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Patrick Duffy’s mother was doing a crossword puzzle when two armed men returned to the bar she and her husband owned in Montana, and one of them shot her husband. Moments later, she rushed toward him and was shot and killed, too.
The “Dallas” star, 77, recalled the final moments of his parents’ lives during an appearance on the “Still Here Hollywood” podcast, revealing how the double murder unfolded and how he found the strength to carry on.
The murders took place nearly 40 years ago, on Nov. 18, 1986.
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Patrick Duffy was starring as Bobby Ewing on the hit television series “Dallas” when his parents, Terence and Marie Duffy, were shot and killed during a robbery at their Montana bar on Nov. 18, 1986.(CBS
“My parents were murdered when two young men robbed the bar that my parents owned in Montana,” the actor told host Steve Kmetko. “My dad had thrown these two boys out because they were drunk and obstreperous. He just threw them out of the bar, and they went somewhere, finished whatever they were drinking, and the anger boiled up and they went back in.”
Sean A. Wentz and Kenneth A. Miller were both 19 at the time, People magazine reported. Duffy’s parents, Marie and Terence, were the only ones in the bar when the gunmen returned.
From left: Charlene Tilton, Linda Gray, Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Sheree J. Wilson won the TV Land Pop Culture Award for “Dallas.”(L. Cohen/WireImage)
“It was very late at night,” Duffy said. “There was nobody in the bar except my father and my mother, and they walked in with their shotguns. As soon as my dad saw them, this is in the testimony that came out in the court, my dad turned to them and apparently took a step towards them, saying, ‘I told you to …'”
Duffy’s father never finished his sentence.
“… That’s when they opened up on him and killed him,” Duffy said. “And then my mother was on the other end of the bar doing a crossword puzzle and took a couple steps running towards dad. And they shot her too.”
“And then, if that wasn’t stupid enough, instead of just running, they jumped over the bar to the cash register, took the money and a couple of bottles of booze and then left.”
Patrick Duffy attends a photocall for “The Bold and the Beautiful” during the 62nd Monte-Carlo TV Festival in Monte-Carlo, Monaco, on June 19, 2023
The Los Angeles Times previously reported that Terence and Marie’s bodies were found by a group of people who had stopped for a drink after finishing their shifts at the nearby Montana Developmental Center. One woman spotted Marie on the floor but initially thought she might have fainted. When she saw blood on Terence, she went outside and flagged down a friend for help.
Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy pose at the launch of “Dallas” on Foxtel’s SoHo at The Loft in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 19, 2014.(WireImage)
Duffy learned of his parents’ deaths the following morning.
“… My sister had called she was completely devastated,” he recalled. “… She was a police woman, and she was on her way to Montana. By the time I hung up the phone, there were film crews at the gate.”
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Patrick Duffy (left) is seen here opposite Larry Hagman (right) on the set of “Dallas.”(CBS
Duffy said Lorimar Television, the production company behind “Dallas,” arranged transportation and other support for him following the murders.
“Lorimar [Television] called, everybody called, [the] support team got in there and said, ‘We have the jet ready. We’ll fly you to Montana. We’ll take care of everything. We’ll send a PR person with you to take care of all that.'”
Patrick Duffy appears as Bobby Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap opera “Dallas,” which premiered April 2, 1978.(CBS
Duffy said his Buddhist faith helped him cope with the loss. It also gave him the strength to tell his sons, Padraic and Conor, that their grandparents had been killed.
Actor Patrick Duffy and his sons Padriac and Conor attend the opening night of “Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By A Life in Progress” at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles on Feb. 13, 2008.(WireImage)
“The Buddhist philosophy is one of the continuous life cycle of your entity,” Duffy explained on the podcast.
“… The first thing I did was, it was just as the boys were getting up to go to school, very young, and I said, ‘… I’m going to chant with you,’ because we always chanted before they went off to school. I said, ‘We have to chant for grandma and grandpa because they’ve both been killed, and we have to chant for them because they’re going to understand it and hear it.'”
Actors Julie Gonzalo, Brenda Strong, Jordana Brewster, Larry Hagman, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy and executive producers Cynthia Cidre and Michael M. Robin speak onstage during the Dallas panel at the 2012 Turner TCA in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 14, 2012.(WireImage)
Miller and Wentz were convicted in connection with the murders and sentenced to prisonau reported that Miller was released on parole in 2007, and Wentz was granted parole in 2015
Miller and Wentz were convicted in connection with the murders and sentenced to prison Australian news outlet 9News reported that Miller was released on parole in 2007, and Wentz was granted parole in 2015
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Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl attend the red carpet premiere of “Hollywood Grit” at The Grove in Los Angeles on Aug. 21, 2025.(FilmMagic)
Duffy previously told Closer Weekly that he still remembered his parents as “pretty ordinary, pleasant people” who were “very social” before the murders.
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“When my parents were murdered, I went through all the emotions of the horrific event — shock and anger and everything — but I never felt disconnected from [my parents],” Duffy said. “I never felt that immediate loss. I did not know why then, but in retrospect, it was a result of being Buddhist.”
From left: Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Larry Hagman pose during the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Jan. 29, 2012.(Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
“There was something about the eternity of life that had set deep inside me,” he also told People magazine in 2020. “As horrific as that was, I didn’t feel disconnected from them.”
