“DESIGNING Women” star Richard Gilliland died last week, his wife and fellow sitcom co-star Jean Smart confirmed on Thursday.
The 71-year-old actor, whose numerous acting credits include the CBS show where he met Smart, his wife of 34 years, died on March 18 following a brief illness.
Gilliland first appeared on the hit sitcom “Designing Women” in 1986, when he landed a recurring role as baseball talent scout J.D. Shackelford.
On the show is when he met and eventually married Smart, who played Charlene Frazier-Stillfield on the series.
“I met him when he was kissing someone else,” Smart told Northwest Prime Time in 2017.
Smart admitted to asking fellow cast member Delta Burke to find out if Gilliland was single.
“Naturally, Delta walked up to him and blurted, ‘Jean wants to know if you’re married.'”
Smart’s representative Ame Vanlden confirmed Gilliland’s death in a statement sent to USA Today.
The actress said the two quickly hit it off after she “lured” Gilliland to her dressing room for help with a crossword puzzle.
They got married in June 1987, in fellow cast member Dixie Carter’s rose garden that she shared with Hal Holbrook.
The couple have two children: Connor, 31, and Bonnie, 11.
The actors also took their off-screen romance to the public, starring opposite each other in the stage productions of “It Had to Be You” and “Love Letters,” and in the telefilms “Just My Imagination” and “Audrey’s Rain.”
Their most recently famed roles came at “24,” where Gilliland played Captain Stan Cotter and Smart played first lady Martha Logan.
Smart and Gilliland were also set to work together again in a Tate Taylor film before Gilliland died.
More to follow…
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