Patrick Duffy is a well-known name in television and his long-standing career spans from 1974 until the present. Born in 1949 in the state of Montana, Duffy has played a number of roles on television hit shows, but his most notable role is one he landed early on in his career as Bobby Ewing on the extremely popular television, night time drama series, Dallas. Duffy landed the role in 1978. He reportedly made $75,000 per episode and received $1 Million dollar signing bonus for his continued role on the show from (1986-1991). You are probably familiar with the famous actor, but here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about Patrick Duffy.
1. Got his name from his birthday
Who knows whether Duffy’s parents already had a name picked out for him before he was born, or they were just winging it, but whatever the deal was, the final decision on Duffy’s first name was decided because of the day he was born, which happened to be on St. Patrick’s Day. Yep, Being born on St. Patrick’s Day seems to have brought him luck and fortune, but he doesn’t attribute his good fortune to his birthday, instead, he says it is all due to his hard work to get where he is. Duffy says he is constantly working to create his own good fortune and once he gets it, he works just as hard to keep it.
2. His original plan was to be a professional athlete
Early in Duffy’s life, before acting took a foot-hold in his life, Duffy had dreams of becoming a famous athlete. Duffy was just a teen when he became a certified scuba diver, but that’s about where the dream ended. He wound up falling in love with acting and was just one of 12 other students that was accepted to attend the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington, Seattle. But his scuba days may very well have played a role a bit later when he got a role in Man From Atlantis, and often had to hold his breath underwater for three minutes at a time.
3. Lost both his parents to murder
Not all the stories about Duffy’s life are happy ones. Duffy’s family was the subject of an immense tragedy in 1986 when both of his parents were murdered on November 18th, in their own tavern. Two teenage boys walked into the tavern with the intention to rob it and shot both of Duffy’s parents, Terrence and Marie Duffy, killing them both. The teenagers, Kenneth Miller and Sean Wentz, were both sentenced to 180 years in prison, then later, Wentz changed his story and said that he was the one who did the shooting, not Miller. Although Miller was later released on parole in 2007, he was denied his plea for clemency.
4. His wife was older than him
Duffy was married to the same woman from 1974 – 2017 when she died of cancer. Carlyn Rosser was a famous ballet dancer with the First Chamber Dance Company of New York, who was also 10 years older than him, and a married woman. He met Rosser after just graduating from college with a drama degree and on his way to being an actor. Duffy was 24 at the time, and Rosser, 34. The couple shared two sons together.
5. Converted to Buddhism
Duffy’s wife was a Buddhist and when he fell in love with her, he also fell in love with the religion. Duffy converted to Buddhism and the two were married in 1974 in a Buddhist temple. Duffy has remained an active Buddhist, with he and his wife raising their boys in the religion and were very involved in the Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai International. When he decided to convert and move to New York with Rosser, he wrote a letter to his parents and told them everything in one shot. He told Digest in an interview that he wrote, ‘Dear Mom and Dad, I’m moving to New York to live with a married 34-year-old ballerina. P.S.: I’m a Buddhist.’
6. He ruptured his vocal chords in college
It sounds painful, and I’m sure it is, but it happens to singers as well as actors, rupturing the vocal chords. Duffy unfortunately had this happen to him while in his senior year in college, and while healing from the injury, he took the opportunity to create a position for himself, he could do while healing. He worked as an actor-in-residence, a role that worked as an interpreter for ballets and operas, as well as orchestra companies. Over the next couple of years, he also taught movement and mime classes until he could begin other acting roles again.
7. His biggest role ever, was on famous nighttime soap opera
The hit TV drama series, Dallas, took Duffy to the next level in acting when he accepted the role as Bobby Ewing. He acted alongside famed actor, Larry Hagman in the series and Ken Kercheval. Hagman’s role, J.R. Ewing, was a household name, but Duffy wasn’t far behind. During the long-running series, Duffy appeared in a total of 326 episodes, while Hagman appeared in all 357 of the episodes, and Kercheval appeared in just one more than Duffy, at 327. Not only was Duffy a huge star in the popular show, but he wound up directing 30 of the episodes throughout the shows total series.
8. He’s rarely been out of work in 22 years
While some actors or actresses will often disappear and reappear during their career, whether it’s due to a difficult time finding roles, or maybe for personal reasons that we don’t always hear about, Duffy has led a busy life over the past 22 years in show business. It is rare that you hear of an actor staying consistently busy with role after role in Hollywood, but then there’s Patrick Duffy who can proudly say that he has only been out of work a total of three weeks during his 22-year show biz career. That’s pretty impressive by anyone’s standards and shows you how in-demand he is.
9. Had a ranking song in the Netherlands
There are many actors who have multiple talents, not just acting. When it comes to show biz, it’s not uncommon to see a singer/song writer cross over to the acting side of Hollywood, and vice versa, making their way in multiple areas with multiple talents. Most people probably wouldn’t have guessed that Duffy has a bit of a musical talent to go with his acting skills. Not only does Duffy play the piano, but he gave-a-go at singing and his single actually made it up to the top of the charts in the Netherlands. The song, Together We’re Strong, was a duet he recorded with a French female singer named Mireille Mathieu, and it climbed all the way to #5 in April of 1983.
10. His nephew is a famous baseball player
Acting isn’t the only thing that runs in the Duffy family; sports does too. Duffy has a nephew who is famous in his own right, and it’s in baseball. Duffy’s nephew, Barry Zito is a well-known pitcher who has played for MLB teams, such as the San Francisco Giants, and the Oakland Athletics. He’s had a great career and has even accumulated an award along the way, the CY Young Award, which he received in 2002.
