Link (http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20121123-actor-larry-hagman-notorious-as-dallas-villain-j.r.-ewing-dies.ece)

Larry Hagman, the North Texas native who played the conniving and mischievous J.R. Ewing on the TV show Dallas, died Friday at a Dallas hospital. He was 81.

Mr. Hagman died at 4:20 p.m. Friday at Medical City Dallas Hospital from complications of his recent battle with cancer, members of his family said.

“Larry was back in his beloved Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved most,” the family said in a statement. “Larry’s family and close friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday. When he passed, he was surrounded by loved ones. It was a peaceful passing, just as he had wished for. The family requests privacy at this time.”

The iconic role of J.R. Ewing metamorphosed Mr. Hagman’s life. He rocketed from being a merely well-known TV actor on I Dream of Jeannie and the son of Broadway legend Mary Martin, to the kind of transnational fame known only by the likes of the Beatles and Muhammad Ali.

Mr. Hagman made his home in California with his wife of nearly 60 years, the former Maj Axelsson. Despite obvious physical frailty, he gamely returned to Dallas to film season one of TNT’s Dallas reboot and part of season two.

Linda Gray's agent, Jeffrey Lane, said the actress was at Mr. Hagman's bedside when he died, according to The Sun in London. He said another co-star, Patrick Duffy, was also present. “They had been friends for 35 years and they had worked together for many years, so obviously it is devastating," Mr. Lane told The Sun.

More details to come.

Oddly enough, Larry passed away 32 years to the day of the November 21, 1980 airing of the episode "Who Done It?" which revealed who shot J.R.

Wow. I wasn't expecting this although I shouldn't be surprised. I've been a fan of his since I was 6 years old watching reruns of IDOJ and I was one of the biggest Dallas fans there was.R.I.P. Larry. You will never be forgotten. :(

:rip: He was married to the same woman for over 55 years in real life. No one else could have played JR - no one.

iYfFdinBnWc

This is so sad. :(
May he rest in peace. :(

So sad to hear of Larry's passing. He will always be remembered, starring in two of the most iconic and remembered television shows of all time... :(

http://www.migueldante.com/2012/11/dallas-star-larry-hagman-dead-at-81.html#

:rip:

RIP Larry. J.R. was a once in a lifetime character, with many imitators but no one to equal the original. One of the all time greatest TV villains, to be sure.

L.A. Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-larry-hagman-20121124,0,5294713.story)

Fervor for the television show “Dallas” was intense in 1980, when the Queen Mother met actor Larry Hagman and joined the worldwide chorus asking: “Who shot J.R.?”

“Not even for you, ma’am,” replied Hagman, who portrayed villainous oil baron J.R. Ewing at the center of the popular prime-time soap from 1978 until 1991.

An estimated 300 million viewers in 57 countries had seen J.R. get shot by an unseen assailant, a season-ending plot twist that is credited with popularizing the cliffhanger in television series.

Hagman, who became a television star in the 1960s starring in the sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” died Friday at a Dallas hospital, said a spokesman for actress Linda Gray, his longtime co-star on “Dallas.” He was 81.

A year ago, Hagman announced his second bout with cancer. He had spoken candidly about decades of drinking that led to cirrhosis of the liver and, in 1995, a life-saving liver transplant.

“He was the pied piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew,” Gray said in a statement. “He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented.... an original and lived life to the full.”

For years, he was considered the unofficial mayor of Malibu, where he lived for decades in an oceanfront home. He often led impromptu ragtag parades on the sand while wearing outlandish costumes and flew a flag from his deck that declared “Vita Celebratio Est” — “Life is a celebration.”

As an actor, Hagman came with a serious pedigree. He was the son of Mary Martin, a legendary star of Broadway musicals best known for originating the role of Peter Pan in the 1950s.

On “Dallas,” Hagman's J.R. Ewing was “the man viewers loved to hate,” according to critics, a scheming Texan in a land of plenty. Much of the show's run paralleled the nation's fascination with big money and big business in the 1980s, and the role made him an international star.

“Here is a man born to play villainy,” former Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg wrote soon after the show's debut. “His performance on ‘Dallas’ is a salute to slime.”

A Texas native, Hagman often said he played the character as a composite of “all those good old boys” he had known growing up, “who caught more flies with honey instead of vinegar.”

He approached the role as “a cartoon,” Hagman once said of the role that earned him two Emmy nominations. “It was outrageous comedy to me.”

By his own admission, Hagman drank his way through “Dallas.” Champagne was “his poison” — he would uncork a bottle by 9 a.m. and keep the bubbly flowing all day. He once poured bourbon on his cornflakes.

“The drinking sometimes made it harder to remember lines, but I liked that constant feeling of being mildly loaded,” Hagman said in 1995 in People magazine.

Diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver during a checkup in 1992, Hagman said he became an instant teetotaler. After developing a cancerous tumor on his liver, he underwent a liver transplant three years later.

“I'm often asked how my liver transplant operation changed my life. Aside from saving it, nothing changed,” he wrote in his 2001 autobiography, “Hello Darlin’.” “It confirmed what I've always tried to do — live my life as fully as possible before the clock runs out.”

When Hagman arrived in Hollywood in the 1960s, he had already appeared in a half-dozen Broadway plays and spent two years on the daytime television soap opera “The Edge of Night.”

From five television pilots, Hagman chose to read for the part of astronaut Tony Nelson on “I Dream of Jeannie.” Created by Sidney Sheldon, the show plugged into the nation’s space mania and owed a creative debt to another hit series, “Bewitched.”

Jeannie was played by Barbara Eden, who complicates the life of uptight Nelson after he aborts a mission on a desert island and unleashes her character — a magical and alluring genie — from a bottle.

“I liked the premise of ‘Jeannie,’ “ Hagman wrote in his book. “It was good, wholesome, escapist fun, with a healthy dose of sexual tension.”

When many television shows were switching to a color format, “Jeannie” debuted in fall 1965 in less expensive black and white because it wasn’t expected to succeed. When it became a hit on NBC, the next four seasons were shot in color.

The network “finally woke up and realized what they had bought,” Sheldon later recalled, “a show about a beautiful, half-naked girl, living [unmarried] with a man, saying, 'What can I do for you, Master?’ “

On the set, Hagman clashed with director Roger Nelson and drove his colleagues crazy with tantrums, destructive behavior he later attributed to perfectionism. Nelson wanted Hagman fired after 10 episodes but instead the director was replaced.

“I expected everyone to be excellent every day. I was trying to be producer, writer, cameraman and sound man,” Hagman told People in 1980. “Eventually it got to me, and I had my breakdowns.”

He said it took $40,000 worth of therapy for him to essentially learn to be calmer.

When asked for the secret to starring in two hit TV series, Hagman would reply: “It’s been 20% hard work, 80% luck.”

“A lot of life comes down to that,” he once wrote.

Larry Martin Hagman was born Sept. 21, 1931, in Fort Worth. At the age of 16, his mother married lawyer Ben Hagman, and she had her son at 17.

His parents soon divorced, and by 1933 Martin had set off for Hollywood without Larry.

“We’re more like brother and sister than mother and son,” Hagman told The Times in 1981.

He was largely raised by his maternal grandmother in Texas and Los Angeles until she died when he was 12.

For a year, he lived in Connecticut with his mother but clashed with her husband and manager, Richard Halliday.

Placed in a series of boarding schools, Hagman was often a disciplinary problem and started drinking at 15, he later wrote.

Drawn to the notion of being a cowboy, he spent the last two years of high school living with his father in Texas and working summers in the oil fields. Hard labor made the ease of acting all the more appealing, Hagman later said.

At Bard College in New York, he studied theater arts but dropped out after a year and turned to summer stock.

In the early 1950s, he moved to England to take a small role in a production of “South Pacific” that starred his mother.

Abroad for five years, he spent four of them in the U.S. Air Force. Stationed in London, he produced entertainment shows for the military. He also met Maj (pronounced “My”) Axelsson, a Swedish clothing designer he married in 1954.

Upon returning to New York, Hagman starred on Broadway in the late 1950s in “God and Kate Murphy” and other plays.

Over more than half a century, he appeared in more than 80 TV productions and about 20 films.

His movie career began in 1964 with a part as a ship's officer in “Ensign Pulver.” He often played a military man, including roles in “The Eagle Has Landed” (1976) and “Superman” (1978). One of his more affecting roles was as Art Carney's self-pitying son in “Harry and Tonto” (1974).

More recently, Hagman portrayed a Texas millionaire in “Nixon” (1995) and a governor in “Primary Colors” (1998).

On television, he started out in drama anthologies and starred in three short-lived series — two early 1970s sitcoms, “The Good Life” and “Here We Go Again,” and the 1997 legal drama “Orleans.”

When he returned to the role of J.R. Ewing in a new version of “Dallas,” which debuted on TNT in June, Times critic Robert Lloyd wrote that it was “Hagman’s show” and said that the series would not be worth watching without him.


During his first run on “Dallas,” he bought a mountaintop property in Ojai and spent years building an 18,000-square-foot chateau he called Heaven. The Malibu home he purchased for $115,000 in the 1960s was sold to Sting for nearly $7 million in the 1990s.

In 2005, Hagman's wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Four years later, he moved her to an assisted-living facility near another of his homes, in Santa Monica, and put the Ojai house on the market.

For 25 years, he observed “silent Sundays,” refusing to talk, a move he initially made to rest his voice. After giving up cigarettes, he often carried a hand-held fan to blow fumes back toward smokers.

In Malibu, he had long been known as an amiable eccentric who routinely pulled his wardrobe from a vast collection of costumes and hats. He shopped for groceries while wearing a yellow chicken suit and played Frisbee in a Robin Hood hat and karate robe.

“My behavior earned me the nickname the Mad Monk of Malibu,” he wrote in his book. “Living up to it came naturally.”

Hagman’s survivors include his wife, Maj; daughter, Heidi; and son, Preston.

RIP Sleep well my friend. :(

Unbelievable. :( I just heard about this as soon as I went online this afternoon. I can't believe Larry's gone. R.I.P. Larry. :(

:rip: Larry Hagman

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/texas/article/Larry-Hagman-as-J-R-A-TV-villain-for-all-ages-4063553.php

Larry Hagman as J.R.: A TV villain for all ages

By FRAZIER MOORE | Associated Press –

NEW YORK (AP) — One reason "Dallas" became a cultural phenomenon like none other is that Larry Hagman never took its magnitude for granted.

During an interview last June, he spoke of returning to Dallas and the real-life Southfork Ranch some months earlier to resume his role of J.R. Ewing for the TNT network's revival of the series. There at Southfork, now a major tourist attraction, he came upon a wall-size family tree diagramming the entanglement of "Dallas" characters.

"I looked at it and said 'I didn't know I was related to HER!'" Hagman marveled. "And I didn't know THAT!"

In its own way, the original "Dallas" — which aired on CBS from 1978 to 1991 — was unfathomably bigger than anything on TV before or since, while J.R. Ewing remains unrivaled not just as a video villain but as a towering mythical figure.

All this is largely thanks to Hagman and his epic portrayal of J.R., a Texas oilman and patriarch who, in Hagman's hands, was in equal measures loathsome and lovable.

Hagman, who died Friday at 81, certainly had nothing more to prove a quarter-century ago when "Dallas" ended after 14 seasons.

But in the series revival, whose first season aired this summer, J.R. was even more evil and deliciously conniving than ever. Though visibly frail, Hagman knew how to leverage J.R.'s vulnerabilities as a new form of strength to wield against his rivals. Hagman knew how to double-down on J.R. as a force the audience could hiss and cheer with equal delight.

Of course, in his long career, Hagman did more than star in "Dallas" and tackled more roles than J.R. Ewing. Had "Dallas" never come along with its operatic sprawl of power, corruption and family feuds, Hagman would likely be remembered for an earlier series, "I Dream of Jeannie," the 1960s sitcom about an astronaut and the genie who loved him.

Even so, during Hagman's five seasons co-starring with Barbara Eden as the sexy genie-in-a-bottle, he was inevitably upstaged.

That would never be a problem on "Dallas," especially after the final hour of the series' second season, when J.R. was gunned down by an unknown assailant and left for dead on his office floor.

