One of the most famous movie posters from the 1960s features a picture of a young Dustin Hoffman admiring a pair of legs with a woman rolling on them. Anne Bancroft’s legs from “The Graduate” are not particularly noticeable in the film. Linda Gray was the owner of them.
Dallas co-star Linda Gray said: “At the time, everyone thought the infamous pair of legs belonged to Anne Bancroft.”.
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“Everyone of them thought they belonged to Anne Bancroft. She either wasn’t informed about the poster or had to be elsewhere at the time. I received $25 in payment. With that, one leg might be content”.
Because Linda Gray was well known for having long legs, Elizabeth Taylor referred to her as “the b*tch with the long legs.”. Who would have thought, however, that the “Dallas” co-star was paralyzed as a result of polio as a child?
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Linda contracted polio when she was five years old in 1945. According to the actress, the virus reportedly had an impact on both the central nervous system and the neural pathways that connect the brain and muscles. The sensation was there when she touched her legs, but she couldn’t move them.
Gray’s mother turned to alcohol for solace as a result of the illness. She started out drinking with friends and later became addicted. Sadness overcame the parents of their two daughters when they learned of their daughter’s diagnosis.
Little Linda Gray claimed she silently carried the burden of the diagnosis because of her mother’s drinking and her parents’ depression in her memoir, “The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction.”.
Back then, iron lungs, an 800-pound airtight metal ventilator, were used to treat polio. The doctors told Linda’s parents to put her in the metal canister even though the illness had not damaged her lungs as she claims in her book.
The decision to see an alternative therapist was made by her parents, though. If she had been forced into the iron lugs, her injuries might have been even worse and she might have lost limbs and her lungs.
“Raggedy Ann and Andy” served as the substitute therapy”.
She used to stand at the foot of her mother’s bed, hold one leg, lift it, and then lower it again when she was confined to her bed. She repeated the motions on each leg for several months.
Linda was able to walk once more after her legs began to function normally a few months later. The decision to enroll her in dance lessons was made by her parents. Everyone gathered to watch her perform in her first recital because, in her own words, she was “the polio baby plucked from the clutches of paralysis. ”.
Linda was anxious to leave her home because of her mother’s drinking and the issues in her family. She eventually decided to stop going to school and began working full-time as a model to support herself. She met renowned album cover artist Ed Thrasher not long after that.
In their 21-year marriage, Ed abused and lied to his wife. In order to complete everything on his “To-Do List,” he verbally abused his wife and insisted that she stay home with him rather than going to work.
Ed relied on Linda’s advertisements to send money home so he could live out his cowboy fantasies. They worked together to build a house in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita County, 45 minutes outside of downtown Los Angeles.
Cooking, housecleaning, taking care of the animals they shared care of, and keeping an eye on their two children were all on the farm wife’s list of things to do.
After ten years of following his lead, Linda made the decision to take charge of her life once again. She was cast as Sue Ellen in the venerable CBS soap opera “Dallas” after making her transgender acting debut on “All That Glitters,” which went on to become one of her most significant roles in her career. ”.
Growing up, the actress endured a great deal of suffering at the hands of JR Ewing’s intoxicated wife Sue Ellen.
“By playing Sue Ellen, I hoped to break out of my shell and prevent myself from becoming a woman like Sue Ellen or my Mom—a woman who is hopeless, lonely, or depressed. ”.
The co-star of “Dallas” decided to get professional help in her forties. She came to the realization that it was time to face her traumas from her alcoholic mother as well as other difficulties. Linda started the process when her therapist suggested that she set boundaries with her mother.
Her mother frequently referred to “The Graduate” as a leg-double who would “ramble incoherently”.
She was advised by the therapist to tell her mother not to call her while intoxicated. Though Linda initially resisted, the strategy worked.
This initial act served as a starting point for her subsequent learning of boundary-setting with her mother and, later, her ex-husband.
Linda claimed that Sue Ellen had assisted her in having a difficult conversation with her mother about her drinking and past traumas. After her father passed away, she moved to Palm Springs and cared for her mother during her final years.
She played Sue Ellen for 11 years prior to divorcing JR Ewing. With the help of her husband, “Dallas” actor Larry Hagman, who is also her best friend, she moved to Malibu. Linda established a new sex life after getting divorced.
My unmarried sexual life has been a source of happiness and pleasure for the past 30 years. You still have the same level of interest in orgasm at the age of 75”.
In addition to 12 of the show’s 14 seasons from 2012 to 2014, Linda Gray also made appearances in a number of “Dallas” reboots. For the role of JR Ewing’s wife, the actress received two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination.
