The Beard America Remembered
Dan Haggerty looked so naturally at home beside bears, mountains and campfires that The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams made him a 1970s icon. But his life away from the wilderness included no shortage of misfortunes, including a horrifying accident involving the beard that made him famous.
Screenshot of Dan Haggerty in 'Grizzly Adams' (1977), NBC Television
A Complicated Beginning
Even basic details of Haggerty's birth have been reported inconsistently. Major obituaries give November 19, 1942, but variously identify Los Angeles or Pound, Wisconsin, as his birthplace. His parents separated when he was three, and after repeatedly running away from military school, he eventually lived with his father in California.
Michael Ochs Archives, Getty Images
The Priesthood Wasn't Happening
Haggerty's parents reportedly hoped their rambunctious son might become a priest and sent him to a Franciscan seminary in Culver City. That future plainly didn't stick. Instead, the restless teenager gravitated toward bodybuilding, motorcycles, animals and Hollywood, interests that ultimately combined into an extraordinarily unconventional entertainment career.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
Animals Changed Everything
As a young man, Haggerty found work at a San Fernando Valley ranch that trained animals for movies and television. He became an animal handler, eventually working with everything from rabbits and frogs to bears, wolverines and big cats. He also began taking stunt work whenever opportunities appeared.
NBC Television, Wikimedia Commons
Hollywood Came Calling
Haggerty's imposing physique helped him land a nonspeaking part as bodybuilder Biff in William Asher's Muscle Beach Party (1964), starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. He followed it with another small bodybuilder appearance in Boris Sagal's Elvis Presley musical Girl Happy (1965). But stardom was still a long way off.
Stunts And Wild Animals
Haggerty increasingly became useful behind the camera as well as in front of it. His animal-handling skills brought work on productions including Tarzan and Daktari, while stunt work broadened his résumé. Unlike actors merely pretending to be rugged outdoorsmen, Haggerty was becoming genuinely comfortable handling unpredictable animals.
Screenshot from Tarzan, National General Television Distribution (1966–1968), Modified
Easy Rider Opened Doors
His love of motorcycles led Haggerty to help build bikes used in Dennis Hopper's counterculture landmark Easy Rider (1969), starring Hopper, Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. Haggerty also appeared briefly as a hippie in the commune sequence. The connection helped lead to additional work in low-budget biker pictures.
Screenshot from Easy Rider, Columbia Pictures (1969)
Biker Movies Followed
One of those projects was Angels Die Hard (1970), starring Tom Baker and William Smith. Haggerty's early résumé became an unusual mixture of biker films, stunts, animal work and behind-the-scenes jobs. It hardly resembled the conventional path toward television stardom, but it was quietly preparing him for exactly the role he needed.
A Tiger Changed Everything
Haggerty was working on When the North Wind Blows (1974), handling animals and appearing as Tsezar, when his abilities caught a producer's attention. One scene required him to pursue a Siberian tiger across a frozen lake. His rugged appearance, beard and genuine ease with animals suddenly suggested something bigger.
Screenshot from Repo Jake, PM Entertainment (1990), Modified
Grizzly Adams Needed Recasting
Sunn Classic Pictures had already attempted a movie about legendary 19th-century mountain man John "Grizzly" Adams, but producer Charles E. Sellier Jr.'s team decided to start over. Haggerty's unusual combination of screen presence and animal expertise made him a natural replacement. Richard Friedenberg directed the low-budget production.
A Surprise Blockbuster
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974) followed James Capen Adams into the wilderness, accused of a crime he didn't commit, where he befriends an orphaned grizzly bear named Ben. Made for a tiny six-figure budget, the film became a remarkable worldwide success, earning tens of millions and transforming its unknown leading man into a star.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Sun Classic Pictures (1974), Modified
Haggerty Already Lived It
Audiences weren't entirely watching an invention. Haggerty lived on a small Malibu Canyon ranch surrounded by animals he had raised or rescued, reportedly including large cats. His genuine comfort around wildlife helped sell the illusion that Grizzly Adams could peacefully coexist with creatures most people would never go anywhere near.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
NBC Brought Him Back
The movie's success eventually produced NBC's The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, premiering in February 1977. Denver Pyle joined Haggerty as trader Mad Jack, Don Shanks played Nakoma, and the enormous Ben remained Adams's constant companion. The gentle wilderness drama offered family audiences an unusually peaceful alternative to harder-edged television entertainment.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
Grizzly Became An Icon
The formula worked. Haggerty's enormous beard, friendly manner and seemingly effortless rapport with animals made him instantly recognizable. The series attracted a devoted family audience, while Haggerty received a People's Choice Award as a popular performer in a new television series. Grizzly Adams had become inseparable from the man playing him.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
His Beard Caught Fire
Then Haggerty's signature feature became a terrifying liability. During a 1977 birthday celebration at a restaurant, a flaming drink accidentally ignited his beard. As Haggerty desperately tried extinguishing it, he suffered severe burns, including third-degree burns to his arms. His injuries were serious enough to interrupt production of The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.
