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.
When the horse began gagging for no apparent reason, the owner got out his phone to take a picture because he was perplexed. He only noticed what was coming out of the horse’s mouth when he reviewed the photo.
The proprietor of this horse ranch was out and about taking care of his animal while also taking photographs to present his loved ones. Later in the evening, while he was sitting by the fire, he witnessed an odd occurrence. He had to look at the photograph very closely in order to determine the reason why the horse’s mouth seemed the way it did.
Are you prepared to see one of those optical illusions that will probably make you laugh so hard that you spew coffee all over your computer? You are going to have a good time with the optical illusion that I am about to demonstrate to you. I’ve demonstrated this optical illusion to a large number of people, and every single one of them has found it hilarious.
As a consequence of this, I have high hopes that it will have the same impact on you when you see it. You’re going to stare at it for a few seconds, and then all of a sudden you’re going to bust out laughing at whatever it is that you’re seeing. Are you ready to experience the optical illusion that I’m going to describe to you? Keep scrolling down to view an optical illusion that I like to refer to as the “horse mouth.”So, did you get what I was saying? Another horse’s mouth can be seen quite clearly inside the mouth of the horse that is located in the position closest to the camera. The alien from the movie “Alien” comes to mind when I think about it.
You are aware of the fact that whenever one of them opened their mouths, another small alien head materialized inside. It’s almost like someone dropped a photo bomb on you. Whatever the case may be, I found this optical illusion to be rather humorous, and I sincerely hope that you did as well.I’ve seen some pretty funny optical illusions in my time, but this one takes the cake. If you could be so kind as to leave a comment or a rating to let me know whether or not it made you laugh and whether or not you enjoyed my optical illusion, I would really appreciate it. That would be something that I would greatly value. I hope you will not mind if I ask you to send this optical illusion to any of your friends who you think might also find it entertaining.
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