All that summer and late into the fall, the nation was seized and teased by the mystery of Who Shot J.R.? Nearly every fellow character had sufficient motive to want J.R. killed, and which of them had done the deed was a question everyone was asking. Finally, the answer was delivered on the episode that aired 32 years ago almost to the day — on Nov. 21, 1980 — when the shooter was revealed to be J.R.'s scheming sister-in-law and mistress, Kristin.

And oh, by the way, J.R. survived.

As J.R., Hagman could marshal piercing glances with his hawk-like eyes, and chill any onlooker with his wicked grin. There was no depth to which J.R. couldn't sink, especially with the outrageous story lines the series blessed him with.

But his popularity exceeded that for even a notable bad guy. This, too, is a credit to Hagman's portrayal. By all indications, the glorious rascalness that made J.R. such fun to watch was lifted intact from Hagman's own lively personality.

During last June's lunch interview with Hagman and Linda Gray (J.R.'s long-suffering onetime wife, Sue Ellen), Gray recalled the day the "Dallas" cast first met.

"He walks in, this man with a cowboy hat," said Gray, "and I thought, 'What's this?' To me, he was still the astronaut from 'I Dream of Jeannie.' Then he looked at me and he went, 'Hello, darlin'.' And that was it: I thought, Oh, darn, this is gonna be fun."

"She THREW herself at me!" Hagman broke in. "She'd had a couple of glasses of champagne already, and she put her arms around me and said, 'I'm your WIFE!'"

"Where do you come up with these stories?" Gray, laughing, fired back at the man she would describe at his passing months later as "my best friend for 35 years."

What made J.R. irresistible, and always forgivable, was his high-spiritedness, his love of the game. Despite the legendary fortune of the Ewings, J.R. didn't flaunt his wealth. (Southfork was comfortable all right, but not ostentatious. If you wanted to see a prime-time soap whose characters threw their money around, you switched over to ABC and watched "Dynasty.") J.R. savored power, not things. He loved doing to others before they did it to him, and he usually succeeded.

Operating with such diabolical zest, J.R. appalled viewers, yet they always rooted for him. And relied on him to prevail. Back in 1980, they played an obsessive guessing game of Who Shot J.R.? But no one for a moment imagined he would die.

This makes Hagman's passing difficult for fans to comprehend. And it raises an obvious question: During the new season of TNT's "Dallas," which begins Jan. 28, will J.R. have to die?

On some level, his fate seems unavoidable. But for viewers who have hate-loved J.R. for decades, there's a different answer: Thanks to Larry Hagman, J.R. is forever.

___

Very sad news, may he rest in peace.

Another guest-voice from The Simpsons has passed on. :(

Anyone remember J.R. Ewing's private stock beer? :lol:

http://toddkentwebsite.com/jrewing.jpg

Anyone remember J.R. Ewing's private stock beer? :lol:

http://toddkentwebsite.com/jrewing.jpg
I still got one. It's never been opened.

I still got one. It's never been opened.

Likewise. :)

http://www.ultimatedallas.com/dallasnews/2012/11/24/stars-pay-tribute-to-larry-hagman/

Some of the cast and other stars pay tribute to Larry.

i remember that bvd commercial when i was a child. i want to get the dvd complete series for christmas. may he rest in peace.

http://www.ultimatedallas.com/dallasnews/2012/11/24/stars-pay-tribute-to-larry-hagman/

Some of the cast and other stars pay tribute to Larry.
Awwww...I had already known how much the cast loved Larry, but these comments are just so wonderful. Thanks for sharing this link. :cool:

Here's a link to The Mirror UK article that quotes his agent John Castonia sharing further on what happened to Larry.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/larry-hagman-tribute-from-his-agent-john-1455747

One of TV's best ever: Larry Hagman was a "great friend and a complete pro"
24 Nov 2012 21:43

Touching tribute to Dallas legend from the man who knew him best, John Castonia


Larry Hagman was quite simply one of the best artists I have ever worked with.

Not only was he a great friend to a lot of people, he was a complete professional... one of the best TV stars of all time.

We met eight or nine years ago and I ended up putting together his one man show, “Confessions of a Texan S.O.B! starring Larry Hagman".

That shows you what his sense of humour was like - totally infectious.

And we continued to work together ever since then.

He enjoyed life to the fullest and every day he looked forward to it and always wanted to have fun, and enjoyed learning new things.

It’s fair to say that, his life off-screen was far more entertaining than his on screen role as JR Ewing.

Larry’s family gathered in Dallas to celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday which Larry had planned. Unfortunately Larry suffered complications stemming from his battle with myelodysplastic syndromes.

Family was so important to Larry. He doted on his wife of 59 years, Maj, daughter Kristinia, son Preston and five granddaughters, Noel, Tara, Kaya, Becca, Nora and his sister Hellar.

What mattered most to Larry was that his family was by his side during his last days.

Because his family was here I decided to go back to Los Angeles for a couple of days and I knew that he would be just fine, and didn’t expect him to take a turn for the worst.

He was so proud of everything that he had achieved with Dallas.

How many people can say they kept over 350 million viewers in 57 countries on the edge of their seats?

He would say: “As J.R I could get away with anything - bribery, blackmail and adultery. But cancer caught me.”

Larry went though cancer treatments last November for a tumor on his tongue and was in remission from that. He was later diagnosed this past July with MDS and the cause of death was due to complications of acute myeloid leukaemia.

True to character, Larry would never let anything get him down and continued to make people laugh no matter what he was going through.

Larry readily shared his battles with his health over the years. He was totally open and honest about his struggle with alcohol and drugs so as to inspire others to overcome their own vices.

Larry never dwelled on anything. His family motto was: “Don’t worry, be happy, feel good,” which he lived to the fullest.

When he heard Dallas was coming back, he knew he had to be part of it. After all, it was the show that had made him a star all around the world.

Most of all, he was ecstatic at the chance to work once again with his dear friends and co-stars Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray.

They had an incredible relationship throughout the years. They would get together once or twice a month just to have lunch and share memories.

It is also important to remember his philanthropic work off screen as an advocate for the issues he was most passionate about.

He had been a smoker for many years until he realised the damage it could cause. He not only quit smoking but created the Great Smoke Out Campaign. He would even carry around a fan to blow away cigarette smoke - that’s how passionate he was about it.

After his liver transplant he devoted himself to campaigns for organ donation.

He would fight for anything he believed in. Whenever he was asked for an autograph, Larry would give out paper money with the message: “This isn’t worth anything but the paper it’s printed on, but please recycle yourself and call this number for organ donation.”

After the operation, he kept a photo of the donor above his mirror and would say a prayer for him every morning. That’s the kind of guy he was.

There’s a magic about what Larry brought to the craft of acting... one that will never be replaced.

Larry was - now and for ever - one of a kind.

It sounds like it happened all of a sudden and was unexpected. :(

Very sad news concerning the legendary actor with the 10 gallon hat who grew up in the New Deal era of the 1930s and experienced unimaginable wealth through work,the concomitant pressure of which led to drinking binges which lamentably plagued his life.The show was a worldwide hit and in a mirror image of Lee Harvey Oswald's dream twenty years earlier was even credited for the fall of the Berlin Wall as East German communists with their aerials watched West German television, becoming entranced with the Ewing lifestyle,possible not fully realizing in their monochrome propaganda-indoctrinated existence that all Americans didn't live that way,yet the characters leapt out from beyond the TV screen and gave everyone something to aspire to. The show was a forerunner for others of the same ilk such as Dynasty,Flamingo Road and Falcon Crest,but Dallas along with Larry Hagman was the original and the best.

Rest In Peace, Larry. I will miss you.

I've been gone for a while and thought there would be more than 2 pages on Hagman's death! Is there another section for the 2012 Dallas?

I only saw a litttle of the new Dallas and didn't really like it but now it has peaked my interest. How will they handle JR's death?

But I can't see the show going on past this season. Patrick and Linda aren't enough to carry the show.

It sounds like it happened all of a sudden and was unexpected. :(

Yes it does. He said he had a treatable form of throat cancer and he made it sound like it was beatable.

Obviously that changed!

I've been gone for a while and thought there would be more than 2 pages on Hagman's death! Is there another section for the 2012 Dallas?

I only saw a litttle of the new Dallas and didn't really like it but now it has peaked my interest. How will they handle JR's death?

But I can't see the show going on past this season. Patrick and Linda aren't enough to carry the show.

I don't think the young un's remember the first series,and Larry did look a bit scary in the new series. They might extend the roles of Cliff Barnes,Lucy and Ray,and bring back Gary and Valene,who knows,to compensate for the irreplaceable loss of J.R. Ewing.

I don't think the young un's remember the first series,and Larry did look a bit scary in the new series. They might extend the roles of Cliff Barnes,Lucy and Ray,and bring back Gary and Valene,who knows,to compensate for the irreplaceable loss of J.R. Ewing.
and expand the role of John Ross. But still I agree with the poster who said he can't imagine it lasting much longer without "the man everyone loves to hate". I say, maybe 2 more seasons. It'll be a shame to see it go if I'm right.:(

RIP Larry Hagman--Thought you were great as Maj. Nelson, and of course as J.R. Ewing.

and expand the role of John Ross. But still I agree with the poster who said he can't imagine it lasting much longer without "the man everyone loves to hate". I say, maybe 2 more seasons. It'll be a shame to see it go if I'm right.:(
I don't think it's necessarily the end of the show,as the way the new programme was heading was for the older characters to take a back seat,and Larry Hagman was a shadow of his former self in the recent series. There is a precedent with the spin-off Knot's Landing,just the new Dallas might not have the cut and thrust of the original series.

I don't think it's necessarily the end of the show,as the way the new programme was heading was for the older characters to take a back seat,and Larry Hagman was a shadow of his former self in the recent series. There is a precedent with the spin-off Knot's Landing,just the new Dallas might not have the cut and thrust of the original series.

But it's not Dallas without JR.

On ET last nite they showed JR saying he wants this new Dallas to last 13 years till he's 94 so his death was definitely unexpected!

I don't think it's necessarily the end of the show,as the way the new programme was heading was for the older characters to take a back seat,and Larry Hagman was a shadow of his former self in the recent series. There is a precedent with the spin-off Knot's Landing,just the new Dallas might not have the cut and thrust of the original series.
Even though Larry wasn't on the new show as much, his actions still drove the show. I still don't know what to think of the new Dallas. It's watchable and I like the new John Ross but I hate how they're changing history from the original show. I'll watch it until the end but I watched the original to the end too.

Southfork Ranch to Honor Late Larry Hagman With Public Memorial

Fans of the late Larry Hagman, star of long-running TV series Dallas, will have an opportunity to pay their respects to the man and the character he made famous, J.R. Ewing, when Southfork Ranch opens its doors to mourners on Dec. 2.

The famous 340-acre Parker, Texas homestead, whose exteriors were presented as the Ewing clan’s beloved base (most of the show’s 357 episodes were not actually filmed there), is offering complimentary tours to the public from 2 to 4 p.m. this Sunday, followed by a memorial reception during which guests can leave cards, flowers and sign a memorial book to Hagman.

In an announcement by Forever Resorts, the company that now owns the ranch (which sees 400,000 visitors a year), it was revealed that Hagman, who died on Nov. 22 at the age of 81, had a family outing to Southfork planned the day of his passing.

Hagman succumbed to cancer at Dallas’ Medical City Hospital, some 15 miles from Southfork, on Thanksgiving night.
For more information, visit Southfork’s official website at http://www.southfork.com/ or Facebook page.

^ That's a wonderful tribute. I had no idea that "Southfork" was open to the public!

Here's Larry's last known picture. He's with Sheree J. Wilson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2237866/Larry-Hagman-dead-Last-picture-Dallas-star-shows-JR-actor-smiling-tributes-pour-in.html

Here's Larry's last known picture. He's with Sheree J. Wilson

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2237866/Larry-Hagman-dead-Last-picture-Dallas-star-shows-JR-actor-smiling-tributes-pour-in.html

Don't tell me they're going to bring April Stevens back,and ladies if you think all men like falsies like that you're very much mistaken.

Don't tell me they're going to bring April Stevens back,and ladies if you think all men like falsies like that you're very much mistaken.

