The Eternal Party

An intimate and revealing portrait of the TV star who played J.R. on Dallas—as seen through the eyes of his daughter.

When you have a very famous father, like mine, everyone thinks they know him. My dad, Larry Hagman, portrayed the ruthless oilman J.R. on the TV series Dallas. He was the man everyone loved to hate, but he had a personal reputation for being a nice guy who lived by his motto: DON'T WORRY! BE HAPPY! FEEL GOOD!


Dad had a famous parent, too—Mary Martin, best known for playing Peter Pan on Broadway. Both were beloved performers, masters of crafting their public personas. But their relationship was complex and often fraught.


In the hours before he died, I heard my dad beg for forgiveness, though he could not tell me what troubled him. After he died, I was compelled to learn why he felt the need to be forgiven. As I pursued the mystery of my happy-go-lucky, pot-smoking, LSD-taking dad, I came to know him—and my grandmother—better than I had known them in life.