The Only ‘Dallas’ Cast Members Still Alive Today

It started with a five-night miniseries in April 1978, a ranch called Southfork and a family that fought over oil, money and each other at the breakfast table. By the time CBS turned out the lights on May 3, 1991, Dallas had run 14 seasons and 357 episodes, and in November 1980 more than 90 million Americans had tuned in to learn who shot J.R. Friday nights simply belonged to the Ewings.

The cast changed over 13 years, with a Miss Ellie who was briefly replaced, a Bobby who came back from the dead and a parade of wives, rivals and long-lost relatives. The Dallas cast members below are the main stars who carried the show the longest, starting with those we have lost and ending with the ones still with us today. Each life status was checked on November 10, 2026.

Is Jim Davis still alive?

Jim Davis had spent decades in Westerns before he ever put on Jock Ewing’s Stetson. He starred in Stories of the Century in the 1950s, rode through guest spots on Gunsmoke and Death Valley Days, and played a senator in The Parallax View. On Dallas he gave the Ewing patriarch a gruff warmth that made you believe Jock built the empire with his own hands.

Davis was not still alive. He died of multiple myeloma at his home in Northridge, California, on April 26, 1981, at age 71. The producers chose not to recast Jock, and the fifth-season episode “The Search” confirmed his death in a helicopter crash in South America, closing with a dedication to the actor.

Is Donna Reed still alive?

When Barbara Bel Geddes needed emergency heart surgery, CBS turned to an Oscar winner to fill in. Donna Reed, the It’s a Wonderful Life star and the mom of The Donna Reed Show, took over as Miss Ellie for the 1984 to 1985 season and played her in 24 episodes. When Bel Geddes was well enough to return, Reed was let go. She sued for breach of contract and settled out of court.

Reed was not still alive. She died of pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills on January 14, 1986, at 64, according to UPI, which reported she had been diagnosed only months before. She was less than two weeks short of her 65th birthday.

Is Howard Keel still alive?

Howard Keel was a 1950s MGM musical star, the booming baritone of Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, long before he arrived at Southfork as cattle baron Clayton Farlow. He was brought in for a few episodes in 1981, but viewers liked him so much that he stayed for ten years and 234 episodes, eventually marrying Miss Ellie. The show even revived his singing career. At 64 he released his first solo album, and And I Love You So reached No. 6 on the UK albums chart in 1984.

Keel was not still alive. He died of colon cancer at his home in Palm Desert, California, on November 7, 2004, at 85, as reported by CBS News. He had been diagnosed only about six weeks earlier.

Is Barbara Bel Geddes still alive?

Miss Ellie was the heart of Dallas, and Barbara Bel Geddes was the only member of the cast to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama series. She had come to the role with a Broadway career, an Oscar nomination for I Remember Mama and a turn as Midge opposite James Stewart in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, even after the 1950s blacklist stalled her film work. Her Emmy season drew on something painfully real, a breast cancer storyline that echoed her own mastectomy in 1971.

Bel Geddes was not still alive. She died of lung cancer at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on August 8, 2005, at age 82, UPI reported. She had played Miss Ellie until 1990 and then retired from acting for good.

Is Larry Hagman still alive?

J.R. Ewing smiled while he ruined you, and Larry Hagman made that smile the most famous grin on television. The son of Broadway star Mary Martin, he had already spent five years as Major Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie, but J.R. made him a worldwide star. “Of course it’s fun to play the villain,” he said in 2011. He survived a liver transplant in 1995 and came back as J.R. for the TNT revival in 2012, still wearing the hat.

Hagman was not still alive. He died at Medical City Dallas Hospital on November 23, 2012, at age 81, of complications from cancer, his family told The Dallas Morning News. Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray were at his bedside. When he first announced his cancer diagnosis, he joked in character: “As J.R. Ewing, I could get away with anything, bribery, blackmail and adultery, but I got caught by cancer.”

Is Ken Kercheval still alive?

Someone had to lose to J.R. every week, and Ken Kercheval did it with heartbreaking stubbornness as Cliff Barnes, Pam’s brother and the Ewings’ eternal rival. He played Cliff from 1978 all the way to the final episode in 1991, returned for the reunion movies and came back again for the TNT revival. His Barnes family grew richer on screen thanks to Priscilla Pointer as his mother, Rebecca Wentworth, and Morgan Brittany as his scheming half-sister, Katherine.

Kercheval was not still alive. He died in his hometown of Clinton, Indiana, on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, at 83, and his family kept the cause private, his agent told the Associated Press. A longtime smoker, he had survived lung cancer surgery in 1994. Pointer has also passed. She died in her sleep on April 28, 2025, at 100, and Victoria Principal remembered her as “My favorite TV mama and a wonderful woman,” TVLine reported. Morgan Brittany, born December 5, 1951, is 74 and has spent her later years as a conservative commentator and author. The rest of the main cast is still with us, and the first of them was there from the very first episode.

