Patrick Duffy is known for his role playing the nice Ewing brother and son of Miss Ellie Bobby Ewing in much-loved ’80s TV show ‘Dallas.’
The long-running U.S. soap opera was a hit around the world and made several comebacks due to its popularity.
Originally Duffy’s character was set to be killed off but show bosses turned their decision around when Bobby Ewing returned in the famous shower scene, effectively writing off his fateful end as nothing more than a dream.
But while Duffy became the hero of the much-loved show and enjoyed celebrity status, behind the scenes he was dealing with his own heartache, a trauma that changed his life forever.
Patrick’s parents Marie and Terence Duffy owned a tavern in Boulder, Montana. On November 18, 1986 his parents were shot dead by two disgruntled teens who had been thrown out of the bar earlier in the evening.
Recently the 71-year-old father-of-two, spoke about the horrific evening when he lost two of the most precious people in his life.
‘They shot both my mother and my father’
“My father kicked these two young men out of the bar at some point in the evening,” he recalls.
“So they went and drank elsewhere… and came back to the bar to kick his a–. When they stepped in the bar with their guns, they shot him. There was nobody else in the bar, so they shot both my mother and my father,” Patrick said, who was 37 years old at the time.
The offenders, 19-year-old Sean A. Wentz and Kenneth A. Miller, also 19, were both charged with deliberate homicide and sentenced to 75 years in prison.
“When my parents were murdered, I went through all the emotions of the horrific event — shock and anger and everything — but I never felt disconnected from (my parents),” Duffy says. “I never felt that immediate loss. I did not know why then, but in retrospect, it was a result of being Buddhist.”
The two men responsible for killing his parents have since been paroled.
“I’m OK with that,” Duffy said when one of the men was released in 2007. “My point of view is he’s already been punished. You know, whether he’s in prison or out of prison.”
Find out more about the personal tragedy that Duffy had to endure in the clip below.
Please share with all the Dallas fans you know. The way this man handled such a tragedy in his life is inspirational.
