httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Cye7d5EHI
Actor Dan Haggerty of “Grizzly Adams” fame died early Friday of cancer, said his longtime friend and manager Terry Bomar.
Born Nov. 19, 1942, in Los Angeles, Haggerty was the son of an entertainment industry veteran.
His parents wanted him to be a priest, but Haggerty proved a “Wild child” who “Went off track and became fast and furious,” Bomar said.
A colleague on the set later tapped the bearded Haggerty for the role of the burly, amiable woodsman in the 1974 back-to-nature TV movie “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” and later the series of the same name.
The family-programming hit premiered in 1977 and ran for 37 episodes and made Haggerty and his bushy beard famous.
Jurors threw out a second count, apparently because Haggerty had grown so genuinely fond of the two officers.
A few months later, Haggerty suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident on Benedict Canyon Road. While still recovering, he was sentenced by a federal court for failure to pay taxes.
Haggerty “Wasn’t a choirboy by any stretch of the imagination,” said Bomar.
Bomar recalled a celebrity autograph-signing appearance Haggerty made in Tennessee.