‘We can have as much fun as we had when we were 25. Maybe even more because we don’t have to worry about children breaking into the bedroom.’

Linda’s gripping new book The Road to Happiness is Always Under Construction is half practical self-help guide to aging gracefully and part brutally honest biography.

Still attractive and thin, she might pass for a woman in her 50s in a beige silk top and J-Brand jeans, her enormous brown eyes gleaming, red hair pulled up in a bun. Her face is lined and full of character, so I believe her when she says she has never undergone plastic surgery.

‘I haven’t had anything done because it worries me,’ she explains. ‘I tried Botox once,’ she says, touching her brow, ‘and I looked terrible.’

The book recounts her life’s sorrows and accomplishments, including being briefly paralyzed by polio as a child, losing her younger sister Betty to cancer, and being imprisoned in a miserable marriage for over two decades.

It also gives unique insights into the TV show that catapulted Linda to international fame: Linda characterizes her career-defining character as “a mogul’s wife with a gleaming outside and a pickled liver,” who was constantly engaged in roller-coaster confrontations with her Machiavellian, philandering husband.

Off-screen, Linda was in a highly abusive relationship with her husband, creative director and photographer Ed Thrasher (creator of album covers for performers such as Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, and Joni Mitchell), whom she married when she was 21. Linda realized she’d made a mistake on her honeymoon in Acapulco on the first night.

‘Because we had sex, I thought, ‘Oh, now I’m a genuine grownup, a lady,’ but I didn’t feel loved or nurtured.’

She instead felt abandoned. Ed left her alone in the hotel the following day as he went out taking shots, starting an emotionally frigid and dominating routine that would last throughout their marriage.

‘It tore me apart, but I just thought to myself, “Well, I can make this work somehow.” Which she did in some way.

‘It took me 21 years to get out of my marriage,’ she admits.

Linda acknowledges that part of the attractiveness of marriage was moving away from home following a problematic upbringing growing up in Culver City, Los Angeles.

She developed polio at Age five and was isolated in her bedroom for months.

She recovered utterly (‘I just have to stretch my hamstrings, which get a little stiff,’ she says). Still, she and her sister Betty had to deal with their mother, Marge, a former ballerina and artist who liked ‘Rose’s lime juice and vodka gimlets – it was the Mad Men era, everybody had a cocktail hour,’ says Linda.

Marge Gray wasn’t drunk – there was never any yelling, and she wasn’t cruel – she was just lost in her world, forgetting to buy food. As a result, I began to cook. ‘Neither my sister nor I liked her.’

How much influence did her mother have on her portrayal of Sue Ellen?

‘No, not at all. “How will I do this right and not disgrace Mum?” I wondered at first. However, the part was a gift.

‘When Mum saw me play a character with a condition, she realized she had a real problem, and it ended up being incredibly healing.’

Her mother, who was 60 then, eventually went to Alcoholics Anonymous and stopped drinking.

Linda feels her mother’s drinking was motivated by frustration, disillusionment, and a lack of creativity, and she was determined to escape a similar destiny.

‘I was afraid that something similar would happen to me if I didn’t pursue my career.’

Her jeweler father, Leslie, offered stability.

‘He was fantastic; he reminded me of the Dalai Lama, and everyone adored him.

‘He didn’t offer emotional support,’ she adds, ‘he was simply kind of there, like a piece of furniture, but it was a different time.

‘You didn’t go to Dad because you were having partner issues. But he was encouraging of my career.’ Please, God!

Linda originally planned to study medicine, but growing up near the MGM film studios drew her to acting and Hollywood.

After school, she and her friends would go to the studios and get autographs from stars like Spencer Tracy, Stewart Granger, and Tyrone Power.

In her teens, she began modeling for firms such as Noxzema skincare, L’eggs hosiery, and numerous airlines.

Marriage to Ed ended a potential career, as the role he expected of her was wife and mother.

As she had decided, Linda had two children, Jeff (now 50) and Kelly (48), and the family relocated to a vast ranch in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, where she currently lives.

‘He was like my dad, he didn’t speak much,’ Linda says.

