Larry Hagman

The son of a legendary actress (Mary Martin) and a district attorney, Larry Hagman was born Larry Hageman in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 21, 1931. After his parents' divorce, he moved to Los Angeles to live with his grandmother. When he was 12, his grandmother died and moved back to his mother's place who remarried and was launching a broadway career. After attending Bard College in New York State (not to be confused with New York City), he decided to follow his mother's acting road. His first stage tryout was with the Margo Jones Theatre-in-the-Round in Dallas, Texas. He then appeared in the New York City Center production of "Taming the Shrew," followed by a year in regional theatre. In his early-to-mid twenties, Larry moved to England as a member of the cast of his mother's stage show, "South Pacific," and was a member of the cast for five years. After that, he enrolled in the U.S. Air Force, where he produced and directed several series for members of the service. After completing his service in the Air Force, Larry returned to New York City for a series of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, esp. "Once Around the Block," "Career," "Comes A Day," "A Priest in the House," "The Beauty Part," "The Warm Peninsula," "The Nervous Set," among many others. He began his television career in 1961 with a number of guest appearances on shows as "The ALCOA Hour." He was later chosen to be in the popular daytime series Edge of Night, The (1956), in which he starred for 2 years. But that was his start, he later went on to become the friendliest television star in the NBC sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965), in which he played the amiable astronaunt, Anthony Nelson. In the series, his life was endangered by this georgeous blonde bombshell genie played by Barbara Eden. The series ran for 5 years and after that, he continued his success in Good Life, The (1971) and Here We Go Again (1973), as well as a number of guest-starring roles on many series. He was also with Lauren Bacall in the television version of the hit Broadway musical Applause (1973). In 1977, Dallas (1978) came aboard and Larry's career was concealed. He credits "Superchick" for convincing him to do the show. This program of an excessively rich Texas family, was one of the best, beloved, most-watched shows of all time as he portrayed the role of the evil yet perverted millionaire J.R. Ewing, the man who loved to be hated, was its memorable life. The series ran for an amazing 14 1/2 seasons and the "Who show J.R.?" episode remains the second highly-rated television show in the history of the sattelite. Since his name was familiar with Texas, it was suiting that he hosted Lone Star (1985), an eight-part documentary series related to the history of Texas, for the Public Television Stations. That aired while celebrating the 150th anniversary of Texas as an independent republic. In the Spring of 1987, Kari-Lorimar released "Larry Hagman -- Stop Smoking for Life." Proceeds from this home video was mailed to the American Cancer Society. After Dallas (1978) went off the air 4-years-ago, Larry wouldn't forget the time that he started having a health problem. In July 1995, as he was battling liver cancer, what he needed was a liver transplant in order for him to regain his life back after years of strong drinking that led him to cirrhosis. He went over to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for this to where he spent the rest of the days and nights for 7 weeks in the hospital, and since that time, when his miracle came true, he was the first actor in the country whose 350 millions fans had supported him about his illness, also he got his liver back which took him 16 hours and saved his life. In July 1996, 1 year after he had a new liver, he served as the National Spokesperson for the 1996 U.S. Transplant Games presented by the National Kidney Foundation and, on November 2, he later received the Award for his efforts in escalating public awareness of the concept of organ donation. Today, he continues to serve as an advocate of organ donation and transplantation. In November 1996 (the same year that his friend, Michele Lee directed Color Me Perfect), he starred in Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996), a 2-hour movie in which the ratings were a huge success for CBS as well as in the network's one-hour, drama series Orleans (1997) of his role of Judge Luther Charbonnet gave him some of the best of his 36-year-career. When he was feeling better than he had for so many years, he completed his 2 movie projects that were filming right on schedule: Ken Follett's The Third Twin (1997), a four hour mini-series based on the author's best selling novel, that aired on CBS, and Mike Nichols's Primary Colors (1998), a film based on the best-selling book by Anonymous . . . that later was told to become a Journalist, Joe Klein. Starring in that film were John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates and Adrian Lester. Larry played Governor Picker, an antipolitics politician who stands a grave danger crisis to the governor's bid for office. He has received unanimous raves from the critcs for his outcoming acts and rumblings of a possible Academy Award nomination next year for Best Supporting Actor abound. Primary Colors (1998) is his second presidential film having also appeared in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995). Following these movies, his second Dallas Reunion Movie War of The Ewings (1998), aired on CBS. He also served as Executive Producer. While being off the set, Larry is actively involved in a series of civic and philanthropic events. An adamant non-smoker, he served as the chairperson of the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smokeout," from 1981 to 1992.