Dallas

The Cast of 'Dallas' The original prime-time soap opera aired for 14 seasons, from 1978 to 1991. The drama focused on the Ewing family and their oil company. A remake of the show started airing in 2012, but nothing can compare to the original cast. See where they are today... 1. PATRICK DUFFY - BOBBY EWING After a string of appearances in television movies in the 1970s, Patrick Duffy got his big break when he was cast as the youngest son Bobby in Dallas. His character was the heart of the family and always tried to do the right thing, putting him at odds with older brother JR. Bobby was seemingly killed off in 1985 but returned a year later, famously stepping out of the shower as the entire ninth series was revealed to be the dream of his love interest, Pamela Barnes Ewing. During the show, his life was hit by personal tragedy when his parents were murdered in an armed robbery at the bar they ran in Montana. Like Hagman, Duffy has reprised his role in Dallas spin-offs, including the most recent revival, but has also appeared as a regular on American soap The Bold and the Beautiful between 2006 and 2011, while he has also made appearances in Christmas pantomimes in the UK. A practicing Buddhist, he has been married to wife Carlyn for 41 years and has two sons and four grandchildren. dailymail.co.uk 2. LINDA GRAY - SUE ELLEN EWING Prior to Dallas, Linda Gray’s most famous moment was as Mrs. Robinson’s legs on the poster for Dustin Hoffman classic The Graduate, where the actress said she was paid $25 for one leg. On the show, she was the long-suffering wife of JR, known for necking back vodka and embarking on affairs, while Gray herself has described Sue Ellen as the ‘original Desperate Housewife’. In the 1990s she made several guest appearances on the BBC’s Lovejoy starring Ian McShane as a roguish antique dealer and starred in several television movies in the USA. Gray was another of the old Dallas crew to be tempted back for the remake in 2012 and appeared throughout the new series' three-year run, while she too has been tempted by panto, appearing in Cinderella in London last year as the Fairy Godmother. She was married to photographer Ed Thrasher for 21 years and had two sons with him, while she also has two grandsons. dailymail.co.uk 3. BARBARA BEL GEDDES - ELLIE EWING FARLOW An Oscar-nominated actress in the 1940s, Barbara Bel Geddes came to the show after a long career in Hollywood and Broadway, appearing in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo on screen and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on stage. She took on the role of Ellie Ewing, the matriarch of the family, for almost the entire length of the series, except for one season in 1984 when she was recovering from heart surgery and was replaced by Oscar-winning actress Donna Reed. After the end of the show, she retired from acting immediately and settled in Maine where she worked as a fine artist, children’s author and greeting cards creator. She died in August 2005, aged 82. dailymail.co.uk 4. VICTORIA PRINCIPAL - PAMELA BARNES EWING One half of the show’s Romeo & Juliet, Pamela was often defined by her love for Bobby despite their families’ wars. Something of a method actor, Victoria Principal would keep her distance from several of the cast to reflect her character’s status as an outsider with the Ewings. She left the show in 1987, but not soon enough to shake off the dream sequence tag that stays with her until today. Principal’s father was in the US Air Force and spent her childhood in various places including England, where she studied at the Royal Ballet School. Her post-Dallas acting career has been starring in television movies and making guest appearances, but she has also set up her own environmental charity in 2006, donated $200,000 towards the cleaning of the Gulf Coast oil spill in 2010 and sits on the board of a Los Angeles domestic violence advisory board, among other philanthropic projects. dailymail.co.uk 5. CHARLENE TILTON - LUCY EWING The show’s wild child, Lucy Ewing would usually be found skipping school and romping around with men in the hayloft and earned the nickname ‘poisonous dwarf’ due to her small 4ft 11in size. After a brief pop career in the 1980s, Tilton has gone on to feature in several small films and appeared as a contestant on ITV’s Dancing on Ice in 2012. She also works to support foster carers having been fostered herself as a child after her mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. dailymail.co.uk 6. STEVE KANALY - RAY KREBBS Ray Krebbs was the rogue with the heart of gold who was eventually revealed as the illegitimate son of Jock Ewing, which raised serious questions over his romance with Lucy after she turned out to be his niece. Actor Steve Kanaly began fading out after the 12th series and like his colleagues, never quite found another role to match the same success. A Vietnam veteran, Kanaly has made sporadic guest appearances on shows and reprised his role in the Dallas reboot, and is also a watercolor painter. dailymail.co.uk 7. KEN KERCHEVAL - CLIFF BARNES As Cliff Barnes, Ken Kercheval provided many of the series plot points with his efforts to get revenge on nemesis JR Ewing whether it be through using his political power against him or by sleeping with his wife Sue Ellen. Outside of the show, Kercheval is another to have performed in UK panto and has been very active on the circuit in the past decade, performing in London, Southampton, Manchester, Cardiff, and Plymouth. A lung cancer survivor, he has five children from three marriages that all ended in divorce. dailymail.co.uk 8. LARRY HAGMAN - JOHN ROSS ‘JR’ EWING The most famous, and infamous, of the Ewing clan, Larry Hagman appeared as JR in every one of the series’ 356 episodes as well as several spin-off versions, including the recent reboot of the series which ran from 2012 to 2014. His character was famously shot in the last episode of the third series in 1980, prompting an eight-month-long ‘whodunnit’ that became a cultural phenomenon with spin-off memorabilia including ‘Who Shot JR’ t-shirts and mugs. Hagman himself was offered £100,000 to reveal the shooter’s identity while on holiday in the UK. After the end of the main series, Hagman made sporadic appearances in film and television, including hit shows Nip/Tuck and Desperate Housewives, and even appeared on British screens on comedy panel show Shooting Stars. But he struggled with his health post-Dallas, having successful surgery for liver cancer in 1995 but then developing throat cancer in 2011. He died in November 2012. dailymail.co.uk Credits: dailymail.co.uk Share this story on Facebook with your friends.

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