Steve Kanaly

Steven Francis Kanaly (/kəˈneɪliː/; born March 14, 1946) is an American actor, best known for his role as Ray Krebbs on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas.

Kanaly was born in Burbank, California, and grew up in the San Fernando Valley. He attended California State University, Northridge. Kanaly served in the Vietnam War as a radio operator with the First Air Cavalry Division. He provided details of his experiences in the service to Apocalypse Now screenwriter John Milius for scenes in the film involving the character of Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall). He once described how he entered film acting-

"It was through John Milius as I mentioned earlier and he wrote a film for himself to direct but that was bought out by Paul Newman's company who hired John Huston to direct The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. Through Milius I was introduced to John Huston and Milius suggested that I would be fine to play one of the Western roles in that film, specifically I had never done any acting previous to that. They saw me and I had a meeting and was offered the job, basically I jumped in with both feet and one week turned out to be twelve and you know I said "I think I'm going to stay with this".

Kanaly is best known for his role as Ray Krebbs, foreman of the Southfork Ranch, on the prime-time soap opera Dallas from 1978 to 1989. He reprised the role for the final episode of the series in 1991, and again for the made-for-TV reunion movie Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998). He reprised the role again in the 2012 TNT revival attending his nephew Christopher's wedding. In 2013, Kanaly reprised the role of Ray Krebbs to attend the funeral of J. R. Ewing.

During Dallas' run, he also guested in other series, including Time Express in 1979. From 1994 to 1995, he also had a role on the ABC daytime drama series All My Children as Seabone Hunkle, the father of Dixie Cooney Martin (played by Cady McClain). Kanaly has also guest starred on numerous other television series. In film, he collaborated frequently with writer-director John Milius, appearing in, among others, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Dillinger, The Wind and the Lion and Big Wednesday. Milius befriended Kanaly when they attended the same shooting range in California, and turned him to acting by recommending him to John Huston for Roy Bean. Other film roles include The Terminal Man, My Name Is Nobody and Midway. He starred as J. T. Fuller in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger.

Kanaly recorded a radio public service announcement for CARE in 1981, and he and former Dallas costar Susan Howard were featured in 1992 NRA advertisements promoting responsible firearms ownership. He and his wife live on a ranch in Ojai, California. He is a highly regarded watercolor artist.

Film

Television