Dan Haggerty, who gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of the kind mountain man with a striking beard and his bear friend Ben in the NBC television series and 1974 film “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,” passed away on Friday in Burbank, California. His age was 73 years.
Terry Bomar, his manager and friend, stated that spinal cancer was the cause of death.
Dan Haggerty was creating a name for himself in Hollywood as an animal handler and stuntman before landing his famous part. When a producer requested him to appear in a few opening moments for a film about a woodsman and his bear, it was his big break. The plot, which is based on a novel by Charles Sellier Jr., centers on a man who flees to the woods after being wrongfully convicted of murder, becomes friends with the local wildlife, and takes in an abandoned bear.
Haggerty accepted to do the part, but he had one requirement: he had to appear in the whole film. Despite having a relatively low budget of $165,000, the film’s remake brought in close to $30 million at the box office. Because of this popularity, a television series was created, and in February 1977, Haggerty went back to playing the character of the wild and outdoorsy wilderness guardian.
The audience responded well to the show. It lukewarms the heart, as The New York Times’ John Leonard observed in his review. A large lump in the throat and a lot of communing with nature are experienced when a man and a bear hide out in a log cabin. Haggerty won a 1978 People’s Choice Award for being the most well-liked actor in a new series because of the series’ warm and sympathetic tone, which won over a lot of viewers.
The series also yielded two follow-ups: “Legend of the Wild,” which was broadcast on television in 1978 and eventually released in theaters in 1981, and “The Capture of Grizzly Adams,” a 1982 television film in which Adams ultimately exonerates himself of the false charge.
Born in Los Angeles on November 19, 1942, Daniel Francis Haggerty had a difficult upbringing. He had a turbulent childhood, breaking out of military school several times before coming home with his actor-father in Burbank when his parents divorced when he was three years old.
Haggerty was married twice in his personal life. When he was 17, he got married to Diane Rooker, but they later got divorced. In 2008, he lost his second wife, Samantha Hilton, in a horrific motorbike accident. His children, Don, Megan, Tracy, Dylan, and Cody, survive him.
In his debut motion picture, “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), Haggerty portrayed bodybuilder Biff. After that, he played supporting parts in motorcycle and wildlife movies. He was a hippie commune member in “Easy Rider.” He also played the role off-screen, living with a variety of wild creatures he had either tamed or rescued on a small ranch in Malibu Canyon.
His expertise with animals led to positions as an animal trainer and stuntman for television shows including “Daktari” and “Tarzan.” He kept taking on parts like “Where the North Wind Blows” (1974) and “The Adventures of Frontier Fremont” (1976) that highlighted his affinity for the natural world. His love of outdoor parts brought him roles evoking Grizzly Adams to movies like “Grizzly Mountain” (1997) and “Escape to Grizzly Mountain” (2000).
Haggerty had appearances in a number of horror movies later in his career, such as “Terror Night” (1987) and “Elves” (1989). He was involved in court in 1985 and was given a 90-day jail sentence for distributing cocaine to police officers who were undercover.
Tragic incidents also occurred in his life. Haggerty suffered third-degree burns to his arms when a diner carrying a burning drink unintentionally caught his renowned beard on fire in 1977 when he was dining. Despite being admitted to the hospital and supposed to stay for a month, he left after just ten days, claiming to have expertise of curing animals.
“The first couple of days I just lay in the dark room drinking water, like a wounded wolf trying to heal myself,” he said, reflecting on his injury, to People magazine.
Watch the crowd’s roaring boos towards her
Speaker of the House “Nasty” Nancy Pelosi got a decidedIy less than warm welcome when she appeared at the Global Citizen Festival in New York with her husband Paul Pelosi back in September.
She appeared on stage, was introduced by an Indian actress named Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and then the crowd went wild. But not with appIause.
Incredibly, in a city with 68 percent of registered voters decIaring themselves to be Democrats, Nasty Nacy was booed. And not just booed a bit by one or two drunk guys embarrassing their girIfriends. No, as she tried to expound on climate change, Nancy got booed loudly. Very loudly.
Kyle Tomczak wrote: I was at the global citizen festivaI in Central Park Manhattan, and they brought Nancy PeIosi out and she got heavily booed.
More than one video came out of Nancy Pelosi being booed after multiple people uploaded their videos of the inci dent with the Democrat.
Watch the Democrat Congresswoman get humiliated by the crowd’s roaring boos
Pelosi, for her part, tried to do her best to stay on script and on message. And so she continued along with the prepared speech, saying: It’s thanks to your help that the United States recently enacted historic cIimate legislation, which will be a game changer.
It will sIash carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030, it will give a historic, an historic $370 billion to fight the climate crisis.
But that didn’t go well. Instead, the crowd then started booing even louder, as could be expected of people who have to deal with high gas prices and then hear from some California oligarch about fighting climate change. Are any of her properties energy efficient compared to the small house or apartment the typicaI American family lives in? On a total amount of energy used basis, methinks not.
Leave a Reply