Patrick Duffy

Patrick Duffy (born March 17, 1949) is an American actor, best known for his role on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing, the youngest son of Miss Ellie and the nicest brother of J.R. Ewing (played by Barbara Bel Geddes and Larry Hagman) from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991. Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby in a continuation of Dallas, which aired on TNT from 2012 to 2014. He is also well known for his role on the ABC sitcom Step by Step as Frank Lambert, from 1991 to 1998, and for his role as Stephen Logan on the CBS daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (2006-2011). Duffy plays the lead character's father in the 2014 NBC sitcom Welcome to Sweden.

Duffy was born in Townsend, Montana, in 1949, the son of tavern owners Marie and Terence Duffy. During high school, Duffy was living in Everett, Washington, and attended Cascade High School. At Cascade, he participated in the Drama Club and the Pep Club, for which he was a Yell King. Academically, Duffy earned credentials in theater arts that entitled him to teach, graduating from the University of Washington in 1971 with a degree in drama. He ruptured both his vocal cords during his senior year of college, so he created the position of actor-in-residence, where he worked as an interpreter for ballet, opera, and orchestra companies in Washington. He also taught mime and movement classes during this period.

Duffy at 2009 Daytime Emmy Award

In 1977, Duffy landed the role of Mark Harris in the short-lived television series Man from Atlantis. Following the series' cancellation in early 1978, he got his big break in the role of Bobby Ewing, opposite Barbara Bel Geddes and Larry Hagman, on the soap opera Dallas. The show became a worldwide success. Despite its success, Duffy opted to leave the series in 1985 with his character being killed off onscreen. However, with both the show and his career on the decline, he returned in 1986 in the infamous shower scene that rendered the entire 1985–1986 season "just a dream." Duffy then remained with the series until its cancellation in 1991. He also appeared in several episodes of the spin-off series Knots Landing between 1979–82. Throughout the 13-year run of Dallas, Duffy directed several episodes of the series. Along with Dallas fame, Duffy has also tried his hand at singing, and in 1983, he had a hit in Europe with "Together We're Strong", a duet with French female singer Mireille Mathieu. The single reached #5 in the Netherlands in April 1983.

Duffy with Linda Gray at the 2013 Monte-Carlo Television Festival

At the end of Dallas' run in 1991, Duffy began another television role, as Frank Lambert on the family sitcom, Step by Step in which he co-starred with Suzanne Somers. The series ran until 1998, and Duffy also directed numerous episodes. Also in the 1990s, he appeared in two Dallas reunion television movies; J.R. Returns (1996) and War of the Ewings (1998), both of which he also co-produced. He has reunited on several occasions with many of his Dallas co-stars both onscreen and off, most notably for the non-fiction television special Dallas Reunion: Return to Southfork in 2004. Duffy later continued to act in the occasional guest or voice acting appearance, including the series Family Guy (in which he appeared in a live action scene with Victoria Principal as they spoofed the Dallas shower scene), as well as Justice League and Touched by an Angel. Duffy starred in the television movies Falling in Love With the Girl Next Door and Desolation Canyon. In 2006, he began a recurring role on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful as Stephen Logan. From April to July 2008, he hosted Bingo America, a partially interactive game show on GSN.

Duffy reprised his role as Bobby Ewing in TNT's remake of Dallas. The series aired from 2012 to 2014.

Duffy played a surreal double of Bobby Ewing in the experimental documentary Hotel Dallas, directed by artist duo Ungur & Huang. The film premiered at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival.

Duffy married Carlyn Rosser, a professional ballerina 10 years his senior, in a Soka Gakkai International Buddhist ceremony on February 15, 1974. They live near Eagle Point, Oregon, with their sons Padraic Terence Duffy (b. 1974) and Conor Frederick Duffy (b. 1979). They also have four grandchildren. Duffy was an avid collector of antique dolls and children's books. He converted to Nichiren Buddhism, and began chanting Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō at the approximate time of his earliest encounters with his wife, who was then a ballet dancer with the First Chamber Dance Company of New York. He and his family are longtime members of the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International.

Duffy's nephew is Major League Baseball pitcher Barry Zito.

On November 18, 1986, Duffy's parents were murdered by two young men, Kenneth Miller and Sean Wentz, during an armed robbery of the Boulder, Montana, tavern that his parents owned. Wentz and Miller, who were teenagers at the time, were convicted of the murders and sentenced to 75 years in prison. In 2001, Miller appeared before the Montana Parole board after Sean Wentz recanted his original story, admitting that he was the sole gunman. Miller was denied clemency in 2001 but was released on parole in December 2007.