CLASSIC TV REWIND: MY INTERVIEW WITH LARRY HAGMAN (2004)

“Work breeds work.”

Larry Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, on September 21, the son of actress Mary Martin and attorney Ben Hagman. When his parents divorced, he moved to Los Angeles to live with his grand-mother. Following his grandmother’s death, Hagman, twelve years old, returned to his mother, who had remarried and was in the midst of a successful acting career.

Larry’s characterizations, as astronaut Tony Nelson on I Dream of Jeannie and as the ruthless J.R. Ewing of Dallas, remain among television’s most iconic portrayals. On November 21, 1980, a record 350 million fans in fifty-seven countries tuned in to discover the answer to pop-culture’s most intriguing mystery: Who shot J.R.?

My first professional ambition was to be a cowboy. Tom Mix was my inspiration. I sat on his horse, Tony, at the Fort Worth Polo Grounds when I was about five years old. He was one of my heroes, and he was a great guy. He was also AWOL from the army for about thirty years, and he was a rogue, but I didn’t know that at the time.

He was presented as a hero … but he was quite a guy.

I was going to school in Vermont, and my mother, Mary Martin, came up and asked me if I wanted to go on the road with her in Annie Get Your Gun. I said no, because I knew I would then…