Production Had To Stop
Reports at the time said Haggerty required hospital treatment and plastic surgery, while production was halted for roughly a month. He nevertheless left the hospital after only about ten days. The accident was cruelly ironic: the beard that had helped turn him into television's ultimate outdoorsman had suddenly become the cause of a severe injury.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
Grizzly Suddenly Disappeared
Despite its cultural visibility and initially healthy ratings, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams lasted only two seasons, ending in 1978. The cancellation was abrupt enough to surprise viewers, but Haggerty remained permanently associated with the character. He would repeatedly return to variations of Grizzly Adams throughout the rest of his career.
Screenshot from The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Viacom Enterprises (1977–1978), Modified
Television Kept Calling
Haggerty moved into other television work, starring with Barbara Eden, Ralph Bellamy and Stuart Whitman in the two-part TV movie Condominium (1980), then guesting on Charlie's Angels in 1981. He also appeared in The Love Boat in 1983 and returned to his signature character in the television movie The Capture of Grizzly Adams.
Screenshot from The Capture of Grizzly Adams, Taft International Pictures (1982)
Trouble With The Law
Haggerty's off-screen life took a damaging turn in the mid-1980s. Arrested in 1984 after undercover officers alleged two sales of illegal substances, he was convicted for the offense in 1985. He received a 90-day sentence and three years of probation, a sharp contrast with his wholesome television image.
A Motorcycle Crash
Only months after his conviction, Haggerty crashed his motorcycle into a parked car on Benedict Canyon Road in July 1985. He suffered a compound fracture of his left leg along with cuts and bruises and underwent surgery. Police said they had no reason to believe impairment caused the accident.
Injuries Followed Him
Haggerty's motorcycle injuries became part of a longer history of physical hardship. In 1991, he was seriously injured in another motorcycle crash, an accident later described as leaving him comatose and requiring repeated surgeries. Chronic pain and the consequences of those injuries would remain with him long after Grizzly Adams had left prime time.
He Kept Working
Haggerty nevertheless remained remarkably busy in lower-budget films. He appeared with John Ireland and Cameron Mitchell in Terror Night (1987), starred in Night Wars (1988), and entered cult-horror territory with Elves (1989) and the Linda Blair film The Chilling (1989). He later headlined Repo Jake (1990).
Screenshot from The Chilling, Coyote Films (1989)
Back To The Mountains
Haggerty never resisted the image that had made him famous. He returned to familiar wilderness territory as mountain man Jeremiah in Grizzly Mountain, which received a theatrical release in 1997, working once again in the kind of rugged setting audiences associated with him. He reprised Jeremiah in Escape to Grizzly Mountain (2000), comfortably embracing his outdoorsman image.
Screenshot from Grizzly Mountain, Legacy Releasing (1997)
A Controversial Endorsement
Haggerty later appeared in promotions for the PAP-IMI, an electromagnetic device marketed with all kinds of sweeping health claims. Regulators eventually warned about the unlicensed device: Health Canada said it lacked evidence establishing safety, effectiveness or quality and might be associated with serious harm. Available accounts indicate Haggerty was a paid spokesman, not a participant in the underlying wrongdoing.
Tragedy Struck His Family
In 2008, Haggerty endured a devastating loss when his second wife, Samantha, succumbed to injuries she suffered in a motorcycle accident. The couple had married after his first marriage to Diane Rooker ended and raised a family together. For a man whose own life had repeatedly been scarred by motorcycle crashes, the circumstances carried a particularly painful resonance.
One Last Stretch
Haggerty kept appearing onscreen into his later years. He played Tubby alongside Rob Schneider in Big Stan (2007), appeared as himself in Casa de Mi Padre (2012), and played a lumberjack foreman in Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan (2013). He also appeared as himself on American Pickers.
Screenshot from Big Stan, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2007)
His Final Diagnosis
During back surgery in 2015, doctors discovered a tumor on Haggerty's spine, leading to a diagnosis of spinal cancer. His condition deteriorated rapidly in the months that followed. Haggerty died in Burbank, California, on January 15, 2016, at 73, surrounded by members of his family.
Grizzly Adams Forever
Haggerty had more than his fair share of misfortunes after The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, but nothing could erase the image of the gentle mountain man as his defining role. His rugged beard, genuine ease with animals and warm screen presence helped make Grizzly Adams a 1970s television icon, remembered warmly by generations of viewers long after the series ended.
Albert L. Ortega, Getty Images
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