Dallas matriarch Miss Ellie Ewing succumbs to lung cancer at 82

BARBARA Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the long-running TV series Dallas, has died. She was 82.

Bel Geddes, a long-time smoker, died on Monday of lung cancer at her home in Northeast Harbour, Maine.

She was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the 1948 drama I Remember Mama, and was the original Maggie the Cat on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.