My Father's Voice

Book excerpt: Not too long ago, I was at dinner with my husband and some of his business associates. Somehow the subject of "Hollywood children" came up and I confessed that although I was raised in Canada, I was, indeed, the daughter of a "star." "Who?" They wanted to know. "Lorne Greene," I said, really not expecting them to remember who he was. "Wait a minute," one of them said, "I thought he was my father." I am always amazed at the response I get from people about my father. To me he was a very private man with a public persona who happened to be extremely recognizable. To the public, however, he was larger than life, a hero, yet someone with whom everyone felt a certain warm intimacy. Today, some forty years after Bonanza first aired, he is just as recognizable as ever, to all the families who welcomed him into their homes every Sunday night for fourteen years and to all of those who still see him in syndication around the globe.