Linda Gray, the actress who spent 12 seasons playing Sue Ellen Ewing on “Dallas,” is coming to the Coachella Valley next Friday for an evening of conversation at the Spiritual Center of the Desert. She will discuss her life and career with interviewer Nicholas Snow, with proceeds from the night benefiting the Palm Desert church.
Gray will appear Friday, November 13, sitting down with Snow to talk through decades in front of and behind the camera, according to NBC Palm Springs. Her role as Sue Ellen earned her multiple Emmy nominations across the show's long run, a credential that still anchors her reputation decades after “Dallas” first aired.
From Soap Star to Director's Chair
Gray did not stay only in front of the camera. She eventually directed five episodes of “Dallas” herself, after studying under an experienced director and telling the show's producers she was ready to take on the job, the outlet's report notes. She has said she broke into television directing during the 1980s, a decade when the industry was largely dominated by men.
That path from actress to director is one of the threads Gray and Snow are expected to revisit on November 13. The conversation format echoes an appearance she made at The Classic Club last year, when Palm Springs Women in Film and Television hosted her and she spoke about her career and her book, the station's earlier report recounted.
A $25 Payday Before Stardom
Long before she became a household name in Texas oil country, Gray says her legs appeared in the promotional poster for the 1967 film “The Graduate.” She has recalled being hired by a photographer specifically for that image and earning $25 for the modeling session, per the same NBC Palm Springs account.
Gray is also the author of “The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction,” a book she discussed during her Classic Club appearance and is expected to touch on again in Palm Desert. The November 13 event folds that book into its VIP offering: a 6 p.m. VIP experience will include a signed copy along with catered food, while general admission opens at 7 p.m.
Benefiting a Palm Desert Landmark
Proceeds from the evening will benefit the Spiritual Center of the Desert itself. The center describes itself as the first church built in Palm Desert, dating to 1943, and says it holds status as a historical landmark, according to the Spiritual Center of the Desert.
For longtime fans of “Dallas,” the pairing of a soap opera icon with one of the valley's oldest religious landmarks makes for an unusual but fitting local evening. The conversation promises a mix of career retrospective and personal reflection, the kind Gray has offered valley audiences before, carried this time into a space with its own decades-long history in Palm Desert.
