When she was in high school, while her mother was mentally ill and was raised without a father, the young, unfamiliar Actress met Larry Hagman, who had her as a 'surrogate father.' Then, a couple years later, at age 17, she auditioned and won the role of Hagman's confused niece, Lucy Ewing, on Dallas. The two had a remarkable on- and off-screen chemistry, for the show's first 8 seasons, and they also danced together, off-camera. When she left the show, at the end of the 8th season, her contract had expired, and Hagman was very disappointed about her letting go. She said of Hagman, in 1988, "He called me and said, ‘You’re certainly a good actress—we never realized.’ I think Larry went to bat for me to come back on the show." That same year, she came back to the show, and stayed on for 2 more seasons, until her departure in 1990, just 1 year before the series' finale. After Dallas, Tilton remained on good terms with Hagman, and cared about her TV uncle's frailing health, when in 1995, that Hagman had needed a liver transplant, after being diagnosed with liver cancer, and survived. She didn't appear in any of the Dallas TV reunion movies, but appeared in the Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork, in late 2004, to Reminisce the show's history. Before this, in September 2001, she was the only Dallas member to attend her TV's uncle's 70th Birthday, then, 11 years later, she was reunited with Hagman, for the last time to star in the second incarnation of Dallas, this was prior to her acting mentor, undergo therapy for his cancer. When her TV uncle has passed away on November 23, 2012, due to complications from myelodysplastic syndrome, she was devastated, but did not attend his funeral. Upon his death, Tilton released a statement: "At seventeen years old my life took a turn that one could only dream of. I was cast as Lucy Ewing in the iconic show Dallas. Dallas was so much more than a television phenomenon to me. It was my family. I grew up with a mentally ill single mother raising me and no father figure in my life. I lived on my own in an apartment from the age of fifteen. I remember the day I met the force of nature that is Larry Hagman like it was yesterday. (It was actually 35 years ago). My Uncle Larry became the father figure that I so needed and longed for. He taught me how to be professional, work hard but have fun at the same time, and how to respect the opportunities I was blessed to have been given. He was very protective because I was so young, but also expected the best from me on the set of Dallas. He was one of the best actors the world has ever known. To me he will always be my Uncle Larry. I am so so very sad, but cherish the lifetime of memories I have with him."
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