Patrick Duffy

This article is about the American actor. For other uses, see Patrick Duffy (disambiguation).

Patrick Duffy
Duffy at the PaleyFest 2013 forum for Dallas
Born	(1949-03-17) March 17, 1949 Townsend, Montana
Occupation	Actor, director, television personality
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	Carlyn Duffy (née Rosser; February 15, 1974–present)
Website	www.patrickduffy.org

Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American actor, best known for his role on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991. Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby in a continuation of Dallas, which aired on TNT from 2012 to 2014. He is also well known for his role on the ABC sitcom Step by Step as Frank Lambert, from 1991 to 1998, and for his role as Stephen Logan on the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2006-2011). Duffy plays the lead character's father in the 2014 NBC sitcom Welcome to Sweden.

Early life

Duffy was born in Townsend, Montana, the son of tavern owners Marie and Terence Duffy. During high school, Duffy was living in Everett, Washington, and attended Cascade High School. At Cascade, he participated in the Drama Club and the Pep Club, for which he was a Yell King. Academically, Duffy earned credentials in theater arts that entitled him to teach, graduating from the University of Washington in 1971 with a degree in drama. He ruptured both 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 during this period.

Career

Duffy at 2009 Daytime Emmy Award

In 1976, Duffy landed the role of Mark Harris in the short-lived television series Man from Atlantis. Following the series' cancellation in early 1978, he got his big break in the role of Bobby Ewing on the soap opera Dallas. The show became a worldwide success. 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". 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. Along with Dallas fame, Duffy has also tried his hand at singing, and in 1983, he had a hit in Europe with "Together We're Strong", a duet with French female singer Mireille Mathieu. The single reached number 5 in The Netherlands in April 1983.

Duffy with Linda Gray at the 2013 Monte-Carlo Television Festival

At the end of Dallas' run 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. Also in the 1990s, he appeared in two Dallas reunion television movies; J.R. Returns (1996) and War of the Ewings (1998), both of which he also co-produced. He has reunited on several occasions with many of his Dallas co-stars both onscreen and off, most notably for the non-fiction television special Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork in 2004. Duffy later continued to act in the occasional guest or voice acting appearance, including the series Family Guy (in which he appeared in a live action scene with Victoria Principal as they spoofed the Dallas shower scene), as well as Justice League and Touched by an Angel. Duffy starred in the television movies Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door and Desolation Canyon. In 2006, he began a recurring role on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as Stephen Logan. From April to July 2008, he hosted Bingo America, a partially interactive game show on GSN.

Duffy reprised his role as Bobby Ewing in TNT's remake of Dallas. The series aired from 2012 to 2014.

Personal life

Duffy married Carlyn Rosser, ten years his senior, in a Nichiren Buddhist ceremony on February 15, 1974. They live near Eagle Point, Oregon, with their sons Padraic Terence Duffy (b. 1974) and Conor Frederick Duffy (b. 1979). They also have four grandchildren. Duffy was an avid collector of antique dolls and children's books. He converted to Nichiren Buddhism, and began chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the approximate time of his earliest encounters with his wife, who was then a ballet dancer with the First Chamber Dance Company of New York. He and his family are long-time active members of the Japanese Nichiren Buddhist lay organization SGI & are members of SGI-USA (Sōka Gakkai International – USA).

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, bar his parents owned. Wentz and Miller, who were teenagers at the time, were convicted of the murders and sentenced to 75 years in prison. In 2001, Miller appeared before the Montana Parole board after Sean Wentz recanted his original story, admitting that he was the sole gunman. Miller was denied clemency in 2001 but was released on parole in December 2007.

