Dallas Love Boat Guest Stars (2025)

Here's a list of Dallas stars who guest starred on the Love Boat:

• Morgan Brittany (b. December 5, 1951) — One of the show's frequent cruisers, Brittany appeared on six episodes (including a two-parter). In one, she was one half of a married couple convinced the world was ending, and in another plays a woman whose ex-fiancé (Richard Kline) tries to entice her back by feigning he is a victim of that great plague of '70s and '80s sitcoms: amnesia. She was also a romance novelist who envisions passengers in (TERRIBLE) Regency costumes as she tries to dream up her next novel.
• Joseph Campanella (1924-2018) — The veteran character actor, who was Italian, played Egyptian on a special Nile cruise.
• Joanna Cassidy (b. August 2, 1945) — Cassidy sailed twice, once playing sisters with Jaye P. Morgan and the other time playing a shrink who has to try to expose a man (Dick Shawn) who faked mental illness for his pension.
• Mary Crosby (b. September 14, 1959) — Sailing three times (including two two-parters), she has the distinction of holding one of the show's nuttiest roles, as a mermaid named Coral who is being taken (as cargo) in the ship's hold. In reality, she is a woman named Cora, and the mermaid bit is just a dream (maybe that's where Dallas got the Bobby Ewing idea?!) dreamt up by a lovelorn nerd (Ed Begley Jr.)
• Patrick Duffy (b. March 17, 1949) — I am wondering how ABC got CBS star Patrick Duffy to take a cruise right when he was hot as fire on Dallas (1979-1991), but he did just that in 1981, as a SEXY but GASP illiterate man who is the target of both Michelle Phillips and Jenilee Harrison. Maybe because it gave him a shot at showing off his New Zealand accent?
• Morgan Fairchild (b. February 3, 1950) — That's it, that's the cruise ticket! Gorgeous Fairchild cruised in 1981, playing the grandniece of a rich man (Lloyd Bridges) deciding how his will is going to shake out. Because he frowns on breakups, she is sailing with her ex (Grant Goodeve), much to the chagrin of her fiancé (Alan Fletcher).
• Jenilee Harrison (b. June 12, 1958) — She sailed four times (including a four-parter). One of her trips cast her as a baddie, a woman who intentionally reads a fake breakup note to an illiterate hottie (Patrick Duffy) from his true love (Michelle Phillips). In a classic Love Boat move, her malevolent character flips on a dime in the end and helps get the two lovebirds together.
• Susan Howard (b. January 28, 1944) — On a very 1980 episode, she played a single mom who wouldn't date any man her infant didn't cotton to.
• Gayle Hunnicutt (b. February 6, 1943) — Wife of a prick (Pernell Roberts) who looks to Doc for some of his bedside manner.
• Michelle Johnson (b. September 9, 1965) — Played Kim Carlisle, enthusiastic (but inept) intern, on five episodes.
• Steve Kanaly (b. March 14, 1946) — cruised twice (including a two-parter). He played a man so swamped with alimony payments he's been advised to ask women to sign no-alimony agreements before becoming involved. He also played a husband whose wife's (Beth Howland) fake jewelry is secretly real.
• Howard Keel (1919-2004) — Reunited in a love story with his Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) co-star Jane Powell, he next played a carnival owner pair with, of all people, Jan Smithers.
• George Kennedy (1925-2016) — Oscar winner whose involvement in Airport (1970-1979) not to mention Death on the Nile (1978) should have made him ineligible to cruise, but who appeared on a 1984 two-parter as a man who bumps into an ex (Cloris Leachman) but doesn't remember her at all. Interestingly, pre-fame Tim Robbins played the young version of Kennedy in a flashback Leachman has.
• Ken Kercheval (1935-2019) — Sailed twice, including as a man competing with his bestie (Dack Rambo) for Julie's heart.
• Audrey Landers (b. July 18, 1956) — Sailed three times (including a two-parter). She played a cute girl who comes on board to meet an anonymous pen pal, a daughter setting up her mom (Marian Mercer) with a succession of met and as one of a pair of man-hungry sisters (with real-life sister Judy Landers) who wind up competing with each other.
• Tina Louise (b. February 11, 1934) — Along with playing herself on the finale, Ginger sailed in 1979 as Doc's "ex-ex-ex-ex-wife," who has arrived with her betrothed (Lyle Waggoner) to tell Doc she's remarrying. It's all an act, to get Doc back
• Susan Lucci (b. December 23, 1946) — Played the writer of a soap opera who encounters an actor she rejected (Tristan Rogers).
• Monte Markham (b. June 21, 1935) — Blanche Devereax's gay brother played a ship's captain whose wife (Sue Ane Langdon) would rather let Stubing take the wheel and an absentee husband (to Stella Stevens).
• Jared Martin (1941-2017) — Sailed twice, including as a publisher pursuing a famous author (Alan Hale Jr.) whose niece (Georgia Engel) is the real writer, and as a man who, with his wife (Hayley Mills), considers divorce.
