From Dallas to Darlington… in pursuit of love
Patrick Duffy reveals why he left TV stardom behind for a six-month tour of small British theatres
HE FOUND global fame as Bobby Ewing in one of the most watched television series in history, a character so popular he had to be raised from the dead. So it’s rather a surprise to learn that Patrick Duffy is currently bringing his iconic appeal to the likes of Darlington and Milton Keynes, on a gruelling six-month theatre tour of Britain.
At 72, the former Dallas star is beyond comfortable financially. Home is an extensive ranch in Oregon, and he also owns a bar, a theatre and a second house in Los Angeles.
Presumably he need never work again. So, what are he and his co-star, former Happy Days actress Linda Purl, doing on the UK regional play circuit?
“The selling feature was that it would be with Linda,” he smiles. “I would walk across hot coals if they offered me a job to tour six months with Linda, so it was a no-brainer.
“It’s great that we get to go to work together and then we come home together. I wouldn’t have done it without her; I wouldn’t want to spend six months away from home and her at the same time.”
Linda not only appears on stage with Patrick in Catch Me If You Can, but she is also the – relatively new – love of his life.The couple met briefly in 2019, but their romance wasn’t forged until the lockdowns the following year, when regular texts were replaced by weekly FaceTime chats, then by nightly three-hour Zoom sessions.
“We had both reached a point where we were independent and self-reliant and we both had our careers,” Patrick explains. “So, there was nothing riding on this other than what we, at the depths of our being, needed to really be happy.
“That came out over three months of nightly Zooming and having conversations, each one getting a little deeper. It went from, ‘Oh my God, do we have to wash our fruit and vegetables before we eat them?’ to, ‘Here’s a poem I wrote,’ or ‘Shall we listen to this piece of music?’”
Eventually, Patrick declared his love. “Accidentally!” he laughs. “I signed off on the Zoom, saying: ‘Take care, talk tomorrow, have a good night, goodbye, love you.’
I clicked off and then went: ‘Oh my God!’”
Two days later they agreed that Patrick would drive the 23 hours to Linda’s home in Colorado to meet up in person.
He recalls: “There was a ‘Welcome Patrick’ sign on the garage and then we stood staring at each other for a while before I asked permission to give her a kiss. We’ve been together ever since and I don’t have to ask for permission any more!”
Patrick’s love story is all the more moving considering that when they met he was 70 and Linda (best-known as the Fonz’s girlfriend Ashley in Happy Days) was 64. Linda had been married four times previously and Patrick was a widower, following the death of his wife Carlyn in 2017 after 43 years of marriage.
The actor, who has two grown-up sons and four grandchildren, says: “I didn’t anticipate falling in love again. I had been widowed and was very content being the single grandpa. I live on a ranch and the kids and the grandkids come and I’m their hero, taking them fishing and teaching them how to use the tractor.
“I thought that was a great way to round out my time, but then I learnt there is a marked difference between contentment and true happiness and I thought – maybe there is Act Two in my life.”
It’s an incredible tale, but perhaps we should remember that Patrick is a man well used to stories that seemingly defy belief. Who after all, can forget Bobby Ewing
famously emerging from a shower in one of television’s most outrageous and iconic “back from the dead” scenarios ever?
Dallas viewers had seen Bobby killed after being hit by a speeding car. However, a year later the storylines of the preceding series, including the accident, were explained away as nothing more than a dream of his wife Pamela (played byVictoria Principal). “They told me they were going to get rid of the entire last season and that it was going to be a dream,” Patrick explains.
“We upset a few audience members who had heavily invested in the show and it took a while to win them back, but the idea of a dream has been used throughout literary history, including many of Shakespeare’s plays, and I was just thrilled to be back. I’d left after my seven-year contract ended.
Dallas was the hottest thing ever and I thought if I was going to do something singularly, I had better use the height of my popularity to make the switch. That, to be honest, didn’t turn out the way I thought, so when they wanted me back, I was ready.”
Patrick and the show’s producer went to incredible lengths to keep his return a secret, filming an entire fake soap commercial as a ruse to throw everyone off the scent.
“We filmed all day so that we could fool the film crew that were there,” Patrick recalls with a smile. “I said, ‘Good Morning…’ and then waited just long enough, because I knew that shot would be a freeze frame and then I continued, saying, ‘and you can wake up too like the Duffy family, every morning with Irish Spring soap’.”
Dallas, which originally ran from 1978 to 1991, revolved around the wealthy feuding Texan oil and ranching family the Ewings.
The rights to the American show were snapped up by the BBC and by the mid1980s it had gained a cult following, drawing in audiences of 20 million, as well as catching the attention of veteran broadcaster Terry Wogan, who famously nicknamed Bobby’s niece Lucy, the poison dwarf. Today
Patrick credits Wogan with Dallas’s huge popularity in Britain.
“He adopted our show and talked about it on every one of his broadcasts,” he says. “Sometimes he would make fun of it, but it took us out of the mainstream and we became a talking point.”
Dallas featured both Victoria Principal and Priscilla Presley as Bobby Ewing’s love interests, but Patrick insists his clean-cut character was never viewed as the show’s heartthrob.
“The one who got the most lascivious fan mail was Larry Hagman,” he reveals. “He played the bad boy JR, but interestingly he was almost a prude in real life.
“He was married for 60 years to a wonderful woman.They were solid as a rock and he was embarrassed every time he had to kiss one of his women on the show. He hated bedroom scenes!”
Patrick will remain in Britain until the tour of Catch Me If You Can ends in July.
The classic mystery thriller sees the couple playing husband and wife Danny and Elizabeth. When she disappears, Inspector Levine (played by former Coronation
Street actor Gray O’Brien) is called to their remote house to investigate. “It’s a typical whodunnit and a romp, but you don’t know the resolution of it until literally the last 60 seconds of the play,” Patrick says. “At the end of it every night we hear gasps.”
Patrick first found fame in 1977 in hit TV series Man from Atlantis and went on to have an illustrious television and film career post-Dallas. Then, in 2012, he appeared in the re-booted Dallas, in which Linda Gray and the late Larry Hagman also reprised their roles as Sue Ellen and JR.
So, could Dallas return for a third time? “I thought the end was when I died, so I’ve learnt to never say never! The show would have to change for the times, but our fan base is still out there and the characters could and still do live. I’ll never close any door.”
●●Catch Me IfYou Can is on national tour until July 2, 2022. For full details and bookings visit kenwright.com