OK who wins? For acting talent, indispensibility to the show, personality, on screen magnetism whatever.. For me Victoria wins.. Patrick was a slightly better actor but other actors could have played Bobby no problem.. PS Patrick Duffy whines quite often that VP would was super competitive and would try to steal the spotlight from him their scenes.. I can't see that can anybody else??
sharePatrick Duffy wins . . . Victoria was beautiful but she was truly an atrocious actress.
shareShe was atrocious-to-mediocre during the first four years of the show. But around 1982, she woke up and was great almost overnight.
It was weird. Even Larry Hagman talked about how green she was in the beginning, such that "I wasn't sure it was going to work" and she then became "an excellent actress" during her last five years on the show, and he was right.
It was like she began infusing her delivery with a certain contemptuousness, whether the scene required it or not, and it had the effect of focusing her acting. (I suspect, comeptitive as she is, she was feeling the heat from Joan and Linda on DYNASTY, that show not yet sucking and getting huge amounts of coverage at around the same time. So Victoria decided she needed to "do something" and she did).
That said, I think she's a sociopath.
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Maybe Victoria Principal was green because she didn't have enough life experience. In 1981-1982, Victoria was in a relationship with singer Andy Gibb. They broke up in 1982, reportedly because of his substance abuse. Maybe that gave Principal some real life drama to play off.
shareMaybe Victoria Principal was green because she didn't have enough life experience.She didn't become suddenly better due to a 2-year life experience. An actor should not need real life experience to be an competent actor. Child actors have a lack of life experience, but can be excellent. At any rate, Linda Grey is more talented than her. share
Victoria Principal is clearly the best actress and person ever.
And never no older than 29.
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AND DON'T YOU DARE MENTION 1946!
Duffy is a better actor, but I think those two together had a lot of chemistry and were very hot together. He never had the same with any of the other women including Jenna imo.
Duffy, he was perfect for the role of Bobby Ewing. I actually think he was underrated, too. He was as entrenched into his role as Bobby as Hagman was as JR. And Duffy had to play a moralistic do-gooder for 13 seasons, which couldn't have been easy.
Principal had her moments, but she bugged me a lot with her histrionics when Pam would get overly emotional and cry, especially at times when it wasn't called for.
Bobby was a better written character. I wish we could have combined Principal's more polished performance from her later seasons with Pam's stronger character from the early seasons.
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