Dairy.

He studied theater arts at Northwestern University and then decided to pursue an acting career. He also studied singing with Dick Marx.

When he was 25 he met actor Nick Adams while visiting James Dean’s gravesite in Indiana. Adams had been a friend of James, and he talked Robert into moving to California for his acting career. (Adams died from an overdose in 1968.)

Adams was able to secure Bob a small part in the movie Juvenile Jungle which enabled him to join the Screen Actors Guild. Conrad continued to receive movie offers throughout his career, with his last role being in 2002 in Dead Above Ground.

In 1952 he eloped with Joan Kenlay. They had five children.

During the late fifties, Warner Brothers signed Conrad to an acting contract. He also worked in their recording division, releasing several versions including LPS, EPs, 33 1/3, and 45 rpm records. In 1961, he made the Billboard charts with Bye Bye Baby which hit 113.

In 1959, he made his television debut on Bat Masterson. He would appear in nine different series in 1959.

Warner Brothers created a detective show, 77 Sunset Strip. Conrad appeared on the show as detective Tom Lopaka. After appearing on four episodes, he was offered his own series, Hawaiian Eye which was on the air for four years. Set in Hawaii, this series featured Conrad as Thomas Jefferson Lopaka and his partner Tracy Steele, a Korean war vet and former city police detective played by Anthony Eisley. Their office was located at a swanky hotel where they were also the house detectives. Connie Stevens completed the trio as a scatterbrained nightclub singer and photographer Cricket Blake.

After the show went off the air, Conrad continued with several movies and television appearances until he received word in 1965 that he had been cast as government agent James West on the Wild Wild West with Ross Martin as his partner Artemus Gordon. For five seasons, the two agents worked together to solve cases primarily in the western region of the United States, often reporting to President Ulysses S Grant for their assignments. Conrad made $5000 a week for this show; it doesn’t sound like a lot today, but it was quite an increase from the $300 he made a week on Hawaiian Eye. Robert performed almost all of his own stunts on the show and was inducted into the Stuntman’s Hall of Fame.

Later Conrad said he didn’t like that his character didn’t really act; it was just physical confrontation and stunts. He said he and stuntman Whitey Ford choreographed the fights. Although that made him unhappy, he enjoyed his time on the show because he loved working with Martin.

Conrad took on several television and movie roles for two years until he was offered another sitcom offer to star in The DA where he played LA District Attorney Paul Ryan. The show only lasted one season, but then he went directly into Assignment: Vienna where he played a rugged American spy Jake Webster. Unfortunately, this show only lasted eight episodes.

Photo: ebay.com Cast of Baa Baa Black Sheep

After this short-lived series, Conrad waited four years to try his hand at television again. From 1976-78, he took on the role of tough-guy ace pilot, Pappy Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep. Pappy led the US Marine Attack Squadron 214, a group of “black sheep” pilots who were not as committed to the Marines as they were having a good time. However, they were great at their job and desperately needed in World War II. Conrad directed three of the shows.

During the run of this show, Robert and Joan divorced after 25 years of marriage.

For the next fifteen years, Robert bounced back and forth between television appearances and movies. While he showed up on the big screen, television movies were where he earned most of his money between 1979-1995.

He would attempt to star in five additional series, none of which were very successful. In 1979, he was the star of The Duke about an ex-boxer Duke Ramsey who becomes a private investigator in Chicago. After only three episodes, the refs called the match. I’m guessing Conrad did his own boxing in this show because he was a semi-professional boxer and had an undefeated record of 4-0-1.

That same year he went on to star in A Man Called Sloane. Sloane is a freelance spy who often accepts assignments from a secret government agency. He must have had to go into hiding quickly because he was off the air after twelve episodes.

In 1983, Conrad married again. He and LaVelda Fann were married from 1983-2010.

In 1987 he joined High Mountain Rangers as Jesse Hawkes. Hawke led his family on adventures in the wilderness where he was employed in law enforcement and rescue. No one requested a baker’s dozen, so after twelve episodes, he was done again. The following year his series lasted half as long, six episodes only, when he played Jesse Hawkes once again, but on this version, he and his sons fight crime in San Francisco. Sticking with the same theme, in 1995 he became Griffin Campbell on High Sierra Search and Rescue, leading volunteers in a remote mountain town in dangerous rescue missions. Again, after six episodes, he was done.

While none of these shows could find an audience, there was some realism in the roles because Conrad was a deputy sheriff for eight years or so in Bear Valley, California where he lived.

For the last few years of his career, he took on various tv and movie roles. His last television role was in 2000 on Nash Bridges.

