“Larry looked at me and he said, ‘Hello, darling.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, this is trouble,’” Gray said of their introduction decades ago.

Linda Gray recalls immediate crush on Larry Hagman after meeting on Dallas set

"Larry looked at me and he said, 'Hello, darling.' And I thought, 'Oh, this is trouble,'" Gray said of their introduction decades ago.

By Marina Watts

Marina Watts

Marina Watts is a news writer for with seven years experience covering entertainment, pop culture and celebrity news. Her previous work appears in PEOPLE, Bustle and Newsweek.

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June 30, 2026 2:47 p.m. ET

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Linda Gray in Los Angeles is 2017; Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing on 'Dallas' in 1983. Credit:

David Livingston/Getty; CBS Photo Archive/Getty

- Linda Gray had a crush on her *Dallas *costar Larry Hagman right after they met on the drama series set.

- "Larry looked at me and he said, 'Hello, darling.' And I thought, 'Oh, this is trouble,'" she recalled.

- Hagman, who died in 2012, portrayed J.R. Ewing in the long-running program along with Major Nelson in *I Dream of Jeannie*.

Linda Gray was a big fan of Larry Hagman before their shared screen time.

The *Dallas** *actress admitted to having a crush on Hagman, who died in 2012, immediately after meeting on the set of the drama series.* *The actors played the complicated husband and wife duo J.R. Ewing and Sue Ellen Ewing throughout the show's tenure.

Gray's first impression of Hagman was him carrying "saddle bags over his shoulder filled with ice and a bottle of champagne," she recalled on the June 28 episode of the *Celebrity Drop** *podcast.

"And we were all in this room, the entire cast. Nobody knew who we were. We were actors, unemployed actors that just got a job. And so we were all crammed together in this little room," she continued.

Hagman and Gray as J.R. and Sue Ellen Ewing on 'Dallas' in 1981.

CBS Photo Archive/Getty

"And Larry looked at me and he said, 'Hello, darling.' And I thought, 'Oh, this is trouble. This is trouble.'" Gray remembered "looking around the room in shock," realizing Hagman also portrayed Major Nelson in *I Dream of Jeannie**.*

"And I thought, 'Oh dear, I have a crush on Major Nelson.' And now he's here in front of me."

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Gray slowly began to realize where she knew the other cast members from, such as Patrick Duffy and Barbara Bel Geddes.

"And so I just looked around the room going, 'Oh my god, this, what is this?' And I just laughed and I thought, "Well, I'm part of it somehow. We have to figure out what part, because it seemed like a giant mess to me."

The actress told *** *in 2011 about why she loved playing Sue Ellen. "I thought she was the most interesting female on television in the ’80s because you never knew what was going to happen to her, where she was going to go," Gray revealed ahead of the series' 2012 revival.

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*Dallas *premiered in 1978 on CBS and ran for 14 seasons, ending in 1991 and becoming one of the longest-running primetime dramas in television history. It followed the Ewing family, a dynasty of feuding oil tycoons and ranch owners. Hagman as J.R. was the only actor to appear in every episode of the series as the scheming eldest son.

The show, which is known for the iconic season 3 finale cliffhanger of who shot J.R., was nominated for numerous Golden Globes and Emmy Awards throughout its run.

Gray at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2019.

Paul Archuleta/Getty

Gray previously spoke about kissing scenes she filmed with Hagman, claiming that he "didn't like intimate... he didn't like the kissing scenes," she admitted during a 2025 episode of the *That's Classic** *podcast.

She clarified, "Not that he didn't like them, but he just felt, you know, it was awkward." In order to cope with the awkwardness, Hagman "would do things like eat an onion before a kissing scene with me," Gray said. "Like, 'Oh, great, Larry. Thanks.'"

Watch Linda Gray's full appearance on *Celebrity Drop *below.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW TV”