Celebrity Nooz: Patrick Duffy

Patrick Duffy (Actor) - Dallas

Updated: 6/15/22

Name: Patrick Duffy

Birth Name: Patrick Duffy

Born: March 17, 1949 in Townsend, Montana, USA

Claim To Fame: Patrick Duffy is an American actor, widely known for his role on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing, and for his role on the ABC sitcom Step by Step as Frank Lambert.

Family Life: In 1974, Duffy married Carlyn Rosser, a professional ballerina. They have two sons Padraic and Conor. Rosser passed away in 2017.

Info: The son of tavern owners Marie and Terence Duffy.

Born on St. Patrick's Day.

Graduated from Cascade High School in Everett, WA.

At Cascade, he participated in the Drama Club and the Pep Club, for which he was a Yell King.

Graduated from the University of Washington in 1971 with a degree in drama.

Named one of the 100 Alumni of the Century by the University of Washington.

He ruptured his vocal cords during his senior year of college, so he created the position of actor-in-residence, where he worked as an interpreter for ballet, opera, and orchestra companies in Washington; he also taught mime and movement classes.

On November 18, 1986, Duffy's parents were murdered by two young men, Kenneth Miller and Sean Wentz, during an armed robbery of the Boulder, Montana, tavern that his parents owned. Wentz and Miller, teenagers at the time, were convicted of the murders and sentenced to 75 years in prison. Miller was denied clemency in 2001 but was released on parole in December 2007. Sean Wentz was granted parole in 2015.

He and his wife Carlyn Rosser first met on a bus. She was 10 years his senior. He always wore his wedding ring throughout the filming of Dallas, even during seasons where his character was unmarried.

Duffy converted to Nichiren Buddhism and began chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo at the approximate time of his earliest encounters with his wife. He and his family are longtime members of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International.

Wears a medical alert bracelet on his right wrist to draw attention to his potentially fatal penicillin allergy.

Loves golf and has played in celebrity tournaments.

Duffy's nephew is former Major League Baseball pitcher Barry Zito.

Trivia: In 1977, Duffy landed the role of Mark Harris in the short-lived television series Man from Atlantis.

Could hold his breath underwater for three minutes during his Man from Atlantis days.

In early 1978, he got his big break in the role of Bobby Ewing, opposite Barbara Bel Geddes and Larry Hagman, on the prime-time soap opera Dallas.

Beat out Steve Kanaly for the role of Bobby Ewing in Dallas. Kanaly would play Ray Krebbs.

In 1983, Duffy has also tried his hand at singing. He had a hit in Europe with "Together We're Strong", a duet with French female singer Mireille Mathieu. The single reached #5 in the Netherlands in April 1983.

Despite its success, Duffy opted to leave the series in 1985 with his character being killed off onscreen. However, with both the show and his career on the decline, he returned in 1986 in the infamous shower scene that rendered the entire 1985-1986 season "just a dream."

Dallas producer Leonard Katzman hired a non-Dallas crew to film what the crew believed to be an Irish Spring commercial with Duffy. The crew spent hours filming the commercial, which was then superimposed into a scene from Dallas. The result is the famous shower scene where Duffy's character, "Bobby Ewing", returns from the dead and says "Good Morning" to his TV wife, played by Victoria Principal. Principal did not know that Duffy was returning to the show until she saw that cliffhanger on TV, and then phoned him.

His wife was the one who suggested the "dream season" to explain Bobby Ewing's return from the dead on Dallas.

Duffy then remained with the series until its cancellation in 1991. He also appeared in several episodes of the spin-off series Knots Landing between 1979-82. Throughout the 13-year run of Dallas, Duffy directed several episodes of the series.

Broadway actress Barbara Bel Geddes and former sitcom star Larry Hagman both took Duffy, under their wing, when he was 29. Duffy's friendship with Bel Geddes would continue until her death in 2005, as was the case with his friendship with Hagman's, until his death in 2012.

In 1991, son Conor Duffy (played "Little J.R." on the final episode of Dallas.

Son Padraic Duffy played "Mark Harris" on Dallas. "Mark Harris' was the name of Duffy's character on Man from Atlantis.

When he was a kid the father of his future wife (Carlyn Rosser) had worked with Barbara Bel Geddes in her first Broadway play, "The Moon is Blue", years before he got the role on Dallas as her youngest son.

In 1991, Duffy began another television role, as Frank Lambert on the family sitcom, Step by Step in which he co-starred with Suzanne Somers. The series ran until 1998, and Duffy also directed numerous episodes.

From April to July 2008, he hosted Bingo America, a partially interactive game show on GSN.

Where Are They Now: Duffy has two projects currently in post-production, comedy TV-series 'On the Verge' and the comedy film Lady of the Manor. Duffy is still going strong. And sources say that he's in a relationship with actress Linda Purl. He's a true staple of television entertainment that we can never get enough of!

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