‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ and ‘Dallas’ Legend Dies of Heart Failure: Michael Preece Was 88

Another Hollywood legend has left us. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Dallas and Walker, Texas Ranger script supervisor-turned-director Michael Preece died on Thursday at 88. His daughter, Gretchen Preece-Newman, told the outlet he died of heart failure at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Preece was born on Sept. 15, 1936 in Los Angeles, and his mother, Thelma, founded the Script Clerks Guild, which later became IATSE’s Script Supervisor Local 871.

After graduating from Alexander High School, Preece took a job in set continuity on the Preston Foster-led syndicated series Waterfront during the summer of 1955 while a freshman at Santa Monica City College. He went on to work as a script supervisor on numerous films, including 1958’s The Old Man and the Sea, 1962’s How the West Was Won, True Grit in 1969, The Getaway in 1972, and more. He also worked as a script supervisor on all three seasons of NBC’s action dramedy I Spy from 1965 to 1968.

In 1975, Preece began directing, starting with an episode of ABC’s The Streets of San Francisco. He also directed The Prize Fighter in 1979 and Beretta’s Island in 1993. Preece is best known for his work on Walker, Texas Ranger, directing a whopping 70 episodes from 1993 to 2001. He also directed 62 episodes of Dallas from 1981 to 1991. Other projects he directed include 7^th Heaven, The Lazarus Man, Baywatch, The Young Riders, MacGyver, Knots Landing, Hunter, and The Incredible Hulk, among others.

In a 2012 interview with Dallas Decoder, Preece discussed what it was like directing Dallas, noting there was a saying “on the set that Dallas was director-proof.” He continued, “Larry [Hagman] knew his character. He had a tendency to go a little bigger than was needed, so you’d try to curb him a little bit. Or if he didn’t know his lines well, sometimes he would have them written on cue cards, and I’d say, ‘Larry, you sound like you’re reading it.’ But basically, he needed very little direction – and that was true of much of the cast. They made it easy.”

Along with his daughter, survivors include Preece’s son, Gary; grandchildren Jason, Ariana, Molly, Patrick, Alice, and Adrian; great-grandchildren Jason, Emma, and Jon; and great-great-grandson Julian. Preece was married to his first wife, Paula, from 1953 to 1968 after meeting in high school. He later married Hollywood hairstylist Evelyn Preece from 1969 until she died in 2017.