Throughout the history of television and film, we’ve seen actors and actresses deliver amazing performances any number of times. I don’t know about you, but in those truly stellar performances, it feels like the actors themselves were pretty much made for the parts, and that no one else could play them to the same degree.

For example, could you even imagine Little House on the Prairie‘s frontman Charles Ingalls being played by anyone other than Michael Landon? Or would Mary Poppins have been as good if someone other than Dick Van Dyke starred as Bert?

Linda Gray – Sue Ellen Ewing

There are so many examples of exactly these kinds of parts, but let’s talk about one more. Personally, I can’t even imagine watching the iconic hit television series Dallas without Linda Gray starring as Sue Ellen Ewing. I speak for many when I say we are grateful that she got the part.

Linda Gray’s life has been very special; one could go so far as to describe it as a roller coaster. Gray has battled life-threatening illness, addiction and also struggled through a less-than-satisfying marriage.

However, though she’s certainly been through tough times, she’s always come out the other side stronger, determined to make the most out of her life and have a long and successful career.

On Dallas, Gray starred alongside Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy. Now, she reveals her feelings about acting alongside Hagman, and the secrets behind their great chemistry on set.

Linda Gray was born September 12, 1940, in Santa Monica, California.

Linda Gray – childhood

As a young child, Gray faced a big challenge when she was diagnosed with polio.

Her grandfather had already been diagnosed with the virus, and her parents were left devastated. For Linda herself, though, it wasn’t a big deal.

“They didn’t know what it was when he was 17, and he was always in a wheelchair,” she recalled. “When I was diagnosed, everyone went crazy in my family, but I wasn’t. I thought I could have a wheelchair like Grandpa.”

Gray grew up in Culver City, California, where her father had a watchmaker shop. As a young child, performing was in her blood. She performed on the streets of her neighborhood. When attending Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles, Linda starred as Cinderella in the production of Cinderella.

Her father provided the stability she and her sister Betty needed.

“He didn’t offer emotional support though,” Linda Gray wrote in her 2015 book The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction. “He was just kind of there, like a piece of furniture, but then this was a different time.

“You didn’t go to Dad with boyfriend problems. God forbid. But he was supportive of my career.”

Their mother, Marge, a former artist and ballerina, was the opposite.

Troubled childhood

Marge was a heavy drinker and before long the two young sisters had to take control of their home.

“She wasn’t falling down drunk, there was never any yelling,” Linda wrote. “She wasn’t mean – she was just blurred, in her own world, she would forget to buy food so I started doing the cooking. My sister and I didn’t like her.”

Later on in life, Marge eventually went to Alcoholics Anonymous and stopped drinking. Linda believes that her mother’s drinking habits were a result of disappointment and suppressed creativity. She became determined to avoid a similar fate to her mother.

“I felt that if I didn’t pursue my career the same thing could happen to me,” Linda Gray explained.

But through her path in life, she’d faced several challenges. And the hurdles started coming as early as her 20s.

Nightmare marriage

Growing up in Culver City meant being very close to the show business capital of the world, Hollywood. Along with her friends, Linda Gray used to hang around the different studios after school, getting autographs from stars such as Tyrone Powers and Spencer Tracy.

At a young age, Gray wanted to study medicine. But growing up close to the film studios, she changed her focus, and soon knew she wanted to become an actress. In her teens, Gray worked as a model for several beauty companies and airlines.

Linda Gray was only 21 years of age when she got married to photographer Edward Lee Thrasher. However, the marriage turned into somewhat of a nightmare for Linda.

Her career and pursuit of work in show business were put on hold. Instead, she took on the role of wife and then mother. In 1960, the couple welcomed a son, Jeff Thrasher, and six years later, daughter Kehly was born.

Ed, Linda says, didn’t really say much. The family moved to Santa Clarita, where she still lives today, but Linda was determined to make her own career.

Their marriage was, according to Linda, emotionally cold. She felt abandoned.

“It tore me apart but I just thought, ‘Well, I can make this work somehow,’” she explained. “It took me 21 years to leave my marriage,”

At the same time, her husband Ed didn’t want her to have part-time jobs; he wanted a luxurious lifestyle at home. Linda decided that it was a chance for her to get into show business, and before long she was appearing in television commercials.

A lot of them.

Linda Gray – career

She had two uncredited brief appearances in feature films Under the Yum Yum Tree and Palm Springs Weekend in 1963.

A couple of years later, Linda Gray got a gig that today is pretty much legendary. Age 27, she was paid $25 to be Anne Bancroft’s body double in the poster for the film The Graduate (1967), starring a young Dustin Hoffman. Gray’s legs appear in the iconic image, and funnily enough, she actually ended up playing Mrs Robinson in the 2001 West End State production of The Graduate.

But not everyone loved her. In her 2015 memoir, Gray added a rejection letter which she received from Glamour Magazine in the early 1960s. But it certainly didn’t bring her down.

“It was so funny that I kept that letter,” Gray said. “I kept the letter because I realized that we all have rejections, and it was her opinion when I was 20 years old. I could have had it devastate my life. But, I didn’t. This feisty streak came out – ‘Oh, yeah? I’m gonna show you!’ With great love and a lot of humor, I kept that letter. It kicked me from behind, and made me want to go and do something.”