Written by Bruce Fessier
Linda Gray’s return to the desert to star in tonight’s world premiere of “Bette Davis Speaks” is bittersweet.
The former “Dallas” star has fond memories of the Coachella Valley. Her first film was a cameo in 1963’s “Palm Springs Weekend.” Her last film, “Expecting Mary,” produced by locals Jim Casey and Kim Waltrip, debuted at last year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Gray’s new play about film legend Bette Davis is based on a book by Davis’ longtime confidant, Bose Hadleigh. It has an eight-week run at the Indian Wells Theater at Cal State San Bernardino, Palm Desert, with Rolf Saxon playing Hadleigh interviewing both Gray and Kathleen Noone as Davis.
But Gray still associates the desert with her parents, who died less than eight years ago.
Her father, Les Gray, owned Gray’s Jewelers in Palm Desert.
He and his wife, Marge Gray, owned a house and a condo in the desert.
But Linda has only returned once since selling the condo.
“Mom and Dad were there for years and years, so we went there all the time,” she said from her house north of Los Angeles. “(After their deaths) I just didn’t go to the desert. There was nothing there for me.”
Gray, 70, was greatly influenced by her parents’ values. She was a shy child who went to Catholic school and never talked back. Her folks wanted her to be a doctor, but Gray wanted to be an actress.
“When I told my parents, it was like, ‘Oh, no.’ Acting was not acceptable,” she said. “They had hopes and dreams for me that didn’t include acting.”
She began modeling as a way into acting. She got a few commercials and was asked to walk around in a pool scene in “Palm Springs Weekend.”
She recently did a nude scene in a stage production of “The Graduate,” but, in the early ’60s, the idea of appearing on film in a bathing suit scared her.
“Now everybody feels very comfortable walking around in a thong bikini,” she said. “Not me. I was terrified.”
In 1968, Gray was asked to model for the film poster of “The Graduate,” featuring her long legs in a sexy pose. To her surprise, her parents found that acceptable.
“It was a prestigious movie,” she said. “They thought that was cool. I was, ‘OK.’ That was under the radar.’”
Then she got a role in the Norman Lear series, “All That Glitters.” Her parents liked Lear, but hated her character.
“I played a transsexual and they were like, ‘Oh, my God,’” Gray recalled. “I went to Norman and said, ‘Why did you choose me? I have to know.’ He said, ‘Because you’re so feminine.’ So I played a transsexual on a series.”
She got a co-starring role opposite Larry Hagman the next year on “Dallas” and, when the world wondered “Who shot J.R.” after the 1980 season-ending cliff-hanger, even her parents enjoyed her stardom.
“At first, my parents are like, ‘Oh, what’s this? What is she doing know?’” Gray said. “Then (‘Dallas’) became this global phenomenon and they thought it was very cool. They became celebrities in their own right.”
But, for all the benefits of “Dallas,” Gray prefers theater. She’s done “Agnes of God” in Vienna, “Terms of Endearment” in London, and “The Graduate” in London and on tour in the U.S. She also did “Love Letters” with Hagman.
She finds similarities between “Love Letters” and “Bette Davis Speaks” since they’re both read on book, with Gray and Noone reciting answers Davis gave to Hadleigh’s questions many years ago. Gray thinks it could tour the nation with different actors in different cities, like “Love Letters.”
Gray got the role after Dan Gordon directed her in “Expecting Mary.” He adapted “Bette Davis Speaks” for the stage and asked Gray to star in the premiere. Saxon had played opposite Gray in “The Graduate” in London and, when he returned to California, Gray referred him to her agent and asked if he’d like to co-star in “Bette Davis Speaks.
This will be Gray’s first trip to the desert since attending last year’s Steve Chase Awards, co-produced by Casey for the Desert AIDS Project.
She said driving to that gala was “kind of hard” after her parents’ deaths. But she adds, “I’m gradually getting back.”
If you go
What: “Bette Davis Speaks,” an original three-person play adapted by Dan Gordon from a book by Bose Hadleigh
When: 7 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through March 20
Where: The Indian Wells Theater at Cal State San Bernardino, Palm Desert, 37-500 Cook Street, Palm Desert
Tickets: $39
Information: (760) 341-6909
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