Almost two decades after hanging up his trademark 10-gallon hat when the long-running
TV drama Dallas came to an end, the American actor Larry Hagman is reprising his most
famous role in an advertisement for a German company. The oil industry, he says in the
commercial, became “too dirty”, prompting a search for another money making opportunity.
“In the past it was always about the oil. The oil was flowing and so was the money,” he
says.
“But I–m still in the energy business. There–s always a better alternative,” he adds, gazing
up at the roof of his California mansion covered in solar panels and flashing a grin of
perfect sparkling teeth.
The unbelievable prospect of the greenback-worshipping head of Ewing Oil turning green
would have caused uproar in the TV show–s fictional Cattleman–s Club, where many of JR–s
biggest deals were done, and devious plots hatched, over a glass of bourbon.
Yet in real life Hagman, 78, is a keen advocate of an Earth-friendly lifestyle. His
mountaintop home set in a 46-acre estate in Ojai, near Santa Barbara, was fitted with the
country–s largest residential solar power system in 2003, cutting the actor–s annual
electricity bill from $37,000 (£24,000) to $13.
The panels soak up so much sun that he is frequently able to sell power generated by
them back to his local electricity company.
Hagman said he decided to film the 30-second advertisement after becoming angry at the
Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
“With all that oil gushing away in the Gulf I figured it was time to call for a new direction in
where we–re getting our energy,” he told the New York Times.
“Since Sarah Palin is saying –Drill, baby, drill– I–m saying –Shine, baby, shine–. It–s a lot
cheaper and cleaner.”