After 2000, he managed to stay busy with a variety of projects. He ran for President of the Screen Actors Guild in 2005. In 2006 he provided introductory material for the DVD set of The Wild Wild West. He began hosting a weekly national radio show called The PM Show with Robert Conrad on DRN Digital Talk Radio.

In 2020, Conrad died from heart failure. He was 84.

It would have been interesting to see what Conrad’s career would have looked like if he had received some different types of roles. He did test for the role of Anthony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie and was offered the role of Hannibal Smith on The A-Team but turned it down to pursue his own projects. I would have liked to see him in a comedy role.

Pernell Roberts: A Man of Many Talents

October 17, 2022October 15, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 3 Comments

We are up close and personal this month with some of our favorite male television stars, and Pernell Roberts is definitely on that short list. Pernell Roberts was well known to television viewers in the early sixties and the early eighties. Some fans might not even realize the two characters he was best known for, Adam Cartwright on Bonanza and Dr. John McIntyre on Trapper John, MD were played by the same man.

The Family of Bonanza Photo: toledoblade.com

Pernell Elven Roberts Jr. was born an only child in 1928. He was named for his father who was a Dr. Pepper salesman. During high school, Roberts played the horn, acted in several school and church plays, played basketball, and sang in the local USO shows. He enrolled at Georgia Tech but then enlisted in the US Marine Corps. He played both the tuba and horn in the Marine Corps Band while sometimes tackling the sousaphone and percussion parts. After his time in the Marines, he enrolled at the University of Maryland where he enjoyed participating in classical theater. He left college to continue his acting career.

In 1949, he had his professional stage debut in “The Man Who Came to Dinner” with Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle. He then took on several roles in Philadelphia.

In 1951, Roberts married Vera Mowry; she was a professor of theatre history at Washington State University. They divorced in 1959. They had one son who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1989.

In 1952, Roberts made the big move to New York City appearing in off-Broadway shows. Several of his costars were Joanne Woodward and Robert Culp. He performed several Shakespeare roles.

In 1956, Roberts made his television debut in Kraft Theatre. In 1957, he signed with Columbia Pictures. His first big-screen role was as Burl Ives’ son in Desire Under the Elms. His second role was with Glenn Ford and Shirley MacLaine in The Sheepman.

Roberts continued to accept television roles with ten appearances in 1958 and six in 1959.

From 1959-1965 he would portray Adam Cartwright, Ben’s oldest son on Bonanza. Each of the brothers had a different mother, and Adam was the only Cartwright to attend college, studying architectural engineering. After acting in classical theater for so much of his early career, the transition to a weekly series was a difficult one for Roberts. He thought it a bit ridiculous that the independent sons had to get their father’s permission for everything they did. He wanted to act in a show with greater social relevance. So, although the show would continue until 1973, he left in 1965 after appearing in 202 episodes. The storyline was that Adam was traveling in Europe or living on the east coast. Bonanza producer David Dortort said Roberts was “rebellious, outspoken . . . and aloof, but could make any scene he was in better.”

During this time on the show, Roberts married again in 1962; he wed Judith Roberts and they would divorce in 1971.

After leaving Bonanza, Roberts returned to theater, playing a variety of roles. He toured with many musicals including “The King and I”, “Kiss Me Kate”, “Camelot”, and “The Music Man.”

Pernell also became involved in the civil rights movement, joining Dick Gregory, Joan Baez, and Harry Belafonte in the sixties demonstrations including the March on Selma.

From 1972-1996, Roberts was married to Kara Knack. They also divorced.

Throughout the late sixties and seventies, Pernell continued appearing in television series and made-for-tv movies. You’ll see him in westerns such as Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, and The Virginian; spy genres including Wild Wild West, Mission Impossible, and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.; crime shows including Hawaii Five-0, Mannix, Police Story, Ironside, Cannon, and The Rockford Files; and several medical series—Marcus Welby, West Side Medical, and Quincy. He even showed up on The Twilight Zone and The Odd Couple.

Perhaps he enjoyed those medical shows because he returned to television to star in his own series in 1979, playing Trapper John, MD. The plot was featured Trapper John from M*A*S*H later in his career at San Francisco Memorial Hospital where he was Chief of Surgery. He worked with a young surgeon who had also served in a MASH unit, Alonzo “Gonzo” Gates (Gregory Harrison). The series lasted seven seasons.

In 1979, he told TV Guide that he chose to return to a weekly show because he had “seen his father age and realized it was a vulnerable time to be without financial security.” Roberts felt the role allowed him to use his dramatic range of acting skills and to address important social issues.

In the 1990s, Roberts took on very few television appearances; his last television performance was in Diagnosis: Murder in 1997.