The article doesn't say anything at all about bringing the April stevens character back. The caption under the photo should be self-explanatory

Last Known Picture: Larry Hagman and Sheere J. Wilson arrive for the White Bridle Society's 'Da Vinci, Wine and Roses' benefit at Lisa Blue Baron Mansion on November 15, 2012 in Dallas, Texas

Don't tell me they're going to bring April Stevens back,and ladies if you think all men like falsies like that you're very much mistaken.

That's a bit off topic and also needlessly unkind.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/richardrushfield/how-jr-ewing-made-tv-safe-for-evil

Larry Hagman's famous "Dallas" character changed primetime forever, as Richard Rushfield points out: "After years of anodyne leading men — from Mike Brady to Eddie’s father to Uncle Bill — the public was ready for TV to bare some fanged teeth. No one, not Bobby nor network censors, would put J.R. in the corner and he instantly became the show’s core. And as Dallas became a giant hit, the idea that the public wouldn't tolerate a 'bad guy' triumphant was buried forever."

http://www.buzzfeed.com/richardrushfield/how-jr-ewing-made-tv-safe-for-evil

Larry Hagman's famous "Dallas" character changed primetime forever, as Richard Rushfield points out: "After years of anodyne leading men — from Mike Brady to Eddie’s father to Uncle Bill — the public was ready for TV to bare some fanged teeth. No one, not Bobby nor network censors, would put J.R. in the corner and he instantly became the show’s core. And as Dallas became a giant hit, the idea that the public wouldn't tolerate a 'bad guy' triumphant was buried forever."

Why not post the entire article instead of just one paragraph? :confused:

Here it is in it's entirety...

How JR Ewing Made TV Safe For Evil

The road to Breaking Bad and The Mindy Project began at the Southfork Ranch

Before J.R. Ewing took to the airwaves, network television was a place for people you’d be happy to leave your kids with: The Waltons, the Ingalls of Little House, the Bradford family of Eight Is Enough, Captain Stubing, and a galaxy of hard-nosed detectives. Good folk just trying to do right by the people they cared for and do an honest job in a sometimes crooked world. Shows were led by good guys, while those with hearts of coal played the villains, or at worst, the cranky but ultimately lovable boss.

A slight cloud appeared over the primetime skies in the form of Archie Bunker’s race-baiting tirades, but even he, the show’s creators found, had to let his lovable inner core show at least once a week. And after hours, the Not Ready For Prime Time Players were toying with forms of comedy less tied to likeability.

And then there was J.R. on Dallas. Under the guiding hand of Larry Hagman, who died yesterday at age 81, the Ewing’s bad brother radiated malevolence and evil with a smile as wide as Texas. Not since Manet’s Olympia has the public been so shocked by a character’s complete shamelessness amidst a brazen display of sin.

The series creators may have intended the show’s true star to be the hapless good son Bobby Ewing, played by Patrick Duffy. But after years of anodyne leading men — from Mike Brady to Eddie’s father to Uncle Bill — the public was ready for TV to bare some fanged teeth. No one, not Bobby nor network censors, would put J.R. in the corner and he instantly became the show’s core. And as Dallas became a giant hit, the idea that the public wouldn’t tolerate a “bad guy” triumphant was buried forever.

From there, primetime was never the same. In sitcomland, by the end of the 80’s, traditional loving families had given away to a cast of the self-centered, craven, satires of traditional families seen on Roseanne, Married With Children and The Simpsons. Earnest struggling families all but disappeared from dramas on the primetime airwaves, replaced by other campy, evil, rich broods (Dynasty) and eventually with the rise of HBO and the novel-like format came families of Mafiosa, undertakers, philandering advertising executives, vampires, and crystal meth dealers.

Today, television is littered with J.R.’s heirs. You’ll find more zombies there than honest, hard working, salt of the earth families. A show like The Mindy Project, which gleefully revels in the shallowness and self-absorption of its heroine, would never have been possible without Larry Hagman blazing a trail. Across America’s cultural landscape, we are all J.R.’s children.

Don't tell me they're going to bring April Stevens back,and ladies if you think all men like falsies like that you're very much mistaken.

April was horrible in Dallas. That's when Dallas sort of jumped the shark. I'm surprised the casting directors picked her after having such a strong cast.

Don't tell me they're going to bring April Stevens back,and ladies if you think all men like falsies like that you're very much mistaken.
Sheree was one of Larry's best friends. That's all.

It was only a joke,maybe in bad taste. Anyway didn't they kill her off on her honeymoon in Paris with Bobby? Come to think of it,that's no predictor of future events..

I just watch a couple of Larry Hagman tributes on ET and Inside Edition. On ET they interviewed his son. He said that Dallas was the one thing that kept Larry alive as long he did. He said that Larry called his sister asking her to come to his place for Thanksgiving. She told him that she had people coming over and she would go over there for Christmas. Larry told her that he didn't think there would be a Christmas. :( Inside Edition had an interview with Barbara Eden. She was in tears. She didn't know it was that bad. She said she talked to Larry a couple of weeks before and she thought he had beaten cancer. :(

I found the ET interview Online.

http://www.etonline.com/tv/127461_Larry_Hagman_s_Son_Dallas_Kept_Him_Alive/

It was only a joke,maybe in bad taste. Anyway didn't they kill her off on her honeymoon in Paris with Bobby? Come to think of it,that's no predictor of future events..
She was killed off. She's not coming back to the show. I always liked her. IMO she was one of the better new actors to appear on Dallas after 1986. I know I may be in the minority on that. I don't want to turn the thread into that. This thread is about Larry.

Linda Gray's Final Deathbed Conversation With Larry Hagman

His "Dallas" co-star and on-screen wife tells THR she hoped his new car would keep him alive: "You can't die until you drive the Tesla."

I originally met Larry when we did the first table read for Dallas in 1977, and the last time I saw him was the day before he died on Nov. 23 in Dallas. And from the beginning to the end, he was fun and generous.

When we did that table reading for Dallas, he came with saddlebags over his shoulder, wearing a big Stetson hat. The bags were filled with champagne bottles, which we drank after the reading. I didn't have much of a part in the pilot -- I mostly just sat there and gave meaningful looks -- but I thought, "Working with this guy could be fun."

And that's the way it turned out. I called him the Pied Piper -- I think he was 5 years old under all that hat. No matter what the situation was, he made it fun. Most people lose that as they get older: We have to be responsible; we have to be adults -- but not Larry. I remember he used to take me out on a scooter on the MGM lot. I'd be in high heels with hair and makeup and he'd be done up as J.R., and we'd be blowing bubbles through this German teddy bear thing he found somewhere. Who else thought to do things like that?

Then last week I was with him with Patrick Duffy [who played J.R.'s youngest brother, Bobby Ewing, on the series] when we went to visit him in the hospital. Larry being in the hospital wasn't expected: He'd invited his entire family -- daughter, son and five granddaughters -- to spend Thanksgiving in Dallas, where we've been filming the new show for TNT. He probably felt weak and didn't want to fly.

When we went into his room, he looked good and was sitting up in bed, but then he said, "I have two weeks to live." And we were like, "Are you kidding? We have scenes on Monday!" Then we talked about how he'd ordered the new Tesla electric car and said, "You can't die until you drive the Tesla." And he perked up and said, "Yeah, I've got the Tesla coming and the scenes with you." It was like that -- two hours of laughing, giggling and hanging out. We left just beaming, thinking: "This is cool, he's being Larry, he's going to be OK."

The next day, Larry had arranged for everyone in his entire family to take this Airstream bus he'd converted with sheepskins and beads and hippie crap to the Southfork set to have a Thanksgiving picnic. Then they came back to the hospital to see Grandpa, and he got to speak with everyone in the family. And maybe that was enough for him because Friday morning, we got a call to go to the hospital. He'd slipped into a coma.

We were stunned. He'd orchestrated it for everyone to be with him. He'd gotten to speak with everyone in the family individually. Then it was like, "OK, I'm done."

In his life, he was very open about having done LSD, and he'd say, "I'm not afraid of dying. I've gone to the other side, and I know it's wonderful." And maybe that's the way it worked out.

Barbara Eden Remembers Her 'I Dream of Jeannie' Co-Star

Larry was one of the most intelligent actors I ever worked with. He more than hit his marks. And when you're working with another actor, you know immediately if the ball isn't tossed back. Plus, Larry was savvy about the business, which I wasn't. The first week on Jeannie, he asked me if I was keeping track of my hours, and I wasn't.

Three years later, he came in with this huge overtime check. I told him I hadn't gotten one. He asked me if I submitted my hours, and I said I didn't know you had to ask.

And when I did, it took lawyers and SAG many months to compute it. Larry just laughed. He knew about the squeaky wheel getting attention in this business."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dallas-larry-hagman-death-linda-394672

'Dallas' Creator David Jacobs on the Moment Larry Hagman Became J.R. Ewing

The actor threw in an unscripted laugh, which "added an 'Oh boy, hold on to your hats! This is going to be fun" moment, the series creator tells THR.

I've heard it said that the role of J.R. Ewing was relatively minor at the beginning of Dallas. But that's not so. J.R. appears on Page 3 of the 1977 pilot script. He drives the main story, and he speaks the last words in his close-up during the last shot. But what Larry did in that final shot showed how he'd taken possession of his character.

In the pilot, J.R. has tried to trap Pam, Bobby's new wife [played by Victoria Principal], in a compromising situation with ranch foreman Ray. When his plan fails, J.R. says: "I underestimated her. I won't make that mistake again." And then the script says: "He smiles. Fade Out."

But Larry didn't smile; he laughed. Sounds close -- smile, laugh, almost the same, right? Wrong. The smile meant he appreciated that he'd found a worthy adversary in Pam. The laugh added an "Oh, boy, hold on to your hats! This is going to be fun!" That was J.R. Ewing!

J.R. was a symbiotic union of actor and character -- bigger than the sum of the two parts. Is the death of Larry Hagman the death of J.R. Ewing? It's hard to think otherwise. Is it the death of Dallas? It doesn't have to be. But whatever the future of Dallas, the long shadow of J.R. will fall over it forever.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dallas-creator-larry-hagmans-death-394721

It is hard to imagine how Dallas can really live on without J.R. I know we've talked about who could step up to be the major villain, but moreover, Dallas is so closely identified with J.R. I can't imagine it's not going to suffer greatly with this loss.

I remember when I watched the show with my folks back in the day. We honestly liked all the characters (or in J.R.'s case, at least enjoyed WATCHING them, lol), but much of the appeal was to see if J.R. would ever "get his". I remember one woman at work said that she was "going to keep watching the show because someday somebody was going to kill J.R. and she didn't want to miss that!"

What a testament to Hagman's acting ability that he could generate that kind of reaction!

Let's face it the show fell apart-J.R or no J.R. It was past its best after series 2 in the same way Dynasty was. Some of the actors left;other actors were replaced or simply not up to the job,as was also the case with the scriptwriters.

It is hard to imagine how Dallas can really live on without J.R. I know we've talked about who could step up to be the major villain, but moreover, Dallas is so closely identified with J.R. I can't imagine it's not going to suffer greatly with this loss.

I remember when I watched the show with my folks back in the day. We honestly liked all the characters (or in J.R.'s case, at least enjoyed WATCHING them, lol), but much of the appeal was to see if J.R. would ever "get his". I remember one woman at work said that she was "going to keep watching the show because someday somebody was going to kill J.R. and she didn't want to miss that!"

What a testament to Hagman's acting ability that he could generate that kind of reaction!
That's what the new show lacks. The cast is nowhere as good as the original Dallas cast. I liked all the characters too. They just all came together. The reason Dallas' final seasons were so bad is because most of the original cast had left. Larry, Patrick and Ken tried the best they could but it wasn't enough. I doubt the show will survive without Larry. I think ratings will be high at first as people tune in to see Larry's final episodes and how they write him out. If you remember, Eight Simple Rules had the best ratings they ever had right after John Ritter died. The show was canceled the following season. Some people just can't be replaced. I hope they have a final episode and end the show right. That's what I always wanted anyway.

Let's face it the show fell apart-J.R or no J.R. It was past its best after series 2 in the same way Dynasty was. Some of the actors left;other actors were replaced or simply not up to the job,as was also the case with the scriptwriters.

Disagree.