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

According to longtime fan and future crewmember, Andrea Cantrell, she was asked to create a photo album of the Ewing Family, in 2012, who was having difficulty finding as many appropriate pictures as she could, though many of the new cast members could only provide recent snaps, and her efforts were further hampered because the image of two original Dallas stars, late actors Jim Davis and Barbara Bel Geddes, are controlled by the handlers of their estate. Then, after struggling, Duffy came to the rescue, who asked his wife to send a box of pictures to Cantrell. All the pictures Duffy's real-life family were taken, decades ago (before Duffy's parents were murdered, in real-life), as well as a baby picture of Patrick, himself. His real-life mother also bore a slight resemblance to his acting mentor, Bel Geddes, whose character made a photo of her holding baby Patrick, exactly what Cantrell needed. His real-life late parents made a cameo on the revised Dallas series.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	The Stranger Who Looks Like Me	Adoptee#3	TV movie
1974	Hurricane	Jim	TV movie
1976	Switch		Episode: "The Walking Bomb"
1976	The Last of Mrs. Lincoln	Lewis Baker	TV movie
1977–78	Man from Atlantis	Mark Harris	Series regular (17 episodes)
1978–85; 1986–91	Dallas	Bobby Ewing	Series regular (326 episodes) Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Actor in a Prime Time Serial (1985) Special Bambi Award (Shared with Dallas co-stars) (1987) TV Land Pop Culture Award (Shared with Dallas co-stars) (2006) Nominated - Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Actor in a Prime Time (1988, 1990, 1992) Nominated - Soap Opera Digest Award for Favorite Super Couple: Prime Time (Shared with Victoria Principal) (1988)
1979–1982	Knots Landing	Bobby Ewing	Episode: "Pilot" Episode: "The Loudest Word" Episode: "New Beginnings"
1980	Charlie's Angels	William Cord	"One Love...Two Angels" (1) "One Love...Two Angels" (2)
1980	Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb	Colonel Paul Tibbets	TV movie
1981	The Love Boat	Ralph Sutton	Episodes: "The Expedition" 1 and 2
1982	Cry for the Strangers	Dr. Brad Russell	TV movie
1983	Auf los geht's los	Singer	Episode: "Nachthemdfolge"
1984	Vamping	Harry Baranski
1985	From Here to Maternity	Henderson	TV movie
1985	Hotel	Richard Martin	Episode: "Missing Pieces"
1985	George Burns Comedy Week		Episode: "Dream, Dream, Dream"
1985	Alice in Wonderland	Goat	TV Movie
1986	Strong Medicine	Dr. Andrew Jordan	TV movie
1987	Our House	Johnny Witherspoon	Episode: "Candles and Shadows"
1988	14 Going on 30		TV movie
1988	Unholy Matrimony	John Dillman	TV movie
1988	Too Good to Be True	Richard Harland	TV movie
1990	Murder C.O.D.	Steve Murtaugh	TV movie
1990	Children of the Bride	John Hix	TV movie
1991	Daddy	Oliver Watson	TV movie
1991–98	Step by Step	Frank Lambert	Series regular (160 episodes)
1994	Texas	Stephen Austin	TV movie
1996	Dallas: J.R. Returns	Bobby Ewing	TV movie
1997	Heart of Fire	Max Tucker	TV movie
1998	Dallas: War of the Ewings	Bobby Ewing	TV movie
1998	Rusty: A Dog's Tale	Cap the Dog	Voice
1998	Diagnosis: Murder	Wayde Garrett	Episode: "Till Death Do Us Part"
1999	Dead Man's Gun	Lyman Gage	Episode: "The Womanizer"
1999	Don't Look Behind You	Jeff Corrigan	TV movie
1999	Twice in a Lifetime	Peter Hogan	Episode: "A Match Made in Heaven"
1999, 2001	Family Guy	Bobby Ewing Jack/Salesman/Teacher	Voice Episode: "Da Boom" Episode: "And the Wiener Is..."
2000	The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne	Duke Angelo Rimini	Episode: "Rockets of the Dead"
2000	Perfect Game	Coach Bobby Geiser	TV movie
2002	Justice League	Steve Trevor	Voice Episode: "The Savage Time" 1, 2 & 3
2003	Touched by an Angel	Mike	Episode: "I Will Walk with You" 1 & 2
2004	Reba	Dr. Joe Baker	Episode: "Couples' Therapy"
2006	Desolation Canyon	Sheriff Tomas 'Swede' Lundstrom	TV movie
2006	Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door	James Connolly	TV movie
2006–11	The Bold and the Beautiful	Stephen Logan	Series regular, (165 episodes)
2007	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	Himself	Uncredited Cameo (Unrated Version)
2008	He's Such a Girl	Whitney's Father
2009	Love Takes Wing	Mayor Evans	TV movie
2010	Healing Hands	Uncle Norman	TV movie
2010	You Again	Ritchie Phillips	Cameo
2010	Party Down	Himself	Cameo
2012–14	Dallas	Bobby Ewing	Series regular (40 episodes)
2012	Lovin' Lakin	Himself	Episode: "Lakin Visits Her Dad"
2014	Welcome to Sweden	Wayne Evans	Season 1 Episode 6

External links

• Patrick Duffy at the Internet Movie Database

Patrick Duffy is the leg of Scuzzlebutt on the South Park episode 'Volcano'