Dan Haggerty is an actor who had a lot to offer but he is best known for his portrayal of Grizzly Adams. His life extended beyond what was in the movies, however, and you can learn something about him from what he said and did.
The show Grizzly Adams was on many years ago, but some people still remember it with a lot of nostalgia. Dan Haggerty played Grizzly Adams in the series, and it just wouldn’t have been the same without it.
Of course, it wasn’t just the fact that Haggerty played the role, he actually was the role in many ways. This was verified by many, including those who knew him, from crew members to family members.
He was born in 1942 in Los Angeles and from a young age, he was difficult to handle. His name at birth was Jean Jajonski, and he had a love of animals, so he went to San Bernardino Valley to start working on a ranch.
He also loved bodybuilding and when he was a teenager, he had quite a physique. Eventually, he was able to get a job as a stuntman but he also made money making furniture and building movie sets.
When he became an actor, he was acting in low-budget films but eventually, his love of animals and his skills as an animal trainer caught the attention of Walt Disney Studios. He played a big part in directing the animals in the 1974 film When the North Wind Blows.
When The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was released as a film, it really did well, despite the fact that it was a low-budget indie film. A series was created around it, and Haggerty starred in the series from 1977 until 1978. There were 37 episodes.
After the series ended, he starred in a movie titled The Capture of Grizzly Adams in 1982. Unfortunately, he ended up in jail in 1984 after being arrested for possessing cocaine. He had sold drugs to an undercover police officer.
Not long after, he was in a motorcycle accident and was hospitalized. He then was convicted in court for failing to pay taxes. He was able to come out of that, but he then needed to make some better choices.
In the 1990s, his entrepreneurial spirit led him to open a restaurant, Haggerty’s Bistro. It was in Studio City and included a lot of French-inspired dishes. This included the Log Sandwich, which is a thinly sliced sirloin steak, green peppers, provolone cheese, onions, tomatoes, and Italian spices on Italian role.
He lived a solitary life as his television show character, but they did think about creating a wife for Grizzly Adams. They had asked him if he wanted his character to have a romantic interest, and they also asked the audience but they were against it.
Haggerty was actually married two times. He married Diane Rooker in 1959 in Las Vegas when they were 17 years old. Nobody thought the relationship would last long but they raised two daughters together and lived in Malibu.
They were divorced in 1984 but he fell in love with Samantha Helton in the same year. They had two sons, Dylan and Cody, and a daughter, Megan. They were married until 2008 when she crashed into a deer on her way home from a diner. She was riding a motorcycle without a helmet and had to be airlifted to a hospital.
Unfortunately, Haggerty had to make a very difficult decision. She had suffered severe brain damage so he had to pull the plug. He said: “It was the hardest, most heartbreaking decision I’ve ever had to make, to tell the doctors to let my beautiful Sam slip away into her long sleep. I wept like a child.”
Haggerty was diagnosed with spinal cancer in 2015 after a tumor was discovered during back surgery. Eventually, he would die from cancer on January 15, 2016. He continued to work up until that time.
His final words ended up speaking volumes. His lifelong friend, Terry Bomar described what happened.
“He had a great Thanksgiving, he had a great Christmas and a decent New Year, and then he took a turn for the worse. I talked to him yesterday morning, they put on the speaker phone, I told him I loved him, and the last words I heard him say was ‘I love you.'”
