Linda Gray may forever be known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the TV show Dallas, but she continues to evolve. The role did earn her nominations for two Golden Globes and one Emmy in the process, and she took part in the recently cancelled revival of the show that aired on TNT.

A little-known fact is that Gray played the first transgender series regular on U.S. television, with All That Glitters in 1977, and has guest-starred on many television shows since. Her recent work progressively included a Web series called Winterthorne, in which she played Joanna Winterthorne.

She has performed on the stage throughout her career, with The Graduate on Broadway and Cinderella in London. While working, she wrote the book The Road to Happiness Is Always Under Construction, in which she gives inside tidbits about her career.

Gray sipped tea at breakfast with Windy City Times one day at the Waldorf Astoria to talk about her journey over the years.

Windy City Times: So your new book is part biography and part self-help?

Linda Gray: I like to call it inspirational. Self-help sounds like I am trying to push something. This is more layered in. A lifestyle should be easy. If it appeals to people great, if not, no problem.

WCT: How long did it take to write?

LG: It took about a year and a half because I was working. I was doing Dallas the series. When that ended I was in London doing Cinderella, [doing] two shows a day. I would come home at night and send legal tablets to my editor in New York. It was a process that took a lot, but I got it done. I did it longhand because I wasn't raised on a computer. My inspiration came from a pen and legal pad.

WCT: You wrote about going to dinner with Bette Davis. How cool was that?

LG: It was the coolest. It was beyond cool. She loved to be on stage. We felt like underlings in her presence and it was lovely.

WCT: I thought of the expression "nothing beats a great pair of legs" while reading your book.

LG: Elizabeth Taylor called me "the bitch with the long legs!"

WCT: I read that you had a transgender role on TV.

LG: I played the first one on television.

WCT: What a journey those stories have come since then.

LG: It was unthinkable back then. It was the mind of Norman Lear; he had a genius mind. I put him in the category of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, but in television. His mind was so expansive and forward-thinking. Being transgender was not even talked about in 1977.

I thanked him for the opportunity but wanted to meet a transgender person. He flew a woman down, who used to be a man, from San Francisco and we had a great conversation. We spent the whole day together. She told me everything, with scars and all. I loved her.

It is a blessing to do things like that and most people don't know I did that. I have huge respect for the gay and transgender community. I respect them and have no judgment. When she told me that she always felt she was in the wrong body, I thought, "What a horrible thing to be trapped in the wrong body for all of those years." I asked her what the hardest surgery was and she said electrolysis. I learned a lot.

WCT: You have done tons of AIDS activism work in the past.

LG: I do. We are put on this planet to do the best we can. Everyone should be accepted and loved for who they are.

WCT: There weren't a lot of gay characters on Dallas. I read that Lucy's fiance turned out to be gay, though.

LG: I didn't know that.

WCT: Chris Atkins was so hot. He did a Magic Mike-like stripper movie called A Night in Heaven back then.

LG: Yes, he was so fun. We still stay in touch. I like to stay in touch with people. Charlene Tilton and I email back and forth. Patrick Duffy read my book and had some comments about what he didn't like but I think that is fine. I'm glad he read the book, period.

WCT: I tried the new J.R. Ewing whiskey, and it was so smooth.

LG: I wasn't a bourbon drinker at all, but also found it smooth. It was very pleasing to me as a woman with a feminine taste to it. I liked that because bourbon always seemed to me like a guy's thing. It is a perfect merger of Southfork Bottling Company and Warner Bros, just like Larry Hagman and I were the perfect merger! It is bottled in Kentucky and they are coming out with some lovely packaging for the holidays.

WCT: What are your new acting projects?

LG: I usually don't get cast in comedies but just did one for The CW on Significant Mother. I get to come back on season two. I was able to say funny things and it is a thrill to be on the show.

I have a festival movie by the name of Wally's Will coming up, and it was shot in Malibu. I did a Hallmark movie called The Perfect Wedding also, so I have been keeping busy!

Take a shot at J.R. Ewing bourbon. Online information and locations can be found at Link Here .