Larry Hagman

Larry Hagman, who has died aged 81, was the American actor behind JR Ewing, the reptilian scion of a corrupt oil dynasty in the long-running television series Dallas.

The extraordinary success of Dallas owed much to Hagman’s portrayal of the scheming JR – arguably the most memorable villain in television history. The character certainly made Hagman one of the most recognised actors on the planet.

When, in the final episode of the 1980 season, JR was shot by an unknown assailant, hundreds of millions of people worldwide tuned in to watch the show. All summer viewers waited for the next episode as the phrase “Who shot JR?” resonated through the collective consciousness. The slogan became ubiquitous on T-shirts and in the tabloid press, and sociologists and media commentators debated the cultural significance of the series.

Those who never found out and still do not wish to know should look away now: The culprit was Kristin Shepard – JR’s equally snake-like sister-in-law and, inevitably, also his mistress.

Larry Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 21 1931. His mother was the actress Mary Martin and his father, Benjamin Hagman, was a lawyer retained by many Texan oilmen. After their divorce his mother married the producer and agent Richard Halliday. Young Larry lived periodically with his parents but mainly with his grandmother in Los Angeles, and was educated in a succession of private schools and finally at Bard College, New York – from which he dropped out after only a year.

After college he worked his apprenticeship in St John Terrell’s Theatre Company, in roles ranging from grip to stage manager. But his career was meandering when, in 1951, the hit Broadway musical South Pacific, in which his mother starred, transferred to London. She persuaded him to join her and take a small part, and he remained in Europe for five years, four as a director of shows for the US Air Force.

Upon his return to America, Hagman worked off-Broadway until 1959, when he won roles on Broadway in God and Kate Murphy and The Nervous. Meanwhile, he was cutting his teeth in New York-based television programmes ranging from serious drama to daytime soaps such as The Edge of the Night (1961-63).

He made his debut in the cinema in 1964 with Ensign Pulver, a naval drama starring Walter Matthau and Burl Ives. The same year, in the nuclear suspense feature Failsafe, he was, according to the Washington Post: “Outstanding, showing creative work in a minor role.” Hagman moved to Hollywood that year and won the main part in the NBC sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. The pilot show concerned an astronaut who meets a genie when he is stranded on a desert island, while the subsequent series followed the adventures of the pair when they return home. An unexpected international success, it ran for five years and made Hagman something of a celebrity.

Off-screen, however, his emotions were becoming increasingly turbulent and eventually he suffered a breakdown, which was followed by an extensive period of psychotherapy. His health was not helped by the fact that I Dream of Jeannie was succeeded by two sitcom flops: The Good Life (1971, in which he starred as a stockbroker turned butler) and Here We Go Again (1973, about two divorced couples). He was also making little headway on the big screen, performing in barely reviewed films such as Up in the Cellar (1970), Harry and Tonto (1974), and his own directorial debut, the unalluring Beware! The Blob (1972).

A harbinger of his future success in Dallas was his fine performance in Stardust (1975), which also starred David Essex. In the film he portrayed a materialistic American businessman who buys the contract of a British rock group and, acting as their manager and Svengali, drives them to self-destructive superstardom.

In spite of this critical success he still found it difficult to attract quality scripts. He did his best with the crudely drawn psychopath in the black comedy about freelance ambulance drivers, Mother, Jugs and Speed (1976), but there was nothing he could do to redeem The Big Bus (1976), an ill-judged satire on the disaster movie genre.

When he finally won a part in a superior film, The Eagle Has Landed (1977), based on Jack Higgins’s novel about a German attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill during the Second World War, Hagman was unfortunately cast as a stereotypical American officer. He played another American soldier, an incidental part, in the money-spinning adventure Superman (1978).

Throughout the Seventies Hagman had worked in made-for-television features such as Vanished (1971), No Place to Run (1972) and the Sherlock Holmes spoof The Return of the World’s Greatest Detective (1976). Some of these films, such as Sidekicks (1974) were intended as pilots for future situation comedies that never materialised. This, it seemed, was to be the leitmotif of his career.

Then, in 1978, his life was transformed when he won the part of JR Ewing in Dallas (1978-90), a series whose success far outstripped the most optimistic expectations. Conceived for Lorimar Productions by David Jacobs — who had never been to Texas — as an inversion of Lorimar’s long-running and homily-ridden The Waltons, Dallas was a multi-generational saga of an oil-and-cattle-rich family feuding among themselves and with their neighbours. Intended initially as a vehicle for the stars Linda Evans and Patrick Duffy, Hagman’s supreme performance as JR (memorably described in Time as “an overstuffed Iago in a stetson”) — stole the show to such an extent that Evans soon departed, claiming it was “unworthy” of her talents. (Insufficiently unworthy, it transpired, to stop her appearing in Dynasty, a pale imitation of the formula.)

Each episode of Dallas was budgeted at $700,000 (seven times the average for an entire series) as no expense was spared in efforts to beguile the viewer. The plot-lines were heady enough. Tales of alcoholism, adultery, murder, illegitimacy, consigning one’s wife to an institution and relentless corruption were, if the show was to be believed, simply the currency of day-to-day existence in Texas.

The series, which created a new genre of high-budget television serials, was finely balanced between satire and a celebration of the events it portrayed. By the mid-Eighties it was the most popular television show in the world — Turkish MPs once curtailed a meeting to see it. Its creators felt at liberty to script the most unlikely plot contortions: the same character was played in different series by different actors and actresses while JR’s brother, Bobby, was killed, only to reappear in the next series, with his wife Pam claiming it was “just” a bad dream. However, in spite of increasing narrative gymnastics and the introduction of celebrity actresses, its popularity dwindled in the late Eighties and, although it outlasted its glossy progeny such as Dynasty and Knots Landing, it finally met its demise in 1990.

Hagman, who became a major international star and was, after early contractual difficulties, richly rewarded for his part, effectively retired. He made only occasional appearances on screen thereafter, notably in the political films Nixon (1995) and Primary Colours (1998). He also guest starred in other television series, such as Desperate Housewives (2010).

A life of leisure was not particularly good for his health: in 1995 he was the recipient of a liver transplant, as doctors had located a tumour. He had been diagnosed with cirrhosis three years previously, and acknowledged a fondness for hitting the bottle.

He managed to stop smoking, however, becoming the kind of former addict who is evangelical about kicking the habit. Hagman would even carry a battery-operated fan to blow smoke back at unrepentant tobacco fans.

He lived in later life in Malibu, where he was feted locally as an amiable eccentric with an infectious sense of humour, given to wearing outlandish clothes and organising unexpected beach parties. He would hand out autographs in return for a good joke and, as a practitioner of Zen meditation, refused to speak on Sundays.

Then, just as its characters had done so many times, Dallas made an unlikely comeback. Hagman was cast with other members of the original cast, including Linda Gray (who played JR’s wife, Sue Ellen) and Duffy (JR’s younger brother). Hagman was widely acclaimed as the best thing about the relaunch, a second series of which will now be rewritten to take into account his death.

He married Maj Axelsson, a Swedish dress designer, in 1954. She survives him with their son and daughter.

Larry Hagman, born September 21 1931, died November 21 2012