I think Dallas worked quite well for about five seasons. After that it declined at varying degrees of speed throughout it's life. I've gone on record that Jock's (and Jim Davis') passing was a turning point for me and the show. The "war for Ewing Oil" between J.R. and Bobby that ensued right after that was the last great Dallas storyline in my opinion, though I continued watching for a while after that.

That's what the new show lacks. The cast is nowhere as good as the original Dallas cast. I liked all the characters too. They just all came together. The reason Dallas' final seasons were so bad is because most of the original cast had left. Larry, Patrick and Ken tried the best they could but it wasn't enough. I doubt the show will survive without Larry. I think ratings will be high at first as people tune in to see Larry's final episodes and how they write him out. If you remember, Eight Simple Rules had the best ratings they ever had right after John Ritter died. The show was canceled the following season. Some people just can't be replaced. I hope they have a final episode and end the show right. That's what I always wanted anyway.

That would be the honorable thing, actually. I mean, Patrick and Linda obviously loved Larry and I am guessing will feel odd continuing without him (and my guess is that neither of them would starve if the show ended). What a better way to cap the show than to end it with J.R.'s funeral.

You're right, the ensemble (as it so often does) defined the show and made it what it was. Jock, Miss Ellie, J.R., Sue Ellen, Pam, Cliff, Ray, and Lucy (with Gary and Val circling in the background) were really the heart and soul of the show, and unlike other shows, I really don't think any of the 'replacements' quite measured up. Nothing against Clayton, Wendell, Mitch, Afton, Carter, Jenna, etc., but they just didn't have the impact or power of the original cast.

I firmly believe that there are times when a show just has reached its natural end, often owing to the departure of too many beloved characters. At that time everyone involved should just own up to the inevitable and end things on a decent and final note.

I think this may be one of those times.

That's what the new show lacks. The cast is nowhere as good as the original Dallas cast. I liked all the characters too. They just all came together. The reason Dallas' final seasons were so bad is because most of the original cast had left. Larry, Patrick and Ken tried the best they could but it wasn't enough. I doubt the show will survive without Larry. I think ratings will be high at first as people tune in to see Larry's final episodes and how they write him out. If you remember, Eight Simple Rules had the best ratings they ever had right after John Ritter died. The show was canceled the following season. Some people just can't be replaced. I hope they have a final episode and end the show right. That's what I always wanted anyway.

Completely true! For several seasons the original Dallas had a great cast and storyline! This new Dallas can't even come close to that. It may last a season 3 and then be gone.

It would actually be a fitting tribute to Larry if they end the show after season 2 or season 3.

I hope the show survive.....but if the producers truly doesn't think the show will survive without Larry/JR.....their best bet is to .....end the show with JR's funeral....and since Gary and Val is going to be at the funeral...the producers should think about a spinoff with Gary and Val at J.R. Funeral and follow their story back to Knots landing...perhaps they can talk Lucy into moving to knots...
It's a good plan.... Every last original knots landing cast/member is still around.... Even lily Mae is still living.....and they all seem to be in good health. It would be great if Gary, Val, the twins and Abby show at JR's funeral. And the spinoff goes from there. Wishful thinking.

RIP Larry .....We All Love You.

I hope the show survive.....but if the producers truly doesn't think the show will survive without Larry/JR.....their best bet is to .....end the show with JR's funeral....and since Gary and Val is going to be at the funeral...the producers should think about a spinoff with Gary and Val at J.R. Funeral and follow their story back to Knots landing...perhaps they can talk Lucy into moving to knots...
It's a good plan.... Every last original knots landing cast/member is still around.... Even lily Mae is still living.....and they all seem to be in good health. It would be great if Gary, Val, the twins and Abby show at JR's funeral. And the spinoff goes from there. Wishful thinking.

RIP Larry .....We All Love You.

Yeah, that would be ok. They couldn't continue the new Dallas with Gary and Knots Landing cast because no one cares about Knots Landing! :lol:

Yeah, that would be ok. They couldn't continue the new Dallas with Gary and Knots Landing cast because no one cares about Knots Landing! :lol:
You know Dallas and Knots Landing were canceled while on top...Their rating were still higher than any other nighttime soap/series on the air durning that time...They both were canceled because they were too expensive to continue. So CBS canceled Dallas first and Knots Landing the year after..The same with soaps operas All My Children & One Life to Live...They were cancel for the same reason.....To expensive to produce...So what's cheaper to produce than soaps. REALITY SHOWS. Sad, But True.....

You know Dallas and Knots Landing were canceled while on top...Their rating were still higher than any other nighttime soap/series on the air durning that time...They both were canceled because they were too expensive to continue. So CBS canceled Dallas first and Knots Landing the year after..The same with soaps operas All My Children & One Life to Live...They were cancel for the same reason.....To expensive to produce...So what's cheaper to produce than soaps. REALITY SHOWS. Sad, But True.....

Do you have the viewing figures to back that up? From memory I recall the Donna Krebs storyline with the Down's Syndrome baby when most people switched off amongst my circle-sorry to be cruel but that was the reality.

Do you have the viewing figures to back that up? From memory I recall the Donna Krebs storyline with the Down's Syndrome baby when most people switched off amongst my circle-sorry to be cruel but that was the reality.
Dallas was still the #6 ranked show in the country when that story line was going on. Dallas didn't leave the top 30 until the 1989-90 season. The last 2 seasons ratings continued to drop. A big part of it was because it was so expensive to produce that the cast had to be cut. Larry, Patrick and Ken were the only original stars still left when the show ended. That more than anything was why ratings fell. Most of the new actors were awful and couldn't compete with the original cast.

Dallas was still the #6 ranked show in the country when that story line was going on. Dallas didn't leave the top 30 until the 1989-90 season. The last 2 seasons ratings continued to drop. A big part of it was because it was so expensive to produce that the cast had to be cut. Larry, Patrick and Ken were the only original stars still left when the show ended. That more than anything was why ratings fell. Most of the new actors were awful and couldn't compete with the original cast.

Agreed. Ultimately, if you don't care about the characters, it doesn't matter what you do with them; kill them, put them in jail, have them sleep together, get amnesia, fight, whatever. And if the actors can't sell the characters, nobody buys the characters.

I wish more shows would learn how to bow out nobly,and resist the "milking it for every last dollar" motivation. Yeah, I understand people want to keep working but at some point it's just not worth it if you diminish what the show originally was.

I had been away from the show for a few years, but tuned in for the finale. Wow. I cannot imagine the original creators doing an episode like that.

This takes me back. Here's a link to Larry & Linda hosting the 1986 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmU4mMN75zc

Agreed. Ultimately, if you don't care about the characters, it doesn't matter what you do with them; kill them, put them in jail, have them sleep together, get amnesia, fight, whatever. And if the actors can't sell the characters, nobody buys the characters.

I wish more shows would learn how to bow out nobly,and resist the "milking it for every last dollar" motivation. Yeah, I understand people want to keep working but at some point it's just not worth it if you diminish what the show originally was.

I had been away from the show for a few years, but tuned in for the finale. Wow. I cannot imagine the original creators doing an episode like that.
The final episode was such a disappointment. And I don't buy that they didn't know the show was getting cancelled. I knew it was the last season and I knew by the fall. There was hardly anybody worth anything left. Howard Keel was still in the opening credits but only appeared in 4 episodes. Other stars only appeared in half the shows. You can't have a tv show where half the cast is MIA. Plus they made JR an idiot. Getting put in a sanatarium by his hillbilly wife and his son. the old JR never would have let that happen. lol I agree with you. The show would have been better off if they would have bowed out when Victoria left. That was the last real good season. Each season thereafter just got worse and worse.

It's hard to convey how big Dallas was in its day. Yes, many shows are popular now, but most of them are reality shows and no matter how obsessed people are with them, they don't see the 'performers' the same way as they saw the actors. Instead of being larger than life, the folks on reality shows are most often "smaller than life", frustrated, angry (and often, I think, emotionally ill) people who don't inspire us but just appeal to our darker sides like watching two snakes fighting over a mouse; ultimately, they depress us.

I think one of the reasons Hagman's death hits people of our age so hard is that he was a reminder of when TV made us feel "good", when it wasn't just something we flipped on because there was nothing else to do, but because we got so caught up in the drama of those onscreen. And it's funny how shows like Dallas, with its honest emotion and conflicts because of strong writing and acting (at least in the early years) always seem to much more 'real' to me than shows that feature 'real people' but skew everything so much that they come off fake!

Dallas was still the #6 ranked show in the country when that story line was going on. Dallas didn't leave the top 30 until the 1989-90 season. The last 2 seasons ratings continued to drop. A big part of it was because it was so expensive to produce that the cast had to be cut. Larry, Patrick and Ken were the only original stars still left when the show ended. That more than anything was why ratings fell. Most of the new actors were awful and couldn't compete with the original cast.

I could have done a better job writing the story myself-Bobby's death and subsequent resurrection,the Miss Ellie replacement and return,the fake Jock,the Down's Syndrome baby,the forced marriage of J.R. to Cally,I could go on..

It's hard to convey how big Dallas was in its day. Yes, many shows are popular now, but most of them are reality shows and no matter how obsessed people are with them, they don't see the 'performers' the same way as they saw the actors. Instead of being larger than life, the folks on reality shows are most often "smaller than life", frustrated, angry (and often, I think, emotionally ill) people who don't inspire us but just appeal to our darker sides like watching two snakes fighting over a mouse; ultimately, they depress us.

I think one of the reasons Hagman's death hits people of our age so hard is that he was a reminder of when TV made us feel "good", when it wasn't just something we flipped on because there was nothing else to do, but because we got so caught up in the drama of those onscreen. And it's funny how shows like Dallas, with its honest emotion and conflicts because of strong writing and acting (at least in the early years) always seem to much more 'real' to me than shows that feature 'real people' but skew everything so much that they come off fake!
You're exactly right. No matter what I was doing I was in front of my tv screen watching Dallas on Friday nights. And on the few occasions when I went to my HS football team's games I had my Mom audio tape it for me. I had no VCR then. lol I remember in the summer of 1980 when Who Shot JR was talked about everywhere. There was even a song about it. I'll have to see if I can find that. I know it was on youtube at one time. Television is just not that way anymore. Reality TV just sucks and with the invention of the DVR, very few people watch live tv anymore. It's an era that's long gone. I miss those days.

I could have done a better job writing the story myself-Bobby's death and subsequent resurrection,the Miss Ellie replacement and return,the fake Jock,the Down's Syndrome baby,the forced marriage of J.R. to Cally,I could go on..
The biggest mistake they made was the way they wrote out Pam. She's still in limbo. Bobby's return was awful. Just about any other way I could have lived with. If they were going to make it a dream, they should have made it Bobby's. Have him be in a coma or something. There were very few good stories during the last 4 seasons. I didn't mind the Down Syndrome storyline though. It gave Ray and Donna a good story but it vanished when the dream ended. I hated the way Donna left the series too. then they put Ray and Jenna together. they had no chemistry. Dallas was a great show for about 9 or 10 seasons but the last few years were mediocre.

Here's the Who Shot JR song.

http://www.televisiontunes.com/Dallas_-_Gary_Burbank_-_Who_Shot_J._R..html

A couple more cast members talk about Larry.

Charlene Tilton

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1988631535001/

Priscilla Presley

http://www.itv.com/news/story/2012-11-24/larry-hagman-who-played-j-r-ewing-in-dallas-dies/

http://www.texasmonthly.com/cms/prin...sue=2012-06-01

June 2012

Larry Hagman’s Curtain Call

The world knows him as J. R. Ewing, the star who made Dallas into a global hit and changed television history. But for thirty years I have known him as a good friend, a spiritual mentor, and one hell of a partier. Inside the epic life of Weatherford, Texas’s most famous son.

by Harry Hurt III


There's nothing like watching the real J.R. Ewing in action. It’s an early November Friday night, and Larry Hagman is shuffling across the hardwood floor of a rented Dallas loft furnished with steer-hide throw rugs, a flat-screen TV, and a leather case full of shotgun barrels he took on a recent quail-
hunting trip. Decked out in a blue terry-cloth bathrobe and a Santa Claus cap, he looks more like a carefree flower child celebrating an early Christmas than an eighty-year-old granddaddy suffering from potentially terminal cancer.

