Dallas villain Hagman felled by cancer

Larry Hagman appears with Barbara Eden in a scene of I Dream of Jeannie in 1967.

Larry Hagman appears with Barbara Eden in a scene of I Dream of Jeannie in 1967.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

— Larry Hagman, whose portrayal of one of television’s most beloved villains, J.R. Ewing, led the CBS series Dallas to world popularity, died Friday in Dallas. He was 81.

The cause was complications of cancer, his family said in a statement. Hagman had been in Dallas filming an episode of the TNT cable channel’s reboot of that series, which had made him the man audiences loved to hate from 1978-91.

In October 2011, shortly before filming began on the new Dallas, Hagman announced that he had a “treatable” form of cancer. It was the latest of several health problems he had experienced since learning that he had cirrhosis in 1992. (Hagman acknowledged at the time that he had been a heavy drinker.) In 1995, he received a liver transplant after doctors discovered a tumor on his liver.

“As J.R., I could get away with anything — bribery, blackmail and adultery,” Hagman said after receiving his diagnosis last year. “But I got caught by cancer.”

Dallas, a saga of a ranchowning Texas oil family, was a hit in 57 countries. The rich villainy of J.R. revived Hagman’s career after his costarring role in the hit 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie had typecast him as a lightweight comic actor.

The celebrated signature episode of Dallas, which resolved the question “Who shot J.R.?” — a mystery marketed by the network and the show’s producers — set viewing records, with an estimated 350 million people all over the world tuning in for the answer. (The shooter turned out to be Kristin Shepard, played by Mary Crosby, the scheming adulterous sister of J.R.’s wife, Sue Ellen, played by Linda Gray.)

When TNT decided to revive Dallas with a new generation of Ewings, it invited Hagman to return as J.R. He won praise for his performance, with some critics saying that he remained the best thing about Dallas. The new version, which made its debut this year, was a success for TNT, which ordered a second season.

Hagman was born in Fort Worth on Sept. 21, 1931. His mother was the actress Mary Martin, who would become famous for her performances in South Pacific, Peter Pan, The Sound of Music and other Broadway shows. His father, Benjamin Hagman, was a lawyer whose clients included a number of wealthy Texas oil men; Larry Hagman’s memory of those tycoons later helped shape his portrayal of J.R. Ewing.

His parents divorced when he was 5. He was raised in Los Angeles by his maternal grandmother, and after she died in 1943, he spent time with his father in Fort Worth, and with his mother and his stepfather, Richard Halliday, a producer, manager and agent.

Hagman attended a series of private and military schools in several states, leaving most of them, he admitted, with little distinction and occasionally at their request. After returning to Texas to live with his father, he graduated from Weatherford High School and later attended Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., which also proved to be an academically unsuccessful experience.

Hagman went to Hollywood in 1964, and first attracted notice that year with a small but important role as the interpreter for the president (Henry Fonda) during a tense phone call with the Soviet leader in the nuclearwar thriller Fail-Safe. Shortly after that, he found his breakthrough role: Tony Nelson, an astronaut whose life is plagued and enlivened after he finds a beautiful genie (Barbara Eden) in a bottle, on I Dream of Jeannie.

It ran from 1965-70. After that, Hagman was mostly a supporting player again. Then came Dallas.

In Malibu, where he lived for many years, he was known as an amiable eccentric, given to wearing offbeat costumes and frequently leading impromptu parades down the beach. He was known to ask autograph-seekers to sing him a song or tell him a joke in exchange for his autograph. After he kicked a longtime cigarette habit, he became an outspoken anti-smoking activist and often carried a battery-powered hand fan with which he blew smoke back into the faces of offenders.

Hagman had been married to the former Maj Axelsson since 1954. She survives him, as do his son, Preston; his daughter, Kristina Hagman; and five granddaughters.

“Life is terminal, death is not,” Hagman said in a 1980 interview. “I think death is just another stage of our development. I honestly believe that we don’t just disappear. We don’t go into a void. I think we’re part of a big energy curtain, an energy wave, in which we are like molecules.”

Information for this article was contributed by Bill Carter and Marc Santora of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/25/2012