Roberts would attempt marriage one last time in 1999 when he wed Eleanor Criswell. When Pernell passed away in 2010 from pancreatic cancer after being diagnosed in 2007, they were still together.

Pernell also enjoyed golfing, swimming, playing tennis, running, reading, cooking, and singing. He appeared on two record albums during his career. The cast of Bonanza recorded an album in 1959 and he released a folk music album in 1962, titled “Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies.”

He certainly had a long and varied career: music, movies, Broadway, and television. He also used his fame to help causes he believed in. I don’t think he is remembered as well as he should be. Maybe it’s because he left Bonanza too early to be included on a lot of the memorabilia that came out of that show or because there was such a gap between his two series that he starred in. Whatever the reason, I hope this blog has helped recall some of our memories of the three decades he spent entertaining us.

Denver Pyle: Oil Was Just His Side Business

October 10, 2022July 31, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are getting up close and personal with some of our favorite television stars. Today we are getting to know one of the most prolific actors to appear on classic television: Denver Pyle. Denver amassed acting credits for 263 different television series and movies during a fifty-year career.

Denver was born Denver Dell Pyle in 1920 in Colorado, but not in Denver, in Bethune. His father was a farmer. His brother Willis became an animator who worked at the Walt Disney Animation Studios and UPA. Also, an interesting note is that Ernie Pyle, the famous journalist and war correspondent, was his cousin.

After his high school graduation, Pyle enrolled at Colorado State University but dropped out to pursue a show business career. He was a drummer for a band and then bounced around in different jobs including working in the oil fields, working shrimp boats in Texas, and as an NBC page. When WWII began, he joined the Merchant Marine. He was injured in the battle of Guadalcanal and received a medical discharge. Following his stint in the war, Pyle worked as a riveter at a Los Angeles aircraft plant. While there, he was spotted by a talent scout in an amateur theater production. Pyle decided he wanted a career in the entertainment business and trained under Maria Ouspenskaya and Michael Chekhov.

His first movie roles occurred in 1947 in The Guilt of Janet Ames and Devil Ship. He would continue polishing his film career for the next fifty years, with his last big-screen feature being Maverick in 1994.

When he was filming The Alamo with John Wayne in 1960, Wayne realized Pyle had an eye for photography. He made arrangements with the PR office to hire Pyle as the official set photographer for the film.

Photo: ladylavinia’s1932blog.wordpress.com

He received his first television role in 1951 in The Cisco Kid. He gravitated toward westerns and in the fifties would appear in many of them including Roy Rogers, Gunsmoke, The Range Rider, Hopalong Cassidy, Annie Oakley, The Gene Autry Show, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, and The Tales of West Fargo.

In 1955, Pyle married Marilee Carpenter. They had two children and divorced in 1970.

The sixties still provided many roles in westerns (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, and Death Valley Days among others), but he also began appearing on dramas and sitcoms: to name a few, Route 66, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Dr. Kildare, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, and Gomer Pyle USMC.

On Dick Van Dyke Photo: sitcomsonline.com

In many of these shows, he returned nine or ten times to guest star in episodes. During the run of Perry Mason, Pyle would play a victim, a defendant, and a murderer on the show.

He received the first recurring roles of his career during this era on sitcoms. On Tammy, he played Grandpa Tarleton in 1965-66, and from 1963-66, he portrayed Briscoe Darling on The Andy Griffith Show. He only appeared in Mayberry six times but left a lasting impression on fans.

After playing Briscoe, Pyle invested in oil, buying oil wells thought to be near the end of their production. In the eighties, technology allowed the wells to produce more oil; Pyle made much more from oil than he did acting. However, he continued his career because he said, “I look at it this way, acting provides the cash flow I need for oil speculation, and besides that, I like acting. It’s fun.”

Doris Day Show Photo: thrillingdaysofyesteryear.com

His career did not slow down too much throughout the seventies and eighties. In the seventies, you could watch him in The Waltons, Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, and Barnaby Jones. The eighties featured him in The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote, Dallas, and LA Law.

During this time, he also received three other regular cast roles. From 1968-1970, he played Doris Day’s father in The Doris Day Show. From 1977-78. He was Mad Jack in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and in 1979-85, he took on Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazard. In fact, his last acting credit was for a made-for-tv movie where he once again portrayed Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard Reunion! in 1997.

In 1991, Pyle married a second time. He wed Tippie Johnston and they remained married until his death. The couple did a lot of fundraising for charity including Special Olympics and Denver Pyle’s Children’s Charities. In addition, Pyle sponsored Uncle Jesse’s Fishing Tournament in Texas. For the ten years, he ran it, it raised more than $160,000 to support children’s needs.