Hagman peers through a window, scanning the neon-lit obelisks of the downtown skyline, his bushy gray brows angling sharply upward, his green eyes twinkling with flecks of gold. “Once upon a time, this was all mine,” he says, flashing J.R.’s greedy, lascivious grin. Then he hastens to add, “It will be again.”

That’s not just bravura—it’s grace under extreme pressure. The way Hagman sees it, he’s enjoying two new leases on life. One is the chance to reprise the role that turned him into an international star. This month Dallas, a $54 million sequel to the pioneering prime-time soap opera, will debut on TNT, and Hagman will appear as the show’s iconic archvillain in ten new episodes.

Lease number two offers Hagman a chance to cheat death. In September, just as the new Dallas began filming, his doctors discovered a malignant tumor in his throat. On this otherwise inauspicious night, Hagman is preparing to undergo six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatments. A personal chef is cooking a vegan dinner the color and texture of cardboard. She enforces the ban on her boss’s once ubiquitous champagne—for years he drank an average of five bottles a day, and although he gave it up, he’s been known, even to this day, to backslide—
because some nutritionists believe cancers feed on sugar.

On one end of the loft, a humidifier is steaming up a miniature cloud storm. Hagman confides that he bought it on the advice of his pal Michael Douglas. “Michael said that when you undergo radiation and chemotherapy, your saliva dries up and you can’t spit. He must know what he’s talking about. He had stage-four throat cancer. I only have stage two.”

Only stage two? That would be enough to occupy most people’s attention. Not Hagman, who seems more concerned with the fact that he’ll be filming the fourth episode of the new Dallas before he reports to the hospital on Monday afternoon. He learned long ago that the early days of a project are pivotal. Unbeknownst to most of the viewing public, J. R. was written as a supporting role in the original Dallas. It was Hagman who almost single-handedly turned J.R. into the larger-than-life character that the world came to love and hate. And he did it, through a combination of guile and charm, by the show’s fourth episode.

I ask Hagman if he’s planning to do the same this time around. He pauses to wash down a mouthful of spinach with a cup of tea. Then he flashes that J.R. grin again and says, “Of course.”

I see why he’s so sure of himself two days later when we arrive at Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, for a quick B-roll shoot prior to the game between Dallas and the visiting Buffalo Bills. He’s toting two cowboy hats: a gray beaver skin and a straw. In a characteristically inclusive gesture, he dons the beaver skin and hands me the straw so I can more fully share in the festivities ahead. “Never leave the house without a hat,” he reminds me.

Three security men in silver blazers escort us to a luxury suite on the Ring of Honor level. With two camera crews filming, Hagman peels off from me and leads the rakishly handsome thirty-year-old actor Josh Henderson, who plays J.R.’s son John Ross, to a pair of premium seats. A shot of Hagman and Henderson appears on the 159-by-72-foot double-sided Diamond Vision screen suspended over the football field. A deafening roar erupts from the 85,000 fans in the stadium. “J.R.! J.R.!” they start chanting.

The security men whisk us down to the Cowboys sideline for the National Anthem and then up to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’s luxury suite, where a bevy of billionaires are waiting. As we pass by the grandstands, the fans pick up the chant again. “J.R.! J.R.!”

Hagman beams, waving to the crowd even as he maintains his forced-march forward pace. I holler over the din that he seems to be having more fun than a Brahman bull at a semen-sampling rodeo. “If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it,” he hollers back. “A lot of people can’t stand to be in crowds because they feel they don’t have any control. I love being the center of attention. Why else be an actor?”

That combination of self-confidence and shameless self-interest might as well have come out of the mouth of J. R., which makes you wonder, Is this art imitating life? Or life imitating art? In Hagman’s case, the answer to both questions is almost always yes. I know because, over the course of the thirty years we’ve been friends, Hagman has proved himself to be a shrewder and more tough-minded businessman than J.R. and perhaps twice as charismatic. At the same time, he’s got a big heart that’s made him a devoted husband, a loving if sometimes preoccupied father, and the most loyal of friends.

This month, as millions of viewers tune in to Dallas, they won’t merely be curious about how the show has been updated to reflect our era of economic anxiety and widespread resentment of the one percent. They’ll be celebrating the return of J.R., the brash, fun-loving oil baron at the core of the show. And in so doing, they’ll also celebrate the return of Larry Hagman, the brash, fun-loving actor who forged J.R. from the highs and lows of his own epic life.

Weatherford, Texas (population 25,250), commemorates one of its greatest claims to fame with a life-size bronze statue of the actress Mary Martin, born there in 1913, standing in front of the public library in her Peter Pan costume with arms akimbo as if she’s singing her signature song, “I’ve Gotta Crow.” On September 21, 1931, Martin gave birth to Larry Martin Hagman, who would become in many minds, if not hers, the town’s single greatest claim to fame.

When Larry was born, his father, Ben Jack Hagman, an aspiring lawyer, was 21. Martin was just 17. As Martin later admitted in her autobiography, she was “a mother in name only.” In 1935 she moved to Los Angeles to chase her dreams of stardom, leaving behind her soon-to-be ex-husband and her 4-year-old son. Nicknamed “Lukey,” Hagman was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother and her maid until age 6.

In 1940 Martin married Richard Halliday, a story editor at Paramount Pictures, where she was a contract player. She brought young Lukey out from Texas and enrolled him in the Black-Foxe Military Institute, alongside the sons of such stars as Bing Crosby, who had given her one of her first big breaks on his radio show. Hagman took to the school’s discipline, winning an award for excellence in a small-arms drill. But Halliday, who became Martin’s manager, subjected him to incessant verbal and emotional abuse. “Richard was a real jerk,” he recalls. “He’d berate me for anything, stuff like having loose threads on my sweater. Half the time he was ****-faced on booze. After he died, in 1973, we found out he was also hooked on amphetamines. That explained a lot.”

During his adolescence, Hagman bounced around a lot, going with his mother to New York, then getting shunted off to boarding school in Vermont, then heading back to Weatherford, where he lived with his dad and dabbled in being a cowboy. One hot Texas summer he took a job making oil-field equipment at the Antelope Tool Company in 100-degree heat. Though he hated it, he also witnessed a succession battle won by the company founder’s eldest son that left a lasting impression.

Ben Hagman wanted Larry to go to law school and take over the family practice, but a happy experience acting in a Weatherford High School play (This Girl Business) proved to Larry that he was, at heart, his mother’s son. And so, to his father’s chagrin, he left town and, after a year at Bard College in upstate New York, began his apprenticeship in earnest, putting in time with Margo Jones’s theater in Dallas; Margaret Webster’s Shakespeare workshop in Woodstock, New York; and St. John Terrell’s traveling Music Circus, where he did everything from singing in the chorus to driving tent stakes with a sledgehammer. His mother helped him make connections in the theater world, but she had mixed feelings about his decision to follow in her footsteps. For the next few decades, mother and son engaged in a rivalry that, given their closeness in age, some might have mistaken for a sibling rivalry.

By the early fifties Hagman was living in London, doing a small speaking part in a production of South Pacific that Martin was starring in and organizing entertainment for U.S. troops stationed in the U.K. One evening in 1953, he met the love of his life: Maj (pronounced “My”) Axelsson, a blond, blue-eyed 25-year-old Swedish-born clothing designer. Ten months later, they married in London. Hagman’s mother did not attend the wedding; she was in New York preparing to play Peter Pan on Broadway and in an NBC television special.

He and Maj eventually moved back to New York, where they had two children: a girl, Heidi, and then a boy, Preston. Hagman did a lot of Off-Broadway work, moved to California, and made one major film, the Henry Fonda vehicle Fail-Safe. But he got his first really big break in January 1965, when he was cast in the pilot for I Dream of Jeannie, a comedy about an astronaut who finds a genie in a bottle. After NBC ordered a full season, Hagman signed on for $1,100 per episode. He had finally hit it big, but success didn’t settle him down. Like his mother, he was driven to push himself and those around him. From the start, he kept demanding better scripts, twice threatening to quit, even when the show topped the ratings.

His impatience surely wasn’t helped by his decision during the second season to stop taking Bontril, an addictive appetite suppressant he was using to lose weight. At the same time, he also quit smoking cigarettes. The double dose of abstinence led to a nervous breakdown, complete with an on-set bout of crying and screaming. The crew carted him off in the back of a pickup truck to see a psychiatrist. Hagman’s therapy sessions would continue for three years. After repeatedly urging him to stop worrying about being in “a golden prison,” the shrink suggested, “Why don’t you drop some acid?”

A few days later, Hagman’s pal Peter Fonda took him to a Crosby, Stills and Nash concert, where David Crosby handed over several tabs of LSD made by legendary underground chemist Owsley Stanley. In his 2001 autobiography, Hello Darlin’, Hagman claims that his first acid trip took away his fear of death. The eureka moment came when he stared at his face in the mirror and saw his own molecular structure. “Some cells were dying, some were being reborn,” he recalls. “I realized we don’t disappear when we ‘die.’ We are always a part of a curtain of energy.”

Following this lysergic insight, Hagman adopted a new motto: “Don’t worry. Be happy. Feel good.” He took acid only three more times; though he never suffered a bad trip, he felt he’d had his fill. Pot became his indulgence of choice. “I liked it because it was fun, it made me feel good, and I never had a hangover,” he says.

Hagman’s feel-good philosophy didn’t mean that he was content with the political status quo. He soon became a passionate activist, though not the sort to jump on every cause du jour bandwagon, as some Hollywood celebs do; instead, he picked his crusades and stuck with them. He adamantly opposed the Vietnam War, turning down a request to tour U.S. military bases with his Jeannie co-star Barbara Eden. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968, he participated in an acting and directing workshop in Watts and hired some of the students to work on Jeannie.

Meanwhile, Hagman took out a $100,000 mortgage on a pink bungalow in Malibu Colony, then a beachfront outpost for surfers and hippies. He wore flowing caftans to lead flag parades down the strand and dressed up in a chicken suit to ride his Harley-Davidson to the grocery store. The eccentricity that cemented Hagman’s reputation as the Mad Monk of Malibu, however, started with a physician’s recommendation. After he strained his vocal cords taping Jeannie, Hagman’s doctor suggested he not talk for a few days. Feeling healed and refreshed by the experience, he decided not to speak the following Sunday, thus beginning a tradition of “Silent Sundays.”

Hagman continued his Silent Sundays for more than twenty years, until he realized that the benefits were outweighed by missed opportunities. “In L.A., people do a lot of business on weekends, but I couldn’t talk to my agent, my producers, or anybody else,” he recalls, wistfully adding, “It was selfish to a certain degree, but I miss it terribly. It was a great discipline, and I wish I could have that kind of discipline again.”

The last original episode of Jeannie aired on May 26, 1970, marking the start of what Hagman has described as “a constant hustle for parts.” Over the next several years, he did a lot of made-for-TV movies and some theatrical releases, most of them forgettable, and even directed a sequel to the 1958 camp horror classic The Blob. It was the sort of schedule many actors would have envied, but it was tough for Hagman to shake the fear that he had hit his peak at a young age, that he would forever be known for one role—a role that barely scratched the surface of his talents.

And then everything changed. Just before Christmas 1977, Larry and Maj flew back east to see his mother perform in a benefit for the New York Public Library. As they relaxed in a friend’s apartment, they started to read two scripts from the television production company Lorimar. Larry sat in the guest bedroom and tackled The Waverly Wonders, a football comedy that eventually aired briefly with quarterback Joe Namath in the starring role. Maj settled into an adjoining room with the script for a drama about two warring Texas oil families. After reading a few pages, she came running into the guest bedroom.
“Larry, this is it!” she cried. “We’ve found it!”

The cast of Dallas gathered to read through the pilot script for the first time in January 1978, at producer Leonard Katzman’s office in L.A. Hagman, who had signed on for $11,000 per episode, arrived wearing a fringed buckskin jacket and a cowboy hat and toting a leather saddlebag. This was the first time he met Linda Gray, who was slated to play J. R. Ewing’s long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen. A lithe and vivacious brunette, Gray was a 37-year-old TV actress and model whose shapely legs had graced the famous poster for the 1967 film The Graduate. When she gave Hagman a hug, he was so tongue-tied he could manage only two words.

“Hello, darlin’,” he blurted.

“Nice to meet ya, husband,” Gray purred.