Instead, he would leave notes pinned to the fridge every morning with jobs for her to do, ‘like I was a maid. “Iron my clothing, wash the car, feed the hens, and take the dog to the vet.”

She went to group therapy in the early 1970s, irritated and disappointed, because she wanted to know, “Who are you, Linda Gray?”

She even convinced Ed to attend one of the sessions, following which the to-do lists ceased. However, what Linda refers to as “subtle brutality” persisted. Ed disapproved of his wife going to work, although he did agree to part-time work.

‘He’d remark, ‘We need a pool,’ or ‘We need a tennis court,’ and so on. So I’d do a TV commercial to cover the costs.’

Among her lesser-known credits, at 27, she was paid $25 to be Anne Bancroft’s body double in the promotional poster for The Graduate (1967), starring Dustin Hoffman.

Linda’s shapely leg is shown in the renowned shot. (By chance, she ended up playing Mrs. Robinson in the 2001 West End stage version of The Graduate, which had a full-frontal nude moment, when she was 61.)

Even though she was frustrated, she adored being a mother and caring for the ranch. She also desired to perform. Ed was upset when she decided to pursue acting classes.

“Why don’t you become an actress when the kids are in college?” he said. But she persisted, enrolling in classes at 37 with many younger people.

She got her first acting gig as a guest star on the TV series Marcus Welby MD in 1974, thanks to actor Dennis Weaver (star of Gunsmoke and McCloud), who noticed her talent.

Then, at the Age of 38, she earned her big break, auditioning for the role of Sue Ellen and landing the position that would change her life. It meant leaving her children, ages 11 and 13, in Texas for two months to film.

‘I could have declined because leaving children at any age is difficult, but I did my best to balance everything. I cooked over 60 frozen casseroles so the family wouldn’t go hungry.’

From 1978 through 1991, the sitcom, which also starred Larry Hagman as JR, Patrick Duffy, and Victoria Principal, aired for 14 seasons.

It set global viewership records, but Linda felt awful about her time away from her children.

She missed her son’s high school graduation (he now co-owns an environmental IT company with a friend) because she was filming a vital scene, and her adolescent daughter Kelly (now a married businesswoman with two children) began skipping school, getting into issues with the cops.

‘She had this jerk of a mother who was a TV star and should’ve been at home baking cookies and attending PTA meetings.

‘I was getting all this attention, and everyone wanted my autograph, which is difficult for a teenage lady.

‘The rebellious spirit must be released. She’d take my car, go out with her buddies, and then run out of gas.

‘She was probably drinking as well. A cop would stop her and ask, “Why are you driving so fast?” To get her out, I’d go to the police station and sign glossy images of myself!’

Linda’s marriage worsened as her profession flourished.

She was nominated for an Emmy for best actress in 1981. She recalls that her famous hairstylist José Eber designed a new wavy style for the gala occasion.

Then Ed arrived in a limo to pick her up.

‘I thought I was so beautiful, but he just looked at me and said, ‘You look like a hooker,” she added. I was heartbroken. I thought I was going to die right there.

‘That was a terrible night. My theory was that he tried to bring me down a notch, so he perked up when I lost.

She takes a break to pour tea. ‘My children are still unaware of any of this.’

They had to have known you had a poor marriage, right?

‘I believe they only saw what they wanted to see. He was an excellent father to them.’

Did she think her husband’s behavior was abusive?

‘There was no such thing back then. I just felt like I was being dragged through a knothole. I just felt like sh**,’ she says.

What would her attitude be if her daughter was in the same situation?

‘That would be like saying, “Divorce papers right now!” But women are advancing by leaps and bounds, and I pray no one has to go through what I did.’

She considers her experience to be somewhat inadequate.

‘I was destined to be on the world in 1940 and experience everything I went through, good, awful, sad, and tragic,’ she says.

Linda finally left Ed two years after the Emmy incident in 1983.

‘I grew alongside Sue Ellen. I progressively became stronger, and one day I told myself, “I don’t have to put up with this anymore.”

“I can’t be married any longer,” I informed him. I was exhausted, beaten down, and overwhelmed, and I was just raw, raw, raw. He scarcely responded. “All right,” he said. “Do what needs to be done.”

