Celebrity Nooz: Linda Gray

Linda Gray (Actress) - Dallas

Updated: 9/15/20

Name: Linda Gray

Birth Name: Linda Ann Gray

Born: September 12, 1940 in Santa Monica, California, USA

Claim To Fame: Linda Gray is an American film, stage and television actress, and former model, best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing, the long-suffering wife of Larry Hagman's J.R. on the CBS television drama series Dallas (1978-1989).

Family Life: Gray was married for 21 years to art director and photographer Ed Thrasher. They have two children: Jeff Thrasher and Kehly Sloane.

Info: Grew up in Culver City, California, with father Leslie, a watchmaker, and mother Marjorie.

Attended Notre Dame Academy in Culver City, California.

Worked as a model in the 1960s and began her acting career in television commercials, nearly 400 of them.

Began her professional acting career in the 1970s and signed with Universal Studios in 1974.

Served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.

She was the aunt, by marriage, of actress Lindsay Wagner.

Owns a production company: LG Productions, Inc.

Her acting mentor was the late Barbara Bel Geddes.

Gray made her theater directing debut with the play Murder in the First, and other acting stage work includes Terms of Endearment, The Vagina Monologues, Agnes of God and Love Letters.

In April 2013, she was on the list of People magazine's Most Beautiful Woman.

Trivia: Her legs were used for the famous poster for The Graduate (1967) with Dustin Hoffman. And in 2001, Gray did her first ever nude scene when appearing in the London version of the play "The Graduate", then on Broadway the following year.

In 1977, she was cast as fashion model Linda Murkland, the first transgender series regular on American television, in the television series All That Glitters.

Gray achieved stardom for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing, J.R.'s long-suffering alcoholic wife, in the CBS drama series Dallas (1978-1989).

She was nominated for the 1981 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work on 'Dallas'. The role also earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations.

She also received numerous international awards including Germany's Bambi Award, Italy's Il Gato and she was named Woman of the Year by the Hollywood Radio & Television Society in 1982.

Was fired during the 8th season of Dallas after she asked producers to let her direct a few episodes of the series. Her job was spared when Larry Hagman threatened to walk out in protest.

She went on to reprise the role of Sue Ellen in Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996), Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998), and in the TNT series Dallas (2012-2014), which continued the original series.

Gray returned to television in 2004 as a guest star in five episodes of the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, playing Priscilla Kelly.

After the second Dallas was cancelled in 2014, Gray again took to the stage, this time in the role of the Fairy Godmother in a London production of Cinderella.

Where Are They Now: Gray still has a very active film and television career, but it looks like things are on hold for now. Hopefully, we will see her return to the screen soon. And I'm willing to bet, like most entertainers, she can't wait either!

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