• Leigh McCloskey (b. June 21, 1955) — McCloskey sailed on two two-parters and a third episode. On the Greek cruise, he was a student trying to get his dean (Eddie Albert) to let him retake a test. On the Hong Kong cruise, he and his brother (Lee Majors II) are dating Vicki and Julie, respectively, until McCloskey's baddie wants to swap and kisses Vicki! Vicki, 17, is ready to lose her virginity to the 28-year-old smoothie. Finally, he appeared as a horny private on the show's bizarre, Season 9 "Forties Fantasy" episode, which was all Gopher's dream that the ship was a WWII vessel en route to France
• Timothy Patrick Murphy (1959-1988) — The adorable Dallas actor (1982-1983) cruised four times (including a two-parter) before his untimely death from AIDS in 1988. At 19, he played an underage boy who books himself and his underage GF (Cristen Kauffman) into the honeymoon suite so they can lose their virginities in peace. He next played a gifted pianist whose dad (Max Showalter) wants him to keep pursuing a career in real estate. Next, he arrived with the news that he was Doc's son. Finally, playing the son of a protective mom (Anne Baxter), he was a love interest for Vicki.
• Dack Rambo (1941-1994) — He sailed three times. His first cruise, in 1979, found him playing a lothario stringing his girlfriend (Barbi Benton) along and who pretends he's dying ... only to find out from Doc he has ALS. It's painful to watch now, considering Rambo would die of AIDS complications in the future. He later played a guy who always competes with his friend (Ken Kercheval), and winds up competing for Julie. On one of the final episodes, he played a man telling his wife (Cathy Lee Crosby) their marriage is over.
• Donna Reed (1921-1986) — Oscar winner played a strange part as a Hong Kong casino entrepreneur whose senator boyfriend (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) dumps her over his presidential ambitions, so she (badly) impersonates a British relation who he falls for because of her class. Then, of course, he asks her to marry him in the space of a few hours, only to have her sniff at his base profession ... politics!
• Marc Singer (b. January 29, 1948) — You sexy Beastmaster! He sailed on a two-parter in 1984 as Judy McCoy's ex-husband who wants her back. She almost gives in, thanks in no small part to a hilarious montage of him literally showing her Paris — they're showing running around with him pointing at landmarks. But those blue thighs — I mean, eyes! — and she still turns him down.
• Alexis Smith (1921-1993) — A Golden Age actress who sailed three times (and all two--parters), Smith was a famous scion libeled by a reporter (Kiel Martin) who winds up dating her daughter (Jan Smithers), a "faded star" who attracts Capt. Stubing's fickle heart and another rich woman whose estate was snatched by a ruthless nemesis (Craig Stevens).
• Andrew Stevens (b. June 10, 1955) — On the two-part Caribbean cruise, he played a boss being set up for a gender-discrimination suit by a woman (Linda Purl) in male drag.
• Charlene Tilton (b. December 1, 1958) — Sailed three times (including a two-parter), as a woman who falls for her runaway boyfriend's (Lloyd Alan) best friend (Donny Most), a woman pursued by a courier (Michael Spound) who refuses to remove a handcuffed briefcase from his arm and a secretary on the series finale.
• Joan Van Ark (b. June 16, 1943) — Val sailed four times. First time out, she played a beautiful temptation for a man (Tom Hallick) sailing with his disabled brother (Patrick Wayne). She also played a klepto crushing on a shrink (Stephen Keep Mills), a shy travel nut who meets a handsome passenger (Michael Zaslow) who turns out to be an infamous jewel thief and a woman who hired a P.I. (Alex Rocco) to find her college BF (Robert Reed).
• David Wayne (1914-1995) — The TV veteran sailed twice, and both journeys involved scenes with Ted McGinley. The first time around, he played a man being tricked (by McGinley's character) into believing in a fountain of youth. The second time around, McGinley was ship's photographer Ace, and he was charged with firing two of the ship's employees, including one played by Wayne.
• Keenan Wynn (1916-1986) — Played a sneaky thief who, with his accomplice (Henry Gibson), is using two unsuspecting nuns (Teresa Wright and Mickey Rooney's wife Jan Rooney) as mules for their stolen booty.
• Leigh Taylor Young (b. January 25, 1945) — Played a divorce lawyer who bumps into a client's embittered ex (Bert Convy).

I love Ken Kercheval's hair in this photo.

There is a thread on this here

Toni said:

I have a chapter in my site devoted to the "Love Boat connection" in case you want to check out episode data, pics and videos too:
love boat connection

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Have you thought about adding a Murder She Wrote section? A good number of 1980s primetime soap actors guest starred on that show.

Michelle Stevens said:

"Your daddy and my daddy were both robbed by Jock Ewing!"​

I love Ken Kercheval's hair in this photo.

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JR wouldn’t have had a chance against “singlehandedly depleting the ozone layer Cliff”!