After greeting the show’s 28-year-old leads, Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) and Victoria Principal (Pamela Barnes Ewing), Hagman unpacked six bottles of perfectly chilled champagne from his saddlebag, flashing what he later described as the first of J.R.’s memorable ****-eating grins.

“I just hope we all have a real good time,” he said, toasting the group.

They certainly did have a real good time, though for a while it looked to be a short-lived one. CBS envisioned Dallas as little more than a five-episode mid-season replacement and regarded J. R. as a second-tier character. But from the moment Hagman read the pilot, he set his sights higher.

Hagman based J.R. partly on the scheming Iago in Othello—that early Shakespearean training came in handy—and partly on Jess Hall Jr., the scion of the Antelope Tool Company he had observed many years ago in Weatherford. He recruited Gray as his accomplice with a method-acting move worthy of Brando. After shooting their very first scene together, Hagman offered her a ride home. While he was driving, he told her that she had performed poorly as his wife.

“I was furious,” Gray recalls. “I shouted at him, ‘I don’t care if you were Major Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, don’t you ever, ever talk to me like that again!’ ”

At that moment, says Gray, she became Sue Ellen, and her character’s vitriolic relationship with J.R. commenced. Back on the set, Hagman and Gray started making up their own show in the background, ad-libbing lines during scenes intended to be used only as minor cutaways from the main action if needed. Katzman quickly began adding their improvisations, and soon enough, J.R. was on his way to ensuring control of the family fortune—and the show.

Dallas debuted just as the city itself was about to enter the second major oil boom of the seventies and the Dallas Cowboys were becoming “America’s Team.” The show took full advantage of this charged zeitgeist, and to everyone but Hagman’s surprise, it did well in the ratings, getting picked up for a full second season.

Dallas was as much fun to work on as it was to watch, and no one in the cast was more fun than Hagman, the ringleader. He concocted pranks on the set, kept the bathtub of his motel room filled with ice and champagne, and led raucous nighttime excursions to country and western joints like Whiskey River.

The show continued to climb in the ratings through the end of its second season, ranking tenth overall. But almost no one was prepared for what happened after the third season’s finale, a cliffhanger that aired on March 21, 1980, and ended with J.R. being shot by an unseen assailant.

CBS quickly launched a promotional campaign around the question “Who shot J.R.?” and created a worldwide frenzy unlike anything in TV history. Soon the globe was awash with unauthorized, hastily produced J.R. merchandise, ranging from T-shirts and cowboy hats to dartboards, cologne, and a beer label.

Another man might have let all this attention go to his head, but Hagman instead saw a professional opportunity. In a calculated move that might have come from the J.R. playbook, Hagman took what he later called “the gamble of my life,” demanding that Lorimar pay him more money. Many of his friends thought he’d lost his mind. His mother scolded him for attempting to breach a contract. On the advice of his shrewd publicist, Richard Grant, he shrugged off all their objections and flew to England with Maj.

Hagman’s aim was to attract as much public attention as possible. That wasn’t hard. According to the BBC, one in three Britons watched Dallas. In London, Hagman partied at Annabel’s nightclub and posed for photographs alongside adoring female bobbies. Upon arriving at the Royal Ascot horse races, he inadvertently upstaged the queen of England when the crowd started yelling, “J.R.! J.R.!”

In the early fall of 1980, Lorimar finally agreed to pay Hagman $100,000 per episode, then one of the biggest salaries ever earned by a prime-time TV actor. The studio also agreed to let him direct up to four episodes per year and receive a percentage of the official J.R. merchandise profits. That was an ego boost, to be sure, but as a showbiz veteran who’d earned his spurs driving tent posts in a traveling circus, he took his triumph as a victory for his peers as well.

“When I look at the millions of dollars being paid to top TV actors today, I think, ‘Good for them,’ ” he says. “But I also think they owe me a little nod for blazing the trail in episodic television. All the former cast members of Friends ought to pay me ten percent.”

CBS’s money was well spent. “Who Done It” aired on November 21, 1980, drawing an estimated 380 million viewers worldwide. In the U.S., the audience was 83 million, more than the total number of people who had voted in the presidential election a few weeks earlier. In a preternatural Hollywood payback, the person who shot J.R. turned out to be Sue Ellen’s sister, Kristin, played by 21-year-old Mary Crosby, whose father, Bing, had given Mary Martin that early career boost so many years ago.

Dallas was now the number one show on television, and Hagman was in the driver’s seat of a brand-new Rolls-Royce. Younger women were constantly throwing themselves at him. One offered him a “Texas sandwich,” which she described as “me, you, and my sister.”

Hagman claims that he declined such come-ons. “J.R. wouldn’t have hesitated, but that was him,” he says. “I enjoyed the attention, but I knew it was best to avoid potential trouble. I made it clear to those girls that they’d missed my window of availability by thirty years. They left without stories to tell—or to sell to the tabloids.”

Unlike many of today’s self-obsessed celebrities, Hagman remained genuinely appreciative of his fans. Rather than giving them the brush-off, he coped with the avalanche of letter writers requesting his autograph by sending them “J.R. Dollars”—play money emblazoned with his likeness and printed on recycled paper. When confronted by autograph hounds in person, he engaged them by insisting that they sing him a song, recite a poem, or tell him a brief story in exchange for his “money.”

At one point, Hagman found himself in a position to give his mother a cameo role on Dallas. The idea fizzled, but even the attempt was a sign of how much things had changed between mother and son. “By then, Mother and I had learned to appreciate each other in ways that had been impossible when we were younger,” he recalls. Still, they couldn’t help continuing their professional competition. One night, when they were in Las Vegas to attend a performance by their mutual friend Joel Grey, Hagman and his mother and her traveling companion left their hotel to go to the theater. There was only one cab at the taxi stand, so Hagman offered to let her and her friend take it. Martin demurred, and the cabbie settled the debate by proclaiming, “I don’t want the lady. I want J.R.” As the taxi pulled away, Hagman rolled down the window and grinned. “That’s show business, Mom.”

But this battle of egos didn’t end there. Midway through his performance, Grey informed the audience that there were two special guests in attendance. First he introduced “my dear friend Larry Hagman, who plays J. R. Ewing on the number-one-rated show Dallas.’ ” The crowd cheered enthusiastically. Then Grey introduced Martin as “a woman who’s better known as Peter Pan.”

“People went completely nuts,” Hagman recalls. “They all stood up, with some of them climbing on their chairs for a better look, and clapped so long the house lights went up. It was literally a showstopper.” When the crowd finally quieted, Martin leaned over, tapping her son on the knee, and said, “That’s show business too, baby!”

It was during the period of Hagman’s greatest fame that I had the good fortune to be welcomed into his extended family. We met in 1981, shortly after the publication of Texas Rich, my biography of the H. L. Hunt oil dynasty. Hagman dearly desired to play Hunt in a made-for-TV movie. For various reasons, the project never came to pass, but he took me under his wing nonetheless, becoming a combination surrogate father, spiritual mentor, and pal who was always ready to lend an ear and dispense, among other things, spot-on existential advice.

When I divorced my first wife, in 1982, Hagman called to commiserate. I sputtered words to the effect that I was ready to move on. In his inimitable J. R. Ewing voice, he informed me, “It’s never over.” And he was right, of course. Eleven years later, when I wed for a second time, he arrived at the nuptial ceremony in a white suit and a gold-leafed admiral’s cap and bearing a uniquely appropriate gift: a silver-nippled Waterford crystal baby bottle filled with the prime agricultural product of Mendocino County, California. My second marriage would also end in divorce, but I still cherish that baby bottle.

In 1988 I moved to Los Angeles for a two-year stint working for Newsweek, and Hagman made sure to invite me to his house in Malibu at least every other weekend, sheltering me from the city’s hot Santa Ana winds and treating me to Hollywood moments beyond any starstruck groupie’s wildest dreams.

He introduced me to virtually all his Dallas cast mates, including Linda Gray, on whom I developed a mad crush that continues through the present day. I met his mother, who blessed me with her Peter Pan fairy dust and embraced me like I was her long-lost son, an irony that did not pass unnoticed by her actual son. I schmoozed with the likes of Peter Fonda, Lee Majors, and über-macher producer Brian Grazer. I marched in a July Fourth beach parade as both a flag carrier and a soap-bubble blower alongside Hagman’s next-door neighbor and on-again, off-again friend Burgess Meredith. (The crusty old actor once sued Hagman, claiming that the roof on his house was two inches too high.)

Thanks to Hagman, I had a pickup line unavailable to any other bachelor in L.A. All I had to do to catch and hold the attention of an attractive female was ask her if she’d like to meet J. R. Ewing, then drive her out to Malibu, where Hagman would treat her like a queen and convince her that I was Sir Lancelot in bleached-out blue jeans.

I was also privy to the genesis of a construction project that nearly rivaled the pyramids. With the advent of the twelfth season of Dallas, Maj began building the Hagmans’ seven-bedroom dream house, which at 18,000 square feet was the country’s largest solar-powered home. Dubbed Heaven, it perched atop a 2,500-foot peak in Ojai, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

If Heaven was the high point, the low point came on November 3, 1990, when Mary Martin died of colon cancer in Palm Springs at age 76. A dark comedy quickly ensued. Hagman, who was directing an episode of Dallas on a ranch in Orange County, had arranged for his mother to be cremated. He was supposed to call the mortuary to work out the details, but he had left the contact information in his office back in Malibu. He enlisted Patrick Duffy to help him call all the Palm Springs mortuaries listed in the phone book.

When they finally located the right one, the receptionist reported that the mortician, a “Mr. Weasel,” was walking out the door with Martin’s ashes en route to the local post office to send them to Hagman. Perhaps made giddy by his exhaustion and grief, Hagman fell on the floor, convulsing in punch-drunk giggles over the man’s unlikely name. “I’m sorry you’re taking this so hard,” Weasel said when he came to the phone, misinterpreting Hagman’s laughter for hysterical crying.

The next day, Hagman presided over a memorial service for Martin in Weatherford, by now sincerely tearful. But a real-life episode that summed up their complicated relationship would always linger in the back of his mind. In 1981, after Dallas won the number one Nielsen ranking for the first time, a reporter had asked Martin what it was like to have an icon for a son. “My dear,” she had replied, “my son is a star. I am an icon.”

“That was Mother,” Hagman says, sighing.

The last and 357th installment of Dallas aired on May 3, 1991. A drunk and angry J. R. pulled out his late daddy’s Colt Peacemaker, intent on committing suicide. Then an angel played by Joel Grey showed him what the Ewing family saga would have been like if he had never existed. J.R. fingered the trigger of the Colt, a gunshot sounded, and the credits rolled on yet another cliffhanger.

Life and art after Dallas proved to be an extremely mixed bag. In 1992 Hagman joined Linda Gray in performing the Pulitzer Prize–winning play Love Letters before adoring audiences in the U.S. and Europe. That same year, he also directed an episode of the TV series In the Heat of the Night (the show’s star, Carroll O’Connor, was an old friend from his early theatrical days). But in June he was diagnosed with cirrhosis. “If you keep drinking, I don’t think you’ll be around in six months,” his doctor warned.

Swearing off booze—at least for a while—Hagman joined Peter Fonda and William Davidson, grandson of the Harley-Davidson company founder, on an Easy Rider–style road trip to the world’s largest motorcycle rally, in Sturgis, South Dakota. But in the spring of 1995, shortly after he played a Texas millionaire in the Oliver Stone film Nixon, a biopsy showed a malignant tumor in his liver. Hagman put his name on a list of five thousand other would-be liver transplant recipients.

Less than five weeks later, his oncologist, Dr. Leonard Makowka, found a donor and had Hagman helicoptered from Ojai to L.A. on half an hour’s notice. Makowka began the operation at about eleven that night, playing the Dallas theme music in the OR. The procedure took sixteen hours. Makowka later noted that Hagman’s liver was much worse than expected and that he might not have lived more than a few weeks. Hagman spent four days in the ICU, having hallucinations much like those he’d had on his first acid trip.

