LOS ANGELES (AP) - Barbara Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the long-running TV series Dallas, has died. She was 82.
The San Francisco Chronicle said Bel Geddes, a longtime smoker, died Monday of lung cancer at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home in Mount Desert, Maine, confirmed the death Wednesday, but owner Bill Fernald said the family asked that no further information be given out.
Bel Geddes was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the 1948 drama I Remember Mama and was the original Maggie the Cat on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
But she was best known as the matriarch of the rambunctious Ewing oil family on Dallas, which hurtled to the top of the ratings despite negative reviews. Bel Geddes won an Emmy in 1980 as best lead actress in a drama series and remains the only nighttime soap star to be so honored.
"She was the rock of Dallas," Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing, told The Associated Press. "She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together."
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