In 1997, Pyle died on Christmas from lung cancer.

If you watch reruns from any decade of classic television, you will be very familiar with Denver Pyle. Although he was part of the cast in five very popular shows, it would have been fun to see him get the starring role in a show. It’s amazing to realize how many shows he was a part of. Considering he was in the television business for forty years and for almost fifteen of those years, he was busy being part of the cast of a weekly show, that left 25 years to amass 250 other series that he found time to appear on; that is almost one a month for 25 years—very impressive.

Hello Darlin’: The Career of Larry Hagman

October 3, 2022July 31, 2022 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month we are taking a close-up of five famous television male stars. If you were a television fan in the sixties, you will remember Larry Hagman as Tony on I Dream of Jeannie. If you watched Dallas in the eighties, you will remember him as the cad J.R. Ewing. However, Hagman had more than 100 acting credits and several other television starring roles, as well as credits as a producer and director. We’ll learn more about his career and these forgotten shows in this blog.

Hagman was born in 1931 in Texas. His father was an accountant and lawyer who became a DA. His mother was the famous actress, Mary Martin. His parents divorced when he was five. When his mother received a Paramount contract, he lived with his maternal grandmother in Texas and California.

When Larry was nine, his mother married Richard Halliday. The couple had a baby in 1941, but Larry was sent to an academy, Black Foxe Military Institute and later to Woodstock Country School in Vermont.

His mother resumed her Broadway career in New York City, so Larry lived with his grandmother in California until she passed away when he was sent to live with his mother.

Larry moved to back to Weatherford, his home town, to attend high school, and he graduated from there. Larry’s father wanted him to become a lawyer and join his practice. Larry worked for an oilfield equipment manufacturer for a summer, but was drawn to the acting profession. In the fall of 1949, he enrolled in Bard College in New York to major in drama and dance but he dropped out after his freshman year.

In 1950, Larry took on acting roles at Margaret Webster’s school, The Woodstock Playhouse in New York. The summer after his freshman year, he worked in Dallas as a production assistant and did some acting in Margo Jones’s theater company. He then traveled a bit with the St. John Terrell’s Music Circus. From 1951-1952, he appeared in “South Pacific” with his mother in London.

The following year, Hagman received his draft notice and enlisted in the Air Force. He was stationed in London and spent most of his military service entertaining troops in Europe.

In 1954, Larry married Maj Axelsson. She grew up in Sweden and they met in London. They had two children and were longtime residents of Malibu, California. They were married until his death.

When he left the Air Force in 1956, he returned to New York City, appearing in a couple of off-Broadway plays. His wife made costumes for a variety of productions. In 1957, Hagman received his first television roles, appearing in West Point, Goodyear Playhouse, Studio One, and Omnibus. His Broadway debut was in “Comes a Day” in 1958.

Larry continued his dual Broadway and television careers through the remainder of the fifties. One of his roles was on Decoy, which was the first crime drama to star a female police officer (Beverly Garland) and he portrayed three different characters on Sea Hunt.

Searching for Tomorrow Photo: pinterest.com

In 1960 he had his first recurring role as Cliff Williams on Search for Tomorrow.

In 1964, he made began receiving offers to act on the big screen. He appeared in The Cavern, Ensign Pulver, and Fail Safe that year.

Hagman had been a heavy smoker but quit in 1965. He later became the chairman of both the American Cancer Society and the Great American Smokeout.

The next year, he received the role that made him a household name: Captain Anthony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie. He rejoined the Air Force, but this time in a fictional service. The show was on the air for five seasons.

Two reunion movies were made later (I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later in 1985 and I Still Dream of Jeannie in 1991), but Hagman was not in the cast. I read that he was busy with Dallas and family vacations during the times the movies were filmed. They did not replace his character; they focused more on Roger, Jeannie, and Tony’s son with Tony being unavailable on assignment. However, Hagman did appear with Bill Daily and Barbara Eden in several reunion-type shows, and he and Eden remained good friends.

When the show ended, Hagman took on various guest spots on shows including Love American Style. A year later, he again tried a sitcom role. He was cast as Albert Miller in The Good Life. He starred with Donna Mills as a couple who pose as servants. The show lasted a season before being canceled.

A year later there was a repeat of the cycle when he starred in Here We Go Again with Diana Baker as a newlywed couple moves into a home located near both their former spouses’ homes. Again, it lasted one season.

I read that his mother was forced to kick him out of the house when he lived with her and his stepfather because of his heavy drinking. After the cancellation of this show, his father passed away and he reconciled with his mother.