Is Steve Kanaly still alive?

Ray Krebbs started as Southfork’s ranch foreman and ended up a Ewing, and the show eventually revealed he was Jock’s son, which made him J.R. and Bobby’s half-brother. Steve Kanaly played him from 1978 to 1989, came back for the finale and returned again for the TNT revival. Before acting he served in Vietnam as a radio operator with the 1st Cavalry Division, and screenwriter John Milius drew on his stories for Apocalypse Now.

Yes, Steve Kanaly is still alive. Born March 14, 1946, he is 80 and lives on a ranch in Ojai, California, where he is also known as a fine watercolor painter. At a 2023 cast reunion he admitted to People that the famous “dream season” still stung for some co-stars, “because their storylines were lost.”

Is Susan Howard still alive?

Donna Culver Krebbs was the smart, principled politician’s widow who married Ray, and Susan Howard brought her own Texas roots to the part. Born Jeri Lynn Mooney in Marshall, Texas, she became the only Dallas cast member who also wrote episodes, penning two of them. She left in 1987 when the show did not renew her contract, which she later tied to her objections to a storyline for Donna that she felt was pro-abortion.

Yes, Susan Howard is still alive and now in her early 80s. She turned to public life after acting, serving as a commissioner of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Commission on the Arts and taking a leadership role in the National Rifle Association. She and her husband, Calvin Chrane, have lived in Boerne, Texas, since 1998.

Is Priscilla Presley still alive?

Jenna Wade was Bobby’s first love, and Dallas went through three actresses before the role found its keeper. Morgan Fairchild and Francine Tacker came first, and then in 1983 Priscilla Presley moved into Southfork and stayed until 1988, appearing in 143 episodes. Her real-life pregnancy was even written into Jenna’s story.

Yes, Priscilla Presley is still alive. Born May 24, 1945, she is 81 and still busy. In 2025 she published her memoir Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis and made a cameo in the new The Naked Gun. She has carried on through deep grief since the death of her daughter, Lisa Marie, in January 2023 and still makes public appearances to talk about her life with Elvis.

Is Charlene Tilton still alive?

Lucy Ewing was the boy-crazy granddaughter who drove the family to distraction, and Charlene Tilton won the part at 17. She played Lucy through 1985, returned in 1988 and came back once more for six episodes of the TNT revival.

Yes, Charlene Tilton is still alive. Born December 1, 1958, she is 67 and turns 68 next month. Her recent credits include Heaven Sent and The Nana Project in 2023, and she works as an ambassador for Actors for Autism. Looking back at the 2023 reunion, she told People that the Ewings were “truly flawed, but they were loved by the audience.” We caught up with Tilton back in 2024 as well.

Is Victoria Principal still alive?

Pam Barnes Ewing married into the enemy family in the very first episode, and Victoria Principal spent ten seasons as the moral center of the show. It was Pam who woke up to find Bobby in the shower, wiping out an entire season with one scene. Principal left in 1987, started her own production company and created the Principal Secret skincare line in 1989, which reportedly passed $1.5 billion in revenue by 2013.

Yes, Victoria Principal is still alive. Born January 3, 1950, she is 76. She stepped away from the skincare business in 2019 and has put her time into animal rescue and environmental causes, much of it from a ranch outside Los Angeles. She turned 76 in January with a photo of herself cuddling one of her horses, Parade reported.

Is Patrick Duffy still alive?

Bobby Ewing was the good brother, and Patrick Duffy played him so well that the show could not survive without him. Duffy left in 1985, Bobby was killed off, and a year later Larry Hagman helped lure him back for the shower scene that turned his absence into a dream. After Dallas he went straight into seven years of Step by Step with Suzanne Somers, and later spent five years on The Bold and the Beautiful.

Yes, Patrick Duffy is still alive. Born March 17, 1949, in Townsend, Montana, he is 77. After losing his wife of more than 40 years, Carlyn Rosser, in 2017, he found love again in 2020 with actress Linda Purl, and he has kept working, most recently as Sheriff KD Shrugs on The Family Business. “Sometimes I watch and think we did that,” he told People in 2023. “But yeah, it all started with us.”

Is Linda Gray still alive?

Sue Ellen Ewing drank, schemed and survived J.R., and Linda Gray made her one of the richest characters in prime time. A former model whose legs appeared on the poster for The Graduate, she played Sue Ellen for 12 seasons and earned an Emmy nomination along the way. She and Hagman stayed close friends for the rest of his life, and she reprised the role for all 40 episodes of the TNT revival.

Yes, Linda Gray is still alive. Born September 12, 1940, she turned 86 in September and is the oldest surviving main star of the original series. She has been through great loss, including the death of her son, Jeff Thrasher, in 2020, and recently left the home she lived in for 50 years. In August 2026 she parted with much of her Dallas memorabilia at auction but kept the gifts Hagman gave her. Of her old friend, she told People simply, “He was an original and lived life to the fullest.”