The Mystery of Grizzly Adams: The Life and Legacy of Dan Haggerty
In both the 1974 film “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams” and the NBC television series of the same name, Dan Haggerty portrayed a kind mountain man with a lush beard and a bear named Ben. Haggerty passed away on Friday in Burbank, California.
Eighty-three years old.
His buddy and manager Terry Bomar indicated that the reason was spinal cancer.
Mr. Haggerty was employed in Hollywood as an animal handler and stuntman when a producer requested him to play in some opening sequences he was reshooting for a movie about a woodsman and his bear.
It was based on Charles Sellier Jr.’s book “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,” which described the tale of a Californian who, after being wrongfully charged with murder, runs into the woods where he befriends the local wildlife and tames an orphaned bear.
Mr. Haggerty consented, if he could watch the full film. Remade for $165,000, the movie ultimately brought in around $30 million at the box office. Then it was made into a television series, and in February 1977 Mr. Haggerty went back to being the animals’ buddy and the woods’ protector.
John Leonard remarked in The New York Times review of the first episode, “It lukewarms the heart,” Mad Jack (Denver Pyle) and the noble red man Makuma (Don Shanks) deliver grain and counsel to the log house where man and bear hide out. Man traps fur while bear washes his as they depart the cabin. In the meantime, there are a lot of natural communication, raccoons, owls, deer, rabbits, hawks, badgers, cougars, and a large lump in the throat.”
Sincere and endearing, the show won Mr. Haggerty a People’s Choice Award in 1978 for most popular actor in a new series. Two codas sprang from “Grizzly Adams”: “The Capture of Grizzly Adams,” a TV film aired in 1982, in which Adams is brought back to town by bounty hunters and at last clears his record; “Legend of the Wild,” which was aired in 1978 and released theatrically in 1981.
Nov. 19, 1942, saw the birth of Daniel Francis Haggerty in Los Angeles. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and he had a difficult upbringing, fleeing from military school multiple times until moving in with his actor father in Burbank, California.
He wed Diane Rooker at age 17. The union broke down in divorce. In 2008, a motorbike accident claimed the life of his second wife, Samantha Hilton. His children Megan, Tracy, Dylan, Cody, and Don survive him.
In 1964, he starred as Biff, a muscle builder, opposite Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in his debut picture. Following were bit parts in wildlife and biker movies, playing characters like “Biker With Bandana” or “Bearded Biker.” He appeared briefly in “Easy Rider” as a member of the hippie commune that Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper visit.
In real life, Mr. Haggerty lived on a small ranch in Malibu Canyon with an assortment of wild animals that he had tamed at birth or rescued from injury. His skills led to jobs as an animal trainer and stuntman on the television series “Tarzan” and “Daktari,” as well as occasional film work. “Actors didn’t like animals leaping on them,” he told People magazine in 1978.
He made several films with an outdoor setting, including “Where the North Wind Blows” (1974), in which he played a Siberian tiger trapper, and “The Adventures of Frontier Fremont” (1976). He appeared as a dog trainer in the David Carradine film “Americana” (1983). In “Grizzly Mountain” (1997) and “Escape to Grizzly Mountain” (2000) he played a character very much like Grizzly Adams.
As his career cooled, Mr. Haggerty appeared in horror films like “Terror Night” (1987), “Elves” (1989) — playing an alcoholic mall Santa — and “Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan” (2013). In 1985 he was sentenced to 90 days in jail for selling cocaine to two undercover police officers.
In 1977, a careless restaurant patron carrying a flaming cocktail set Mr. Haggerty’s famous beard on fire. Trying to extinguish the flames, he suffered third-degree burns on his arms and was taken to a hospital for treatment that was expected to last a month.
“The first couple of days I just lay in the dark room drinking water, like a wounded wolf trying to heal himself,” he told People. “Nurses tried to give me morphine and encouraged me to open the curtains. But sometimes animals know more than people about healing.” He walked out of the hospital after 10 days.
