In Memory of a Wonderful Actor

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It was a sad day when actor Larry Hagman died on November 23, 2012 at the age of 81. He had been fighting cancer. He was best known for playing handsome and villainous Texas oil baron J.R. Ewing on the TV show “Dallas”. Hagman really was a Texam born in Fort Worth, Texas on September 21, 1931. He surely inherited his acting talent from his mother who was actress Mary Martin. His mom became popular starring on Broadway in New York City. Hagman dropped out of college to pursue acting. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War where he produced and directed show for the American troops. After the war Hagman headed for New York City where he became a stage actor in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He made his movie debut in 1964 in “Ensign Pulver” whose cast also included Jack Nicholson. Hagman’s big break came when he was chosen for the role of astronaut Tony Nelson in the TV sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie” with Barbara Eden. The show ran from 1965 to 1970 and is still popular in reruns. After the show ended Hagman went on to play J.R. Ewing in the ever popular TV show “Dallas” in 1978. His popularity really grew as more and more people tuned in to the prime-time soap opera about a wealthy Texas family known as the Ewings. Audiences really loved to hate his character and couldn’t wait to find out what was happening on the show every week. In the second season the show ended with a cliffhanger where J.R. get gunned down by an unknown assailant and the question “Who shot J.R. Ewing?” becomes a pop culture phenomenon. Hagman wound up on many magazine covers and T-shirts. Eight month later when the show once again aired on November 21, 1980 everyone found out that J.R. had been shot by his scorned ex-mistress Kristin Shepard played by Mary Crosby. All over the world this episode was seen by about 350 million viewers. All of his fans were glad that J.R. survived the shooting. When “Dallas” ended in 1991 Hagman went on to play in movies like “Nixon” and “Primary Colors”. He also made appearances on various TV shows. Unfortunately Hagman developed cirrhosis after many years of heavy drinking and has a liver transplant in 1995. Even though he had cancer he revived his role of J.R. Ewing in the new “Dallas” that premiered in June 2012 and died that same year in November. His death was worked in the show and the episode that aired after he had already passed on in March 2013 showed J.R. Ewing being shot and killed by an unknown assailant. I caught this episode and they had spliced together scenes of Hagman as J.R. and I can tell you it was quite eerie to see these scenes knowing Hagman was already gone. How many Larry Hagman fans? How many Dallas fans?