Despite his various doctors’ warnings, Hagman had repeatedly fallen off the wagon, and around the time of his hospitalization, he finally confronted his alcoholism with the help of a former Crosby, Stills and Nash drummer who had the providential name Dallas Taylor. A friend and former patient of Makowka’s, Taylor initiated Hagman into a Hollywood support group that included the comedian Richard Lewis. But in sharp contrast to many other reformed alcoholics, Hagman didn’t wallow in guilt over perceived past sins or affect a holier-than-thou attitude toward friends who continued to imbibe. Instead, he saw his drinking as an occupational hazard of being a performer who, depending on the shooting schedule, had to be “on” at all hours of the day and night and then had to unsparingly review countless rough cuts of himself acting. Drinking took the edge off all of that.

“I felt good when I was drinking five bottles of champagne a day,” he says. “I’d get a buzz about nine o’clock in the morning, and I’d keep it all day. But I also feel good now that I’ve stopped drinking.”

Hagman was brought up short four years ago, when Maj was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She had always been the one who managed their investments, the cool-headed adviser who helped steer him through the shoals of show business. Suddenly, she was totally dependent. At first, he insisted on caring for her himself. But over the next two years, her condition deteriorated so severely he had to put her in an apartment with a 24-hour nursing staff. “The pain is excruciating,” he admitted to a friend. “We’ve been soul mates for over half a century.”

Hagman downsized his lifestyle, putting Heaven on the market for $11 million (recently reduced to $7 million), and relocated to a Santa Monica condo within minutes of Maj. He hired an L.A. firm to auction off his J.R. memorabilia and personal items, such as a “table-top dinner gong,” custom-monogrammed ostrich-skin cowboy boots, and a selection of his mother’s dresses.

What Hagman really wanted to do is what every actor wants to do: act. It wasn’t just about money or fame or vanity, though they all played a part. Performing was simply embedded in his DNA: he lived to act and he acted to live. In the spring of 2011, he was sent a script for the Dallas sequel. When the show’s writer-producer Cynthia Cidre called to ask if he would be interested in reprising the role of J.R. even though it was (déjà vu!) slated to be a relatively minor part, he didn’t have to think twice. “When do I report for work?” he replied.

On a cold and rainy mid-January morning, I show up at Hagman’s loft in South Dallas for an interlude of playtime. His son, Preston, is going to drive us up to Lake Dallas to check on the status of Hagman’s latest pet project: the $100,000 purchase, renovation, and retro-fitting of a 1984 Airstream RV.

Hagman looks remarkable for an eighty-year-old who’s just completed six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He’s attired like a to-the-manner-born British bird shootist in a snap-brim cap, a green hunting jacket, and an Hermès ascot. Although his weight has dropped from 205 pounds to 185 and his voice is a bit scratchy, he’s already recovering his J. R. Ewing swagger.

“I love driving in this weather,” he says when we pile into a rented Toyota Camry. “It’s warm inside the car. We can play music on the radio. And if it weren’t for my throat cancer and my liver transplant, we could have something to drink.”

Preston smiles and nods, squeezing his six-foot-six, 325-pound frame behind the steering wheel. At age fifty, with his graying goatee, rounded cheeks, and thinning hairline, the son is in many ways the opposite of the father. He’s an aerospace engineer, not an actor; he’s been divorced three times instead of married to the same woman for more than five decades; he’s forsaken California to live in North Carolina. And yet, after a ten-year period of estrangement prompted by the usual sorts of family conflicts, Preston has renewed a bond that was sorely lacking in Hagman’s relationship with his own mother.

“I love driving in this weather too, Dad,” Preston says.

I know those seemingly simple words express some complicated emotions. “Dad and I have had our trials and tribulations,” Preston later tells me. “But I’m glad we got a chance for a do-over. I just adore him.”

Hagman is enjoying a similar rapprochement with his daughter, Heidi. When she and Preston were growing up, Hagman was obsessed with advancing his career, striving for first looks at new scripts and lobbying for acting roles. “I guess I probably neglected the kids during that period,” he admits. “Often men have to do that when they’re trying to be successful. It’s a part of life.”

After the first of his Silent Sundays during his stint on Jeannie, Heidi, then age twelve, left him a handwritten note declaring, “Daddy, as you know, I love you very much. But yesterday you were a big ****.” Like Preston, she’s since forgiven, if not forgotten. Having spent fifteen years in Seattle raising a family, she recently moved down to Santa Monica to help care for her mother. “Heidi and I are very close now,” Hagman says. “It’s wonderful.”

In Maj’s absence, Hagman’s TV wife, Linda Gray, still vibrantly beautiful at 71, is playing the part of surrogate spouse and disciplinarian. An amateur nutritionist, Gray interviewed and hired Hagman’s vegan chef. At holiday-season parties, she forbade him to eat high-cholesterol shrimp and sugary treats. When she and Patrick Duffy dropped by his Dallas loft on New Year’s Day, she limited him to a single sip of champagne. “I turned from Sue Ellen to Nurse Ratched,” Gray says, comparing herself to the female antagonist in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “He still bitches at me because he’s got that bad-boy side that’s looking to be disciplined. But I need to get him cancer-free so he can keep acting.”

Hagman notes in his own defense that he’s been hewing to discipline most of his life, starting with military school and continuing through his days as a struggling actor. Now he takes clusters of up to five vitamin pills five times per day, and he says he’s actually beginning to enjoy the kale, cucumber, broccoli, green bean, and protein powder smoothies that are a staple of his vegan diet. His major complaint is that his ability to swallow is still limited and he has to consume most of his meals through a feeding tube attached to his stomach. “He’s been a good patient, and he’s done remarkably well,” attests his oncologist, Dr. Steve Perkins, adding, “How many eighty-year-olds do you know who look as good as Larry Hagman does?”

In fact, Hagman is performing like a man half his age both on and off the set. Prior to embarking for Lake Dallas this particular morning, he answered a six-thirty wake-up call; arrived at the TNT soundstage in South Dallas for hair, makeup, and wardrobe at seven-thirty; and made it to the Omni Hotel by eight, where he spent 90 minutes shooting a scene. Then he returned to the soundstage, where he did 45 minutes of media interviews.

Shortly before eleven, we arrive at the storage facility where Hagman’s Airstream is being readied. He pops out of the front passenger seat of the rental car like he’s been shot from a gun. He greets the men in charge of the renovating and retrofitting operations by bumping fists rather than shaking hands, a practice he’s adopted to protect his vulnerable immune system.

Like its owner, the Airstream is a unique piece of work. Silver-metal-paneled, with a bright yellow stripe and triangular yellow SolarWorld logos plastered all about, it’s 34 feet long, 8 feet wide, and nearly 13 feet high. There’s a gasoline-powered 454-cubic-inch Chevy V8 engine up front, but the electrical systems are powered by six 3-by-5-foot solar panels on the roof.

“I’ve been designing this in my mind for over a year,” Hagman says, ogling the Airstream. “You’re not going to see another one like it anywhere.”

“It’s you, Dad,” Preston adds.

“Let’s everybody take off their shoes,” Hagman commands as he leads the way into the Airstream. “I want to establish that right now.”

The RV’s interior is even more high-tech and otherworldly than the exterior. The walls of the front cabin are red, and so is the carpet. “I wanted this to look like an 1890’s Viennese whorehouse,” Hagman explains. The accessories include a gas stove, a refrigerator, and a 55-inch flat-screen TV. Along with providing ports for laptop computers and DVD players, the flat-screen is linked to four cameras focused on the front, rear, and sides of the vehicle for security purposes. It’s also linked to a dashboard-mounted iPad stand that will enable Hagman to play music, watch videos, monitor security, and make phone calls even as he drives down the highway.

The Airstream’s rear cabin is painted midnight blue with matching carpeting and curtains. Among the amenities are a shower, a full-size bed, a compartment custom-made to hold up to half a dozen shotgun barrels, and tinted windows. “In other words, you can see out, but you can’t see in,” he says, cackling with glee.

The Airstream is hardly the only sign that Hagman will maintain his reputation for eccentricity to the very end. When he dies, he plans to go out in style. His hope is to be ground up in a wood chipper like the Steve Buscemi character in Fargo, then “be spread over a field and have marijuana and wheat planted and harvest it in a couple of years and then have a big marijuana cake, enough for two hundred to three hundred people,” he told the New York Times last year. “People would eat a little of Larry.”

While he’s still breathing, though, Hagman hopes the new Dallas will earn enough viewers to be picked up for a full season, and preferably for ten full seasons. “I’d love to be acting when I’m ninety,” he says. “Why would I ever want to retire? I love what I do.” Failing that, Hagman plans to switch on a GPS and hit the open road in accordance with the motto inspired by his first LSD trip: “Don’t worry. Be happy. Feel good.”

As we leave the Airstream and head back to the loft, Preston raises the bottom-line existential question that’s been on my mind since our day began. After undergoing treatment and adhering to a vegan diet, Hagman’s throat cancer has apparently gone into remission. He does not want for food, shelter, disposable income, rewarding work, or the love of family and friends. At age eighty, he’s acknowledged as a showbiz icon, the distinction his late mother tried to reserve for herself alone. So only one question remains.

“Are you happy now, Dad?” Preston asks.

Hagman nods, grinning at us more like a little boy named Lukey who’s just found a toy he wanted under the Christmas tree than the fictional Texas oil baron who made it all possible.

“Yes,” he says, “I am.”

Not sure if anyone here knew this or not, but apparently, Hagman believed him and the show Dallas ended communism in Romania:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/11/27/larry-hagman-and-dallas-helped-end-communism-in-romania/

Larry Hagman captivated Americans for 13 years as J.R. Ewing on “Dallas.” But the former “I Dream of Jeanie” star may have had a much more dedicated fan base, way over in Romania.

In Romania, Hagman will be remembered as the man who made capitalism cool, and eventually helped end communism in the region.

"I think we were directly or indirectly responsible for the fall of the [Soviet] empire," Hagman told the Associated Press a decade ago. "They would see the wealthy Ewings and say, 'Hey, we don't have all this stuff.' I think it was good old-fashioned greed that got them to question their authority."

In the 1980s, “Dallas” was the last Western show that was allowed to air in the region. Romanians eagerly watch the soap-opera-like series, and they marveled at the luxuries and freedoms Americans had.

President Nicolae Ceausescu reportedly believed the show highlighted issues with capitalism, and he allowed it to air thinking it would emphasize the advantages to his Stalinist rule. But the show clearly had an opposite effect.

Hagman reportedly said this decision was what eventually led to the ruler’s demise. Ceausescu was overthrown in 1989, and he and his wife were executed, ending the communist rule of Romania.

As a tribute to Hagman and the show, a replica of the “Dallas” ranch was built in Romania. “Southforkscu” was designed to look like Southfork Ranch from the show. Hagman reportedly once visited the ranch and said was identical to his “Dallas” set.

Hagman died on Friday from complications of a recent battle with cancer. He was 81.

BTW FoxNews is wrong. The show didn't air on ABC, it aired on CBS.

http://www.incredibletvandmovies.com/jr_ewing_lowers_gas_prices__.jpg

oii2dOlParw

You know Dallas and Knots Landing were canceled while on top...Their rating were still higher than any other nighttime soap/series on the air durning that time...They both were canceled because they were too expensive to continue. So CBS canceled Dallas first and Knots Landing the year after..The same with soaps operas All My Children & One Life to Live...They were cancel for the same reason.....To expensive to produce...So what's cheaper to produce than soaps. REALITY SHOWS. Sad, But True.....

My point is no one cares about Knots Landing and Gary today so this new Dallas would go nowhere if they brought Gary and the Knots Landing crew back.

I agree - Dallas was a worldwide phenomenon at its peak. It's so funny - at one point in the mid-80s, my godmother and her husband, both high school teachers, hosted a foreign exchange student (I don't know from which country). It turns out the girl was so excited about coming to America because she thought everything would be just like it was on Dallas. :lol:

You're exactly right. No matter what I was doing I was in front of my tv screen watching Dallas on Friday nights. And on the few occasions when I went to my HS football team's games I had my Mom audio tape it for me. I had no VCR then. lol I remember in the summer of 1980 when Who Shot JR was talked about everywhere. There was even a song about it. I'll have to see if I can find that. I know it was on youtube at one time. Television is just not that way anymore. Reality TV just sucks and with the invention of the DVR, very few people watch live tv anymore. It's an era that's long gone. I miss those days.

