Patrick Duffy is a $30 million dollar actor from the United States. He is best remembered for playing Bobby Ewing in the long-running CBS primetime soap opera “Dallas,” which premiered in the late 1970s (and again in the new version of the show on TNT in 2012). He also appeared in the series “Step By Step” in the 1990s.
Early Life:
Patrick Duffy was born in Townsend, Montana, to bar proprietors Terence and Marie “Babe” Duffy on May 17, 1949.
Duffy attended Cascade High School in Everett, Washington, when the family relocated. Duffy was a member of the Drama and Pep Clubs throughout his adolescence. He earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre and credits in theatrical arts from the University of Washington in 1971, allowing him to teach.
Duffy ruptured his vocal cords during his final year of college and worked as an interpretation for ballet, opera, and symphony organizations in Washington, as well as teaching mime and dance lessons.
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Career:
In the early 1970s, Duffy relocated to Los Angeles, California, where he spent many years attempting to break into the acting industry. His major break came in 1976, when he earned the main role in the science-fiction series “Man From Atlantis,” after small appearances in a couple of TV movies and an episode of “Switch.”
Mark Harris, a creature from the lost land of Atlantis, was found asleep on a beach by a study scientist on the program.
Harris possessed webbed hands and feet and could only spend a set length of time out of the water, despite his human appearance. The program aired for just one season, from the autumn of 1977 until the spring of 1978.
Despite the fact that “Dallas” was not an instant smash, his next part would come to define his career. Despite the show’s ultimate, near-cult status, Duffy became bored of portraying the good guy and departed in 1985 to pursue more daring roles.
In the show, he was ‘killed off.’ After Duffy’s departure, “Dallas”‘ ratings plummeted, and Duffy was persuaded to return to the program and his role as good guy Bobby Ewing in 1986. Ewing’s absence was explained by the show’s writers with a now-famous shower scene in which he resurfaced, explaining that his death had been ‘just a dream.’
While this strategy did not go down well with everyone, it has become a part of television history, much as the cliffhanger ‘Who Shot J.R.?’ will long be a part of the Dallas heritage.
Duffy’s parents, Terence and Babe, were slain during a robbery attempt at their pub in Boulder, Montana, not long after he returned to “Dallas” and experienced a great personal loss. The series was abruptly delayed out of respect for Duffy and his tragic death. After that, Duffy stayed with “Dallas” until it was canceled in 1991.
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Between 1979 and 1982, Duffy starred in many episodes of the “Dallas” spinoff “Knots Landing.” Duffy directed numerous episodes of “Dallas” over its 13-year run on television. Meanwhile, Duffy was pursuing a singing career, and his duet with French singer Mireille Mathieu, “Together We’re Strong,” was a smash in Europe in 1983.
In April 1983, their song hit No. 5 in the Netherlands.
Patrick played Frank Lambert in the family comedy Step By Step with Suzanne Somers from 1991 to 1998. The sitcom ran on ABC for seven seasons, airing 160 episodes as part of the TGIF schedule on Friday nights, and subsequently became a mainstay of syndicated television. Patrick directed 49 episodes of the program. Duffy also participated in two Dallas reunion films in the 1990s: “J.R. Returns” in 1996 and “War of Wings” in 1998. He also worked on both films as a co-producer.
The cast of “Dallas” reunited for the nonfiction television special “Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork” in 2004. Duffy continues to appear in guest roles or as a voice actor on television shows such as “Family Guy,” “Justice League,” and “Touched by an Angel.”
He has appeared in a number of TV movies, including “Desolation Canyon” and “Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door.” Duffy first appeared in the soap series “The Bold and the Beautiful” in 2006, as Stephen Logan.
Duffy presented the interactive game show “Bingo America” on GSN in the spring of 2008.
Duffy joined the relaunch of Dallas in 2012, with fellow original cast members Linda Gray and Larry Hagman.
Larry Hagman died from cancer complications in November of 2012. Duffy appeared in artist pair Ungur & Huang’s experimental documentary “Hotel Dallas” in 2016.
In the film, which debuted at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival, he plays a surreal duplicate of Bobby Ewing.
Personal Life:
In February 1974, Duffy married professional dancer Carlyn Rosser.
Padraic Terence Duffy (b. 1974) and Conor Frederick Duffy, their boys, resided with them at Eagle Point, Oregon (b. 1979.)
Carlyn died in January 2017, and they stayed married. He said in an April 2020 interview that he still feels “wedded” to his late wife. After his parents’ tragic deaths in 1986, she supported and assisted him in his conversion to Buddhism.
Kenneth Miller and Sean Wentz, the two adolescents who murdered Duffy’s parents during an armed robbery, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 75 years in jail. Sean Wentz was given parole in 2015, while Miller was freed on parole in December 2007.
Real Estate:
Patrick and Carlyn had a house in Tarzana, California, for nearly two decades. In 1999, they put the 1.5-acre property on the market for $2 million.
Jonathan Davis, the main vocalist of the rock band Korn, bought the house in 2000 for $1.5 million. Davis sold the house for a little under $2.1 million in 2004.
The Duffys acquired a townhouse in LA’s Pacific Palisades district after selling their Tarzana home to establish a SoCal presence.
Patrick spends most of his time outside of California on his 600-acre farm/ranch outside Medford, Oregon. Soon after joining his Dallas co-star Larry Hagman on a fishing expedition in the region, he acquired the property in 1989.
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Art Collection:
One of the main reasons Patrick and Carlyn relocated to Oregon was to increase the size of their amazing art collection.
Pieces by John Singer Sargent, Charles Burchfield, Milton Avery, Andrew Wyeth, and others were added to their collection. Several of the items were individually worth millions of dollars.
In May 2018, he auctioned off many of the artworks. Patrick sold a Milton Avery work named “The Seamstress” for $2.75 million at that auction.