Favorite Blast From The Past: February 16th

Patrick Duffy
From: Favorite Hunks & Other Things

 Patrick Duffy always got my heart racing, from his days swimming through the ocean in his yellow suit in Man From Atlantis through his days as Bobby Ewing on Dallas. Patrick was the 'good' brother on Dallas and was often shirtless. Patrick has classic good looks and a great body which he kept in great shape, glorious chest hair and all.

 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 from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991. Duffy returned to reprise his role as Bobby in a continuation of Dallas, with airing on TNT as of 2012. 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 was born in Townsend, Montana, the son of tavern owners Marie and Terence Duffy. During high school, Duffy was living in Everett, Washington and attended Cascade High School there. 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. He is of Irish decent.

 In 1976, 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 on the soap opera Dallas. The show became a worldwide phenomenon, ranking in the top 3 for the first half of the 1980s. 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 number 5 in The Netherlands in April 1983.

 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 49 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. More recently, Duffy starred in 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 – July 2008, he also hosted Bingo America, a partially interactive game show on GSN.

Duffy reprises his role as Bobby Ewing in TNT's remake of Dallas. The series began airing as of June 13, 2012.

 Duffy married Carlyn Rosser, ten years his senior, in a Nichiren Buddhist ceremony on February 15, 1974. They live near Eagle Point, Oregon, with their sons Padraig Terence Duffy (b. 1974) and Conor Frederick Duffy (b. 1979). They also have three grandchildren. Duffy was an avid collector of antique dolls and children's books. Though a former Catholic and named after St. Patrick because he was born on March 17, he converted to Nichiren Buddhism and began chanting Nam(u) 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 long-time active members of the American Buddhist group SGI-USA (Sōka Gakkai International – USA).

Duffy's only nude scene in his first flick Vamping.

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 bar 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.

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