For most of the seventies, he continued guest starring in television shows including Marcus Welby, Barnaby Jones, MacMillan and Wife, and The Rockford Files and big-screen movies including Harry and Tonto and Superman.

An entire new group of fans began watching Larry from 1978-1991 when he appeared as one of the major characters on Dallas. Two of the most-watched television episodes were the cliffhanger episode, “A House Divided” from 1980 when JR was shot (but viewers did not know who did it) and “Who Done It” when it was revealed that the shooter was his sister-in-law and mistress, Kristin.

Hagman was nominated for two Emmy Awards for his portrayal of JR in 1980 and 1981. He was beat out by Ed Asner for Lou Grant in 1980 and Daniel J. Travanti for Hill Street Blues in 1981.

Unlike I Dream of Jeannie, when reunion Dallas movies were made in 1996 and 1998, Hagman was part of the cast and listed as producer.

Larry always said Dallas was his favorite show, and he loved being a part of it. Both his children appeared on the show. His old costar Barbara Eden joined the cast for the final season as Lee Ann, fittingly as a character from JR’s past. The show was filmed at Southfork Ranch in Texas and after his death, Larry’s ashes were scattered there.

In an unusual reboot, Hagman reprised his role of Ewing on a new Dallas from 2012-2013.

Between the original and reboot of Dallas, Hagman once again received offers to star in two new series. One was Orleans in 1997 when he played Judge Luther Charbonnet. Unfortunately, the series only lasted for eight episodes, but he received some of the best reviews of his career for the role. In 2006, he took on the role of Burt Landau on Nip and Tuck which lasted one season.

Hagman also wore a directing hat. He began directing three episodes of I Dream of Jeannie in 1967. He would also direct two episodes of The Good Life, 32 episodes of Dallas (he also was listed as producer for 74 episodes), seven episodes of In The Heat of the Night in the early nineties starring one of his best friends Carroll O’Connor, and one feature film: Beware! The Blob which was a sequel to the cult classic 1958 horror film, The Blob. He produced a made-for-tv movie in 1993 called Staying Afloat which he also starred in. The plot was that Alex, a millionaire’s son, has trouble managing money so his father cuts him off. The IRS is pursuing him, and he has a lot of debt when an FBI agent offers to help with his financial issues if Alex becomes a government informant to take down a man who once burned Alex and he happily agrees.

In 1995, Hagman had a liver transplant after being diagnosed with liver cancer. He also had cirrhosis of the liver which was a result of heavy drinking. He had stopped drinking earlier in his life, but the damage was done.

In 2001, Larry added author to his resume after writing Hello Darlin’: Tall (And Absolutely True) Tales About My Life. In 2007, he gave an interview, sharing his passion for alternative energy creation. He and his wife had a solar-powered, energy-efficient home named “Heaven” in Ojai, California, where they promoted a green lifestyle. The couple also owned a home in Sundsvall, Sweden, her hometown and they visited there often.

In 2008, Maj was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Hagman cared for her as long as possible, but she required 24-hour nursing care by 2010.

The following year, Hagman learned he had Stage 2 throat cancer. He had the tumor removed and went into remission. In 2012, he was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a preleukemia condition. The actor died in November from acute myeloid leukemia.

His friend Barbara Eden said, “Larry was one of the most intelligent actors I ever worked with.” Later she said that their on-screen chemistry on the set of Jeannie was not just work and their timing was right. She could not explain it; it was wonderful.

Two of his Dallas castmates were at his bedside when he passed away. Linda Gray who played his wife on the show said Larry was “her best friend for 35 years” and that “he brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving, and talented and I will miss him enormously. He was an original and lived life to the fullest.” His brother on the show was played by Patrick Duffy who said “Friday I lost one of the greatest friends to ever grace my life. The loneliness is only what is difficult, as Larry’s peace and comfort is always what is important to me.”

Hagman with Gray and Duffy Photo: huffpost.com

Fans reported that Hagman often had people who requested his autograph tell him a joke or sing him a song first.

Hagman said his idols were Jack Benny, John Wayne, Dick Powell, and his future Dallas castmates, Barbara Bel Geddes and Jim Davis. He credited his good friend Carrol O’Connor as his acting mentor, saying that, “Carroll is really my mentor. He knows more about show business than any other actor I know.” During his Dallas years, he paid that back by mentoring several coworkers including Charlene Tilton.

Hagman also enjoyed hunting, backpacking, fishing, skiing, sailing, golfing, and collecting canes, hats, flags, and art. I’m so glad that he was not typecast as Tony and was able to continue his career with several other sitcoms and that he truly enjoyed his many years associated with Dallas. When you love what you are doing, people love you for doing it.

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Month: October 2022