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Larry Hagman stays positive about wife's Alzheimer's

Nov 16, 2012, 11:01 GMT

Larry Hagman

Larry Hagman refuses to let his wife's Alzheimer's disease get him down.

The 'Dallas' actor's spouse of 58 years, Maj, has suffered from the form of dementia for several years but last year he had to accept the condition had gotten too bad for him to be able to cope on his own and he had to move her into a nursing home.

While he admits it's very hard to accept, he says the couple have learned to deal with the illness and he just tries to focus on all the good times they shared.

The 81-year-old star said: 'She's not very well. But those were the cards we were dealt, so we'll play with them. More than half a century of happy years is a lot to draw on.'

Last year, Larry - who has reprised his role as J.R. Ewing in the new series of 'Dallas' - was diagnosed with throat cancer and he says he wouldn't have got through it all without the help of his co-stars Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy.

He told the Daily Mail newspaper: 'I had a rough patch there last year when I was shooting. But I do have two very good friends on the show, and they supported me, as did the writers and producers, who gave me all the time off I needed for the therapy, and it went very smoothly, did it not?'