‘His words were tinged with condescension as if he indulged his nutty wife in her little escapade. He expected me to come home with my tail between my legs.’ I believe he was in denial.

Divorce was both liberating and agonizing.

‘The neighborhood wives treated me like a sickness,’ she adds (even though their husbands wanted to come over and give her a shoulder to weep on!). Larry Hagman and his wife, Maj, showed genuine concern.

‘They wrapped their arms around me; it was so nurturing and kind; they cared about me.’

She relocated to Malibu while the divorce was finalized, then returned to the property once Ed left.

I’m curious why Linda waited 21 years to quit her marriage.

‘Oh my God, I’m not sure. The greatest option would have been not to marry him and keep him as a friend.’

She claims he was pleasant and witty in social situations but not in the marriage.

‘But I have no regrets: I evolved as a person.’ (In truth, she assisted her ex when he was diagnosed with colon cancer and was present when he died in 2006.)

Her self-assurance was rising at work as well. She gave her flimsily sketched Dallas character more weight

I recall thinking to myself, “Who in hell would marry that idiot?” “It’s you, babe,” I realize. “How are you going to deal with it?” Sue Ellen might have been a bitch based on how the part was written, but I decided to inject some vulnerability into her.

‘I fought with the writers and producers to encourage her to stop drinking and having affairs because I didn’t want to be locked in that rut.’

Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy directed Dallas episodes a decade after the show debuted. Linda wanted to run, but executive producer Leonard Katzman refused to let her.

‘I pushed myself pretty hard…

I was also dismissed. Larry then came to my defense. “If she goes, I go,” he said.

‘I knew Larry well enough to know he wouldn’t have gone, but it sounded wonderful,’ she says, smiling.

Linda’s position was reinstated, and she shattered her glass ceiling by directing Dallas’s four highly-rated episodes.

‘I liked it and was so proud of myself for persevering.’

What has changed since then?

‘Things are getting better. But it’s still difficult for women.’

However, her directing debut in 1986 was marred by the discovery that her sister Betty had breast cancer, seven years after the grief of losing her 17-year-old daughter [Linda’s niece] in a car accident.

‘I was excited and found out about my sister, but I had to direct the next day.’

Betty died three years later at the Age of 43.

‘I miss my sister every day because she and I grew up in that crazy, dysfunctional household, but we made it.’

Linda has appeared in Melrose Place (1994), Models Inc (1994), 90210 (2008), and the 2012 Dallas relaunch since the conclusion of Dallas.

She is still working and will be seen as “an eccentric old lady who consumes wine and smokes” in the upcoming comedy Wally’s Will.

‘I’ve had a fantastic career, but I’m not through yet.’

‘I’m having much too much fun; I adore my independence,’ she says. We had to relocate to Texas after Dallas was restarted.

‘Larry and Patrick took their wives with them. Me? I brought my cat with me. Last year, I didn’t have to obtain permission to perform in panto [Cinderella in Wimbledon]. ‘But I’d live with someone,’ she says.

‘Age is unimportant. I have no interest in meeting a 40-year-old who is uninteresting, drab, and flat.

‘If I meet someone my age who wants to laugh, go to movies, swim, and eat good food…bring him on!’

‘I never inquire as to their Age. And if they ask me my Age, they’re toast. ‘Thank you, Google!’ She says with a twinkle in her eye.

Linda, devoted to her children and grandkids (Kelly’s boys Ryder, 23, and Jack, 12), views her life as ‘simply delightful’ and believes that thankfulness is the key.

‘I get up in the morning, put my feet on the floor, and say, ‘Thank you.’

In her memoir, she mentions 60 as a watershed moment, the Age at which she chose to be joyful.

‘I felt like I knew who I was and what it was like to be a woman. And I had this wonderful revelation like lightbulbs went off.’

There is no fear of death. Is she a believer in the afterlife?

‘Of course, I believe in it; I want to see all of my friends and relatives and give them embraces and dance around. However, people must focus on the present.

‘It’s lovely to be sitting here with you for breakfast. Then I’m out to grill wild salmon and courgettes for a buddy.

‘Life is meant to be lived right now. ‘That’s the end of the narrative.’

Share on Facebook