American actor Larry Hagman, known for his role on the TV show Dallas, has died at the age of 81. Source: AAP
US actor Larry Hagman, who starred as predatory oil baron JR Ewing on TV's hit soap opera Dallas, has died at the age of 81.
Hagman, who returned as JR in a new edition of Dallas this year, died on Friday afternoon due to complications from his battle with cancer, according to a statement from the family provided by Warner Bros, producer of Dallas.
"Larry was back in his beloved hometown of Dallas, re-enacting the iconic role he loved the most," the family said. "Larry's family and closest friends had joined him in Dallas for the Thanksgiving holiday."
Hagman was diagnosed in 1992 with cirrhosis of the liver and acknowledged that he had drank heavily for years. In 1995, a malignant tumour was discovered on his liver and he underwent a transplant.
Linda Gray, a long-time friend who starred alongside him in the TV show, called him her "best friend for 35 years", her agent told the BBC.
Gray, who played Hagman's on-screen wife, Sue Ellen Ewing, was by his bedside when he died.
In a statement from her agent she said: "Larry Hagman was my best friend for 35 years.
"He was the Pied Piper of life and brought joy to everyone he knew. He was creative, generous, funny, loving and talented and I will miss him enormously.
"He was an original and lived life to the full."
Years before Dallas, Hagman had gained TV fame as a nice guy with the fluffy 1965-70 NBC comedy I Dream of Jeannie, in which he played Captain Tony Nelson, an astronaut whose life is disrupted when he finds a comely genie, portrayed by Barbara Eden, and takes her home to live with him.
He also starred in two short-lived sitcoms, The Good Life (NBC, 1971-72) and Here We Go Again (ABC, 1973). His film work included well-regarded performances in The Group, Harry and Tonto and Primary Colors.
But it was Hagman's masterful portrayal of the charmingly loathsome JR that brought him his greatest stardom. The CBS serial drama about the Ewing clan and those in their orbit aired from April 1978 to May 1991.
The "Who shot JR?" story twist, in which Hagman's character was nearly murdered in a cliffhanger episode, fuelled international speculation and millions of dollars in betting-parlour wagers. It also helped give the series a ratings record for the time.
When the answer was revealed in a November 1980 episode, an average 41 million viewers tuned in to make Dallas the second most-watched entertainment show of all time, trailing only the MASH finale in 1983 with 50 million viewers.
It was JR's sister-in-law, Kristin (Mary Crosby) who plugged him - he had made her pregnant, then threatened to frame her as a prostitute unless she left town - but others had equal motivation.
Hagman played Ewing as a bottomless well of corruption with a charming grin: a business cheat and a faithless husband who tried to get his alcoholic wife, Sue Ellen (Gray), institutionalised.
"I know what I want on JR's tombstone," Hagman said in 1988. "It should say: 'Here lies upright citizen JR Ewing. This is the only deal he ever lost.'"
In 2006, Hagman did a guest shot on FX's drama series Nip/Tuck, playing a macho business mogul. He also got new exposure in recent years with the DVD releases of I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas.
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