Bel Geddes will be remembered for her Dallas role, alongside Howard Keel

But that role saw her come out of retirement from a career that began in 1945.

Starting out treading the boards on Broadway at the age of 23, Bel Geddes wowed audiences and critics with her performance in Deep are the Roots.

Despite her obvious stage talent she made it clear she wanted to move onto the big screen, heading off to Hollywood to make her fortune.

She was signed to the RKO studio, making her screen debut in 1947 alongside Henry Fonda in The Long Night, a largely dismissed remake of the French classic.

Unlike many starlets of the time she had no interest in racking up the screen credits, preferring instead to make just one film a year. Consequently, her film back catalogue is limited.

Her lone Oscar nomination came from the 1948 film I Remember Mama, in which she played a writer opposite George Stevens.

Shortly afterwards her contract with RKO was dropped when the movie mogul Howard Hughes took over the studio, deeming the actress not "sexy enough".

Fulfilling ambitions

Although disappointed at being cast out of the studio, Bel Geddes returned to her Broadway roots .

She had a starring role in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955, followed by a lead role in Jean Kerr's comedy Mary, Mary, which ran for more than 1,500 performances.

Bel Geddes fulfilled her ambition of working with heavyweight, respected film directors when she was cast by both Elia Karzan and Alfred Hitchcock.

Broadway beckoned for Bel Geddes in her early 20s

She appeared in Kazan's 1950 picture Panic in the Streets, having worked with him on his Broadway play Deep are the Roots.

She had a starring role in Hitchcock's chilling 1958 thriller Vertigo, one of the director's most acclaimed movies.

Her film career became sporadic in the 1960s, and Bel Geddes retired from acting to take care of her second husband, Windsor Lewis, who was ill with cancer. He died in 1972.

Then, in the late 1970s, she was offered the role of Miss Ellie in a new night-time soap opera called Dallas.

The show first aired in 1978 and the role made Bel Geddes a household name. She was well respected by the close-knit cast, and called making the show "real fun".

In its opening year Bel Geddes won an Emmy for a lead actress in a drama - a rare feat for a soap star.

Difficult time

In 1981 she was awarded a Golden Globe, tying with Linda Evans from Dynasty - Dallas' biggest TV rival.

Tragedy struck Dallas that year when Jim Davis, who played Miss Ellie's husband, Jock Ewing, died of cancer.

"It was like losing her own husband again," Dallas producer Leonard Katzman said.

"It was a terribly difficult time for Barbara."

Bel Geddes' own health suffered in 1984 when she had a heart attack, keeping her out of the show for six months.

Miss Ellie was temporarily played by Donna Reed, before Bel Geddes returned in 1985, sticking with it until 1990, a year before it was axed.