When I was in college, before I had my first VCR (a Betamax!) I would audio tape the ATWT shows when I was in class. There were problems, though; the tapes were only 45 minutes long and since there was no one to turn them around, I didn't get the whole show. Plus I had a ten minute walk to class, so I'd pop the tape in at ten till one, so I only really got about 35 minutes of the hour show. And you had my roommate coming in and making noise, etc. But that's how dedicated I was! And my mom, God bless her, would watch the show at home and write up synopses for me...wow, what a lifetime ago.

I wanna go back. Badly.

I agree - Dallas was a worldwide phenomenon at its peak. It's so funny - at one point in the mid-80s, my godmother and her husband, both high school teachers, hosted a foreign exchange student (I don't know from which country). It turns out the girl was so excited about coming to America because she thought everything would be just like it was on Dallas. :lol:

Just curious. Was that in reference to the story about the show airing in Romania that I posted.

When I was in college, before I had my first VCR (a Betamax!) I would audio tape the ATWT shows when I was in class. There were problems, though; the tapes were only 45 minutes long and since there was no one to turn them around, I didn't get the whole show. Plus I had a ten minute walk to class, so I'd pop the tape in at ten till one, so I only really got about 35 minutes of the hour show. And you had my roommate coming in and making noise, etc. But that's how dedicated I was! And my mom, God bless her, would watch the show at home and write up synopses for me...wow, what a lifetime ago.

I wanna go back. Badly.
That's a great story and it reminds me of how dedicated I was to my shows back then. My Mom didn't know much about tapes. I had to show her how to record but she always did it. Those are days we'll never get back. Maybe that's why I feel so nostalgic about Dallas. My Mom wasn't as big of a fan as I was but we did watch many Dallas episodes together. I think at one time she was more into Falcon Crest. I never really could get into that one.

I agree - Dallas was a worldwide phenomenon at its peak. It's so funny - at one point in the mid-80s, my godmother and her husband, both high school teachers, hosted a foreign exchange student (I don't know from which country). It turns out the girl was so excited about coming to America because she thought everything would be just like it was on Dallas. :lol:
When I was in 12th grade My English teacher would always start every Thursday talking about what went on Dynasty the night before. That was her favorite show. I kept thinking to myself, if only she would talk about Dallas. :lol:

That's a great story and it reminds me of how dedicated I was to my shows back then. My Mom didn't know much about tapes. I had to show her how to record but she always did it. Those are days we'll never get back. Maybe that's why I feel so nostalgic about Dallas. My Mom wasn't as big of a fan as I was but we did watch many Dallas episodes together. I think at one time she was more into Falcon Crest. I never really could get into that one.

My folks both loved Dallas. They stayed with it after I became disenchanted. My dad really liked Jock a lot and always hated Clayton for DARING to "try to take Jock's place", lol. And he REALLY hated the story where Lloyd Bridges was trying to convince everyone that he was Jock after having plastic surgery!

After I got into college, I would come home on weekends and go out to a movie with my friends on Friday nights. But I would often tape Dallas, to keep up. (on my Betamax! lol)

My folks and I also liked Knots Landing, but we never really sampled Falcon Crest. It looked good, honestly, but at that point I think we all had enough soaps (I got into Dynasty for a few years, too).

I agree - Dallas was a worldwide phenomenon at its peak. It's so funny - at one point in the mid-80s, my godmother and her husband, both high school teachers, hosted a foreign exchange student (I don't know from which country). It turns out the girl was so excited about coming to America because she thought everything would be just like it was on Dallas. :lol:

That's hilarious! :lol:

We can only wish it was that good! But that's what Dallas sold-FANTASY!

I'm afraid it was all a fantasy as we tried to emulate the Ewing lifestyle and Western societies racked up debt during the Reagan and Thatcher years,in the enervating effort of keeping up with the Jones'. How we loved the escapism of unimagined wealth earned by what it seemed very little effort,instead of the heavy spade work we know in reality is a prerequisite for success.

My folks both loved Dallas. They stayed with it after I became disenchanted. My dad really liked Jock a lot and always hated Clayton for DARING to "try to take Jock's place", lol. And he REALLY hated the story where Lloyd Bridges was trying to convince everyone that he was Jock after having plastic surgery!

After I got into college, I would come home on weekends and go out to a movie with my friends on Friday nights. But I would often tape Dallas, to keep up. (on my Betamax! lol)

My folks and I also liked Knots Landing, but we never really sampled Falcon Crest. It looked good, honestly, but at that point I think we all had enough soaps (I got into Dynasty for a few years, too).
I originally watched KL but I stopped after the first season. Then after Bobby died on Dallas I tuned over to KL to see how they would write him out. I'm glad I did because I got hooked. I watched KL for the rest of the time it was on. While Dallas got worse as the seasons went on ( at least the last 4 seasons), KL was good pretty much all the way through. I never was into Dynasty when it originally aired. I finally did watch it all in the 1990's when FX aired it and liked it. The other 1980's soap I liked was Flamingo Road but that didn't last as long. Yea I think after awhile everyone was all soaped out which is why they all started to fall in the ratings about the same time but it was great while it lasted. :)

I'm afraid it was all a fantasy as we tried to emulate the Ewing lifestyle and Western societies racked up debt during the Reagan and Thatcher years,in the enervating effort of keeping up with the Jones'. How we loved the escapism of unimagined wealth earned by what it seemed very little effort,instead of the heavy spade work we know in reality is a prerequisite for success.
Everything on tv is a fantasy...even the so called reality shows. Nobody wants to watch real life.

Everything on tv is a fantasy...even the so called reality shows. Nobody wants to watch real life.

Jerry Springer reached a nadir in the exposition and portrayal of human relationships. It's true the glamour soaps couldn't maintain their standards and all seemed to die off.

Jerry Springer reached a nadir in the exposition and portrayal of human relationships. It's true the glamour soaps couldn't maintain their standards and all seemed to die off.

But daytime soaps are/were crap compared to Dallas.

The cheap scenery made it feel it was filmed in a studio while Dallas filmed on location.

Just curious. Was that in reference to the story about the show airing in Romania that I posted.
No, it wasn't.

Have you ever heard about that story before, though? I think it's cool that one show could bring down an entire communist regime.

Have you ever heard about that story before, though? I think it's cool that one show could bring down an entire communist regime.

Actually Romania was one of the last Communist regimes to fall. As far as the filming of Dallas was concerned,I did miss the city centre locations in the mall and so on in this latest series,and the way it was filmed seemed deliberately to block out any background animation,though I believe I read ironically that it was shot more in Dallas than the original.

Everything on tv is a fantasy...even the so called reality shows. Nobody wants to watch real life.
BINGO - most especially the soaps. Back when the soaps were actually worth watching, that is.

30 years ago tomorrow...December 3, 1982...JR and Sue Ellen's second wedding.

30 years ago tomorrow...December 3, 1982...JR and Sue Ellen's second wedding.

I don't even think it was 6 months before JR started cheating again!

If it's true that Larry stayed loyal to Maj for over 50 years why would he take such a lecherous role like JR?

I don't even think it was 6 months before JR started cheating again!

If it's true that Larry stayed loyal to Maj for over 50 years why would he take such a lecherous role like JR?
From what I read, it was Maj who encouraged Larry to take the role. She called it a role of a lifetime. I would think as an actor, it's more fun to play the villain...something you could never do in real life.

http://www.etonline.com/news/127605_Larry_Hagman_s_Dallas_Co_Stars_Bid_Emotional_Farewell_to_the_Actor_at_Funeral/index.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/celebrity-news/headlines/20121201-southfork-memorial-for-larry-hagman-a-dallas-family-affair.ece

Larry Hagman remembered by real family and TV kin at private Southfork service

Larry Hagman’s wood and leather director’s chair, adorned with his flashy belt buckle and cowboy hat and with his boots placed carefully in front, welcomed friends, family and co-stars to Saturday’s private memorial service for the actor who rose to global fame as a beloved oil-rich villain on the TV show Dallas.

There will be a second private memorial Sunday in Southern California.

In a case of life imitating art, the actor’s children hosted Saturday’s remembrance at their dad’s fictional residence, Southfork Ranch, ancestral home to J.R. Ewing and his extended clan.

And the Ewings turned out to say farewell.

His long-time co-stars Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing) and Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing) eulogized Hagman to a crowd in the Southfork conference center that included actors from both the current TNT series Dallas as well as its CBS predecessor. Among the attendees were Josh Henderson (Hagman’s TV son, John Ross Ewing), Brenda Strong (Bobby Ewing’s third wife, Ann), Jesse Metcalfe (Bobby’s son, Christopher), Julie Gonzalo (Rebecca Barnes) and Sheree Wilson (Bobby Ewing’s second wife, April).

Hagman’s fellow ’80s TV icon Lee Majors came up from his home in Houston to attend.

From the world of real Dallas tycoons, there was oil woman Caroline Rose Hunt, developer Trammell S. Crow, restaurateur Shannon Wynne and civic leader Ruth Altshuler.

In a touching coincidence, the event was held on what would have been the 99th birthday of Hagman’s late mother, actress Mary Martin.

Playing Hagman’s TV wife became such an integral part of Gray’s life that she and Hagman’s actual wife, Maj Hagman, addressed each other simply as “Wife.”

According to Gray, “She’d call and say, ‘Wife, how are you doing?’ and I’d say, ‘Fine, Wife, how are you doing?’”

And the two women would tease each other about whose role was harder.

According to Gray, “I said, ‘You get up and make him coffee and make dinner at the end of the day and I’ve got to put up with that SOB all day long.’”

“Larry called me ‘Wife,’ for many, many years,” Gray added, “and, finally, he decided that he needed two.”

Hagman was born in Fort Worth and spent his earliest years in Weatherford, but for the last 50 years, he resided in Southern California.

His family believed that it was important that his life be celebrated in North Texas.

“Dallas was where he passed,” said his son, Preston Hagman, “and [the TNT series] Dallas was in the middle of [filming] the show here. The show made him and Dallas is a very important place for my father.”

It was a poorly kept secret that Hagman had been unwell. His weaker voice and gaunt appearance were obvious. For those who saw him privately, there were the telltale bruises on his hands where he had been poked and prodded by the medical professionals.

He told intimates that he would beat the cancer and bone marrow disorders he was battling.

“Dad always beat everything,” Preston Hagman observed Saturday. “I mean he got shot and he beat that,” he said, referring to the Who Shot J.R.? cliffhanger during the summer of 1980.

But Hagman gave many outward signs of a man preparing to depart this world.

Legally speaking, the actor’s residence was his 43-acre mountaintop estate in Ojai, Calif.

“Ojai is where the mail went,” his son said.

But Maj Hagman no longer lives in the 23,000-square-foot house due to her Alzheimer’s Disease, and the property has been on the market since 2009. (Current asking price $6.5 million.)

In the summer of 2011, Hagman shed the accumulations of a lifetime with a 400-lot auction in Beverly Hills. He sat in the audience as bidders snapped up his genie bottle from I Dream of Jeannie ($10,000), an oil painting of Jock Ewing (actually, his friend Jim Davis) that used to hang at Southfork ($39,680) and his sterling silver parade saddle ($80,000).

By the summer of 2012, if home was anywhere, it was in his customized Airstream RV. Gray described the interior as filled with “sheepskins and beads and hippie crap.”

Hagman’s son, daughter and five granddaughters flew to Dallas to join him for Thanksgiving. One of the actor’s last acts was to arrange for a family sojourn to Southfork the day after Thanksgiving. While he stayed behind at Medical City Dallas, the Airstream carried the family to Southfork for a picnic.

At 4:20 p.m. that afternoon, Hagman died.

Preston Hagman declined to speak about the disposition of his father’s mortal remains, calling it a “private, family matter.”

But last week, the actor’s personal manager, John Castonia, told Entertainment Tonight, “There will not be an official burial site for Mr. Hagman. His family will decide what to do with his ashes. He’ll be spread around the world, basically. His son travels a great deal and I know that will give Larry great pleasure.”

As Hagman would have wished, Saturday’s event was filled with laughter.

“This is not a time to be sad,” said Preston Hagman. “This is a man who always did exactly what he wanted.”

“You don’t forget Larry Hagman,” said Gray. “He walked into your life or into your heart and stayed.”

In honor of Larry Hagman, Southfork Ranch will be offering complimentary tours from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, followed by a memorial reception. Guests may leave cards and flowers, and sign his memorial book.