Character ages

[Crimson]

Lovely Linda had this to say over in the review thread for the new series, "What becomes evident now it not a wrong casting of the new generation but an agewise miscast of the old characters back in 1978."

I've occasionally found myself pondering the major characters ages, especially compared to the actors playing them. The following has no real purpose, other than I've been casually ruminating about it.

I've seen Miss Ellie's birthdate given as 1915, and that seems to work within the story. The actresses who played Ellie would have been 6 or 7 years younger than the character.

Larry Hagman was born in 1931. This makes Reed and Bel Geddes closer contemporaries of the actor playing their son than their husband (Jim Davis was born in 1909).

I've seen JR's age given as 1935, 1939 or 1942. Now I must admit that I've always thought of JR as being on the older side. To my eyes, Larry Hagman has always looked his age; at 50 he looked 50, and at 80 he looks 80. That would make the 1935 date more plausible to me, and mean that JR was pushing 50 when John Ross was born. However, the 1942 date probably works better within the continuity of the show even if it means JR looked old for his age.

There's nothing notable about the ages of Gary (born 1944) or Ray (1945) compared to the actors playing them (1946 for both). Sue Ellen was apparently 7 years younger than Linda Gray.

Bobby birth year seems to be given alternately as 1949 or 1952; Duffy was born in 1949. This makes the 'spread' in years between JR and Bobby to be, at the most, 17 (1935 to 1952) or 7 (1942 to 1949) at the lowest. Hagman has always seemed so much older than Duffy, I find the 7 year gap hard to swallow.

The ages of the major Barnes characters is even wonkier. Kercheval was born in 1935, making him very close to Hagman's age. Priscilla Pointer, his on screen mom, was only 9 years older.

But neither actor's age comes close to matching their characters. Rebecca states at one point that she left Cliff and Pam at the age of 17 (going off memory here). If Pam was born in 1955 (let's not even get into VP's date of birth!), that would put Rebecca's birth sometime around 1938. This makes her close to JR's age, and nearly 20 years younger than Ellie even though Pointer was virtually the same age as Bel Geddes and Reed. It also puts Cliff at much closer to Bobby's age then JR, regardless of Kerchaval and Hagman being very close in age.

Rebecca married Herbert Wentworth in the early 60s, so Katherine was probably born around '61 to '63 making her close to, or possibly younger than, Lucy, and 6 plus years younger than Pam. Morgan Brittany was born in '51.

I'll stop now, before my head explodes.

[ronald mascot]

I noticed there's been a lot said about what ages John Ross and Christopher should be, some have thought they should be older, while others point out the current actors were born about the same time and their counterparts. I think some have forgotten there was a decision on Dallas to skip some of their years so John Ross could play older on the show- go to "camp" or whatever he did, that's probably why some think he should be older than he is on the new show.

[vaughnleland]

It all does make your head explode if you think on it... and dont forget Morgan Woodward (punk anderson) is alot younger than Jim Davis and they were suppossed to be contemporaries.Woodward is now 87..only .6 years older than Larry.