TV's Miss Ellie Dies

In the late 1970s, Larry Hagman was considering two TV scripts when he heard Barbara Bel Geddes had signed on for the one called Dallas. "When I found that out," the future J.R. Ewing wrote in his autobiography, "I knew the show was going to be a class act."

Bel Geddes, a quiet, but formidable presence as Ellie Southworth Ewing Farlow, the matriarch of TV's dominant prime-time soap of the 1980s, died Monday of lung cancer at her home in Maine. She was 82.

"I loved Barbara and am deeply saddened by her passing," Dallas costar Victoria Principal said in a statement Wednesday. "Barbara Bel Geddes will be missed by many, but God is in for a very good time."

Although best known as "Miss Ellie," Bel Geddes was an Oscar-nominated actress and stage star who was playwright's Tennessee Williams' original "Maggie the Cat" from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In his 1955 review of the Southern melodrama, the New York Times' Brooks Atkinson praised Bel Geddes as "vital, lovely and frank" as an Eisenhower-era desperate housewife who "cannot accept her husband's indifference," the delicate decade's code for "he just wasn't that into her--or any other woman, for that matter."

In Hollywood, Bel Geddes appeared in just a dozen movies. But she left her mark as the imminently sensible Midge opposite the Kim Novak-obsessed Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. Other notable film credits included: The Five Pennies, a 1959 musical tearjerker with Danny Kaye; Panic in the Streets, the 1950 noir thriller; and, I Remember Mama, the 1948 sentimental drama about a turn-of-the-century immigrant family which earned the 26-year-old Bel Geddes an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

It was Dallas, however, that would become Bel Geddes' bread-and-butter, at a time when she needed some. In the mid-1960s, it was said, Bel Geddes stepped back from her career to care for her cancer-stricken second husband. Following his death in 1972, Bel Geddes, a mother of two, went back on the market.

Dallas came along in 1978. It was the story of an oil- and rivalry-rich Texas clan who, despite their bitter differences, inexplicably remained committed to living in the same house on the same ranch, Southfork. In his 2001 book, Hello Darlin', Hagman recalled asking Bel Geddes what drew her to the role of Miss Ellie, his TV mother: "I needed the job," she replied.

There was no promise of job security with Dallas. In fact, it was an even riskier prospect than most new series. Instead of 24, 22 or even 13 episodes, CBS ordered five. The batch aired in the spring of 1978. In an era dominated by good-guy cop shows and kindhearted family dramas, Dallas stood out for its sheer, drink-in-the-face nastiness. It embarked on its first full season in the fall of 1978. By the end of the 1979-1980 TV year, it was prime-time's fifth-most popular show, and owing to its "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger, about to become a pop-culture icon. (The series' historic third season was released on DVD on Tuesday.)

Bel Geddes' Miss Ellie was one of the prime suspects in the Ewing assault. In the end, the writers opted to clear Ellie and pin the crime on Kristin Shepard, played by Mary Crosby, who subsequently was written off the series.

Though a ratings powerhouse--three times it reigned as TV's No. 1 show--Dallas held less sway with Emmy voters. Of the series' formidable and sizable cast, no star--not even Hagman--won a statuette, save for Bel Geddes. She earned her statuette in 1980, the year that striking actors, Bel Geddes included, boycotted the show. In all, Bel Geddes' picked up three Emmy nominations for her work on Dallas.

In 1984, Bel Geddes suffered a heart attack. Later that fall, Oscar-winner and sitcom stalwart Donna Reed stepped into the role of Miss Ellie. Bel Geddes' departure commonly has been portrayed as being by her own choice, but David Paulsen, a Dallas writer/producer, recently told interviewer Arthur Swift that it was the result of botched negotiations on her camp's part.

As it turned out, Reed didn't work out. "She wasn't Miss Ellie," Paulsen told Swift. "I mean, in certain ways she probably looked more like Miss Ellie than Barbara did. Barbara is very New England and Donna was dressed and appeared more like a Texas woman, but she wasn't Miss Ellie."

And so Miss Ellie--the Bel Geddes Miss Ellie--returned to Dallas in the fall of 1985. She remained with the series until 1990, opting out of its final season. Bel Geddes never participated in a Dallas reunion show and never again appeared on any prime-time show of any kind.

"Simply stated," Barbara A. Curran, author of 25 Years of Dallas, said of Bel Geddes to UltimateDallas.com, "she treasures her privacy and has chosen since leaving Dallas for the second time in 1990 to stay wholly out of the limelight."

Born on Halloween 1922 in New York City, Bel Geddes was the daughter of famed theatrical and industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes. While still a teenager, she made her Broadway debut in 1941's Out of the Frying Pan. She would go on to claim to two Tony nominations, for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Period of Adjustment.

Bel Geddes didn't remarry following the death of her second husband. Her first marriage ended in divorce.

As for Miss Ellie, she never really gave up on J.R. That's what a good matriarch does.