Leonard Katzman, executive producer of the Texas oil family saga "Dallas" and director of other shows that spanned the Golden Age of television to the present, has died. He was 69.
Katzman, who had just celebrated his birthday on Monday, died at his Malibu home on Thursday of an apparent heart attack, his son Mitchell said Saturday."Dallas" premiered in 1978and ran through May 1991, entertaining a worldwide audience with its tales of lust and treachery amid oil rigs and sprawling cattle ranches. The "Who Shot J.R.?" episode on Nov. 21, 1980, was the most-watched single show in TV history until the final episode of "M*A*S*H" on Feb. 28, 1983.
Jerry Zeitman, Katzman's agent and friend of 50 years, noted that Katzman had 20 years of hit shows on CBS besides "Dallas," including "Gunsmoke," "The Wild, Wild West," and "Hawaii Five-O."
"He was a great guy, loyal, remarkably generous to his family and his friends, a very unique human being," Zeitman said.
Katzman produced 356 episodes of "Dallas," also writing and directing a third of them. His three children wrote, acted and directed alongside him. He died not long after finishing a "Dallas" reunion movie to air this fall.
TV viewers were obsessed with patriarch Jock Ewing (played by Jim Davis, who died in 1981) and matriarch Miss Ellie (played by Barbara Bel Geddes except during the 1984-85 season when Donna Reed filled in.)