The Queen Mother Once Asked ‘Dallas’ Star Larry Hagman Who Shot J.R.

Forty-five years ago, a mind-blowing 83 million viewers tuned in for the big reveal. Globally — across dozens of countries — roughly 350 million people were glued to their TV sets as Dallas fans finally learned who shot J.R.

The evil oil baron (played by Larry Hagman) had taken two bullets to the stomach eight months earlier. Not only did fans want to know whether J.R. would live (he did), they were desperate to discover who pulled the trigger.

The suspect list was long because the character was so widely hated. His long-suffering wife, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray), was the prime suspect, but her ex Dusty Farlow (Jared Martin) was also a strong possibility. Bookies everywhere were taking bets.

“Nobody knew who did it,” Hagman later told E! News. To keep the big reveal a secret, “They had Daddy shoot me and Mama and Bobby and Pam and Linda and Kristin. They had the script supervisor shoot me and the sound man. I mean, everybody got a shot at old J.R.!”

J.R. almost didn’t survive — because Hagman, recognizing the immense popularity of the show and his character, threatened to walk. He used the frenzy surrounding the shooting cliff-hanger as leverage to renegotiate his contract. At one point, he even fled L.A. for London.

“We were presented to the Queen Mother,” he remembered. “And she says, ‘I don’t suppose you could tell me who shot J.R.?’ I said, ‘No, ma’am — not even you.’ ”

Of course, CBS caved and gave Hagman what he wanted. He went on to earn a reported $250,000 per episode and even got a cut of profits from Dallas merchandise.

The Queen Mother, like everyone else, would finally learn who shot J.R. on Nov. 21, 1980, when it was revealed the culprit was J.R.’s scorned mistress, Kristin Shepard (Mary Crosby).

“Being the one who shot J.R. made me a trivia question,” Crosby says. “And I’m really big in really small countries.”

As for Hagman, “I couldn’t go down to the corner to pick up the Sunday New York Times without running into some nubile creature with ‘J.R. for President’ emblazoned across her chest,” he shared.

“People who once merely wanted J.R.’s autograph demanded to know who shot him as if it were their birthright, and were angry and upset when I told them, truthfully, that I didn’t know.”