Don Starr

Donald Starr was born on September 20, 1917, in Riverside, California, and died on July 11, 1995, in Tucson, Arizona, following injuries sustained in a fall. An American actor, he is best remembered for his recurring role as oil baron Jordan Lee on the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas.

Starr trained as an actor on scholarship at the Pasadena Community Playhouse from 1938 to 1939, and his stage work led to a Broadway appearance in 1939 in The American Way. Following his time in the theater, he served as an officer and medical administrator in the U.S. Army from 1945 to 1948. He subsequently earned an associate degree from the University of Texas in 1950 and the following year joined Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, as an assistant administrator. In 1956 he relocated to Tucson, Arizona, to serve as business manager of the Tucson Clinic, a position he held until his retirement in 1977.

During his years in Tucson, Starr was active in civic life. He helped found the Tucson Association for Child Care and served as both its president and a board member. He also held the presidency of the United Community Campaign and the Tucson Rotary Club, and served as secretary of the American College of Clinic Managers.

His screen career included a range of television appearances across multiple decades, among them The High Chaparral, Little House on the Prairie, The Rockford Files, Charlie's Angels, The Incredible Hulk, Knots Landing, V: The Final Battle, Hill Street Blues, and L.A. Law. On film, he appeared as Judge Mark Brandler in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean in 1972, and subsequently in Speedtrap in 1977 and The Onion Field in 1979.

Starr married Mary Alyce Harnish in 1942; the marriage ended in divorce in 1977. The couple had two sons, Grant and Clay, and a daughter, Laurie. He married Beverly Kunst in 1983, and the two returned to Tucson after Dallas concluded its network run.