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Larry Hagman, in Classic E! Interview: Everybody Shot J.R.

Late TV icon reveals how they kept the death of his character under wraps

By EOL Staff Nov 25, 2012 1:24 AMTags

In an E! interview with the late Larry Hagman in November 2001, the actor lightheartedly recounts how he and and the producers of TV's Dallas kept the shooting of his character, J.R. Ewing, a secret.

Hagman recalled: "When I was shot they didn't know how it was going to end because what happened was they picked up the show, they'd shot the show for 24 or 25 shows, whatever it was, and then the ratings were so good and they were making so much money they extended it for another 4 shows.

"But, they didn't know what they were going to do because usually you have a couple months off and can think of a new line for the next year but they were in a push to shove, in a hard place, so they said 'oh, well we will just shoot the son of a bitch' and then whatever."

"So we came back and shot the epsiode," he added. "But nobody knew who did it, they had Daddy shoot me and Mama and Bobby and Pam and Linda and Kristen and they had the script supervisor shoot me and the sound man—I mean everybody got a shot at old J.R.!"