Video: Larry Hagman as JR Ewing: great Dallas moments The actor played the role of JR for more than a decade and was at the centre of one of the most famous cliffhangers in television history when the character was shot in the third season. "Larry was back in his beloved Dallas re-enacting the iconic role he loved most," his family said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. Linda Gray, a long-time friend who starred alongside Hagman in Dallas as his on screen wife Sue Ellen Ewing, was by the actor's bedside when he died.