
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993                   TAG: 9307060005
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: from wire reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Larry Hagman, newly sober and plotting his return to prime-time television, tells TV Guide he's put his "Dallas"-era demons of excessive food and drink behind him. "I haven't had a drink in one year, 16 hours, and . . . well, actually, on June 23rd it was exactly a year . . ."

Playing the bad-to-the-bone J.R. Ewing, Hagman recalls, "I was pickled most of the time and just had a good time. Now I'm not pickled - and I'm still having a good time." Unrepentant, Hagman insists his drinking was never a problem. "Not at all. I just started drinking about noon, and I stayed there."

Having put down the bottle, the actor has expanded his horizons a bit. "Since I turned 61, I'm doing all the things I denied myself - and having the time of my life. I went out and I bought this beautiful Harley, and it opened up this whole new society for me," he says of his biker brethren.

by CNB