Absence of Dallas

Or

I Dream of Breathing

Larry Hagman, best remembered as the translator in the 1964 political thriller Fail Safe, has died of complications from throat cancer at the age of 81. Other highlighted roles include a rapey, crazed ambulance driver in Mother, Jugs and Speed; New Orleans Judge Luther Charbonnet on the short-lived series Orleans; Jack Jones, symbolic stand-in for big business in Nixon; and astronaut/Master/white slave trader Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie. Astute observers may recognize him from all 357 episodes of the original Dallas series, 5 cross-over episodes of Knots Landing, 3 TV movies and then all 10 episodes of the revisitation series Dallas as John Ross “JR” Ewing, Jr., one of the greatest villains in the history of the small screen, and one of its most iconic characters. Referred to as a human oil slick by TV Guide, JR screwed Vaughn Leland, Sue Ellen Ewing, Bobby Ewing, Gary Ewing, Pamela Barnes Ewing, April Stevens Ewing, Cliff Barnes, Digger Barnes, Merilee Stone, Clayton Farlow, Peter Richards, Alan Beam, Cally Harper, Carter McKay, Afton Cooper, Jordan Lee, Wade Luce, Andy Bradley, Jeremy Wendell and many others (figuratively) and Sue Ellen, April, Merilee, Cally, Afton, Serena Wald, Julie Grey, Leslie Stewart, Holly Harwood, Kristin Shepherd, Mandy Winger, Angelica Nero, Kimberly Cryder and LeeAnn De La Vega and many others (literally). The unrepentant schemer and womanizer emerged as the man America loved to hate and Dallas became one of the longest running evening drama series of all time. So iconic was Hagman’s portrayal that after several abortive attempts to reboot the series, producers finally determined that only one man could wear the 10-gallon Stetson, and built the new Dallas series around him, with Patrick Duffy returning as long-suffering nice guy brother Bobby. As with the original series, Hagman was still the best thing about the show, and before his death, he had already filmed 6 episodes of the second season. The son of Broadway legend and Peter Pan originator Mary Martin, Hagman also dabbled as a director, mostly episodes of Dallas, with one feature film to his credit: Beware! The Blob, which was re-released in 1982 as “The Film That J.R. Shot.”