The Dallas and I Dream Of Jeannie star passes at age 81!
Larry Martin Hagman (September 21, 1931 November 23, 2012) was an
American film and television actor,
producer and
director most known for playing
J. R. Ewing in the 1980s
primetime television
soap opera Dallas and for playing Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s
sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. His films include
Fail-Safe,
Superman,
JFK,
Nixon and
Primary Colors. His television appearances continued in international soap operas and with guest roles on shows such as
Desperate Housewives into the 21st century. In 2012, he reprised his role as J.R. Ewing in an
updated version of
Dallas.
Hagman was the son of the actress
Mary Martin.
A long-time drinker, he underwent a life-saving liver transplant in
1995, and although a member of a 12-step program, he publicly advocated
marijuana as a better alternative to alcohol. He died on November 23,
2012, of complications from throat cancer.
After years of guest-starring in many television roles, and starring
in a less successful series the previous year, Hagman hit the jackpot in
1965 playing
Barbara Eden's television "master" and eventual love interest, Air Force Captain (later Major) Anthony Nelson in the highly successful
sitcom I Dream of Jeannie for
NBC. The show had climbed into the Top 30 in its first year and was NBC's answer to both successful 1960s magical
comedies,
Bewitched on ABC and
My Favorite Martian
on CBS. The show ran until 1970, and continues to be shown on TV
networks around the world. Two reunion movies were later made, both
televised on NBC:
I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985) and
I Still Dream of Jeannie (1991), though Hagman did not appear in either of them.
In November 1999, after 29 years, Hagman agreed to reunite with
Jeannie co-stars
Barbara Eden and
Bill Daily and creator/producer
Sidney Sheldon on the
The Donny and Marie Show. In 2002, when
I Dream of Jeannie was set to join the cable channel
TV Land, Hagman once again took part in a
I Dream of Jeannie reunion with Eden and Daily, this time on
Larry King Live. On the
TV Land Awards
in March 2004, Hagman and Eden were the first presenters to reunite on
stage. The following October, Hagman and Daily appeared at The Ray
Courts Hollywood Autograph Show. And the following year, 2005 brought
all three surviving stars from
I Dream of Jeannie to the first ever cast reunion at The Chiller Expo Show.
Hagman reunited with Eden in March 2006 for a publicity tour in
New York City to promote the first season DVD of
I Dream of Jeannie. He reunited once again with Eden on stage in the play
Love Letters at the
College of Staten Island in New York and the
United States Military Academy,
West Point, New York. The appearance marked the first time the two had acted together since Eden appeared with Hagman on
Dallas in 1990.
Dallas
In 1977, Hagman was offered two roles on two television series that were debuting. One was for
The Waverly Wonders and the other for
Dallas. Maj Hagman told Larry Hagman to take the role in
Dallas.
[8] In
Dallas, Hagman was cast as the conniving elder son and businessman
J. R. Ewing, a man whom everybody loved to hate. When Hagman read the script for the role of J.R. at his wife's suggestion,
[8]
they both concluded it was perfect for him. Seen in over 90 countries,
the show became a worldwide success and Hagman became one of the best
known television stars of the era. By the end of its second season,
Dallas
was a hit. Producers were keen to capitalize on that love/hate family
relationship of J.R.'s, building anticipation to a fever-pitch in the
1980 cliffhanger season finale in which J.R. is shot.
[citation needed]
At the beginning of the fourth season of
Dallas, audience and actors were guessing "
Who shot J.R.?",
now one of fictional TV's most famous questions to have ever been
asked. During the media buildup, Hagman was involved in contract
negotiations, delaying his return in the fourth season. Holding out for a
higher salary, Hagman did not appear in the first episode of the show
until the final few minutes. Producers were faced with a dilemma whether
to pay the greatly increased salary or to write J.R. out of the
picture.
Lorimar Productions, the makers of the series, began shooting different episodes of
Dallas which did not include Hagman. In the midst of negotiations, Hagman took his family to London for their July vacation.
[9] He continued to fight for his demands and network executives conceded that they wanted J.R. to remain in
Dallas.
From then on, Hagman became one of the highest-paid stars on
television. At the beginning of the third season, writers were told to
keep the storylines away from the actors until they really found out who
actually shot J.R., and it took three weeks until the culprit was
revealed on November 21, 1980 in a ratings record-breaking episode.
For his performance as J.R. Ewing, Hagman was nominated for two
Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1980 and 1981, but did not win. He was also nominated for four
Golden Globe Awards, between 1981 and 1985. He was nominated for a
Soap Opera Digest Award
seven times for Outstanding Villain on a Prime Time Serial, Outstanding
Actor in a Leading Role on a Prime Time Serial, Favorite Super Couple:
Prime Time and Outstanding Actor in a Comic Relief Role on a Prime Time
Serial, and won five times. In 1984, co-star (
Barbara Bel Geddes) left the show after suffering a
heart attack. At one point, Hagman suggested to his real-life mother (
Mary Martin) that she play Miss Ellie, but she refused and Bel Geddes was replaced with veteran actress
Donna Reed. Reed was fired from the show, just months before her death in 1986, aged 64, from pancreatic cancer.
[citation needed]
Bel Geddes returned to the role in 1985 and stayed until 1990. By the
end of its thirteenth season in 1991, ratings had slipped to the extent
that
CBS decided to end
Dallas. Hagman was the only actor to appear in all 357 episodes. He had also made five guest appearances on the
Dallas spin-off series
Knots Landing in the early 1980s. Some years after
Dallas ended, Hagman appeared in two subsequent
Dallas television movies:
J.R. Returns in 1996, and
War of the Ewings in 1998.
Hagman reprised his role as J.R. Ewing in
TNT's continuation of Dallas, which began in 2012
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