Larry Hagman passed away on Friday due to complications
from his battle with cancer, but he never considered dropping out of
the "Dallas" reboot when he was first diagnosed.
Back in May, the actor told AccessHollywood.com's Laura Saltman that despite his diagnosis, the show had to go on.
"No,"
Larry laughed, after Laura asked if he thought of just fighting his
cancer and skipping out on TNT's "Dallas" series. "Well, I'd made the
commitment before we found out and when we found out, they made
allowances for it. They gave me a lot of time off. You don't get too
many chances of pulling 'Dallas' back together again."
"I'm an actor, honey," he added. "I gotta do it. You may have pneumonia, but you go on stage anyhow." (Click HERE to watch that interview.)
Playing one of TV's most famous villains once again was a huge draw for the star to return to Southfork.
Correspondent
Jill Martin visited the set of "Dallas" in 2011 for Access Hollywood
and while Hagman's co-stars said he had little in common with the
legendary character, the actor wasn't so sure.
"I must have something in common. I do it so well," he said. (Watch our interview with Hagman on the set of "Dallas" Season 1, by clicking HERE.)
Hagman went on to explain that the inspiration for the character came from someone he met when he was just a teenager.
"I
modeled the character on a guy I knew that I worked for when I was 15
years old. His father had four boys and when he died, everything went to
the struggle that these four guys were gonna do to get the mettle to
run the company," Hagman continued. "One guy did and I modeled my
character after him. His name is Jess Hall Jr. and he just passed away
[in 2010] -- about 90 or something like that. Great guy and I worked for
him for about two years and he just implanted this story of J.R. into
me and when this role came around, I just went right straight to it. I
knew exactly what to do."
-- Jolie Lash
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