It is 7:30 PM, and Mia, who is three years old, is bursting with energy. Mia is excited for sleep, bouncing around the house with her favorite stuffed animal tucked under her arm and her jammies on.
Sarah and Mike, Mia’s parents, laugh as they observe the contrast between Mia’s eagerness for bedtime and their regular arguments. But Mia’s excitement is contagious tonight.
Giggling, Mia dashes to her room and calls out to her parents to join her for the ritual of going to bed. Mike and Sarah trail after, fascinated by Mia’s unexpected love of sleep.
The nightly routine takes a lively turn in Mia’s room. Mia insisted on selecting a colorful story about amiable dragons from a stack of books for her bedtime reading. To Mia’s enjoyment, Mike creates sound effects while Sarah reads aloud.
Following the narrative, Mia takes control of her nighttime routine, making sure to choose her coziest blanket, brush her teeth with a disproportionate amount of excitement, and arrange her stuffed animals in the ideal order.
Mia surprised Sarah and the rest of the family by breaking into her favorite bedtime song, complete with unexpected dance moves and off-key humming. When Sarah and Mike join in, the family starts singing happily.
After finishing her nightly rituals, Sarah bends in to kiss Mia good night. With beaming eyes, Mia whispers, “I love you, Daddy and Mommy,” and then curls up under her covers.
Mike and Sarah look at one other, amazed at the unanticipated happiness Mia has brought to their evening. They come to the realization that sometimes the cutest things may be the most heartwarming as they carefully exit Mia’s room.
Sarah and Mike, thankful for the small pleasures of bedtime and the love that unites their family, consider the beauty of parenthood as Mia smiles and goes to sleep. They feel fortunate to have such a lively and affectionate little daughter as they leave Mia’s room.
Dan Haggerty, Who Played Grizzly Adams
Dan Haggerty, who gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of the kind mountain man with a striking beard and his bear friend Ben in the NBC television series and 1974 film “The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams,” passed away on Friday in Burbank, California. His age was 73 years.
Terry Bomar, his manager and friend, stated that spinal cancer was the cause of death.
Dan Haggerty was creating a name for himself in Hollywood as an animal handler and stuntman before landing his famous part. When a producer requested him to appear in a few opening moments for a film about a woodsman and his bear, it was his big break. The plot, which is based on a novel by Charles Sellier Jr., centers on a man who flees to the woods after being wrongfully convicted of murder, becomes friends with the local wildlife, and takes in an abandoned bear.
Haggerty accepted to do the part, but he had one requirement: he had to appear in the whole film. Despite having a relatively low budget of $165,000, the film’s remake brought in close to $30 million at the box office. Because of this popularity, a television series was created, and in February 1977, Haggerty went back to playing the character of the wild and outdoorsy wilderness guardian.
The audience responded well to the show. It lukewarms the heart, as The New York Times’ John Leonard observed in his review. A large lump in the throat and a lot of communing with nature are experienced when a man and a bear hide out in a log cabin. Haggerty won a 1978 People’s Choice Award for being the most well-liked actor in a new series because of the series’ warm and sympathetic tone, which won over a lot of viewers.
The series also yielded two follow-ups: “Legend of the Wild,” which was broadcast on television in 1978 and eventually released in theaters in 1981, and “The Capture of Grizzly Adams,” a 1982 television film in which Adams ultimately exonerates himself of the false charge.
Born in Los Angeles on November 19, 1942, Daniel Francis Haggerty had a difficult upbringing. He had a turbulent childhood, breaking out of military school several times before coming home with his actor-father in Burbank when his parents divorced when he was three years old.
Haggerty was married twice in his personal life. When he was 17, he got married to Diane Rooker, but they later got divorced. In 2008, he lost his second wife, Samantha Hilton, in a horrific motorbike accident. His children, Don, Megan, Tracy, Dylan, and Cody, survive him.
In his debut motion picture, “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), Haggerty portrayed bodybuilder Biff. After that, he played supporting parts in motorcycle and wildlife movies. He was a hippie commune member in “Easy Rider.” He also played the role off-screen, living with a variety of wild creatures he had either tamed or rescued on a small ranch in Malibu Canyon.
His expertise with animals led to positions as an animal trainer and stuntman for television shows including “Daktari” and “Tarzan.” He kept taking on parts like “Where the North Wind Blows” (1974) and “The Adventures of Frontier Fremont” (1976) that highlighted his affinity for the natural world. His love of outdoor parts brought him roles evoking Grizzly Adams to movies like “Grizzly Mountain” (1997) and “Escape to Grizzly Mountain” (2000).
Haggerty had appearances in a number of horror movies later in his career, such as “Terror Night” (1987) and “Elves” (1989). He was involved in court in 1985 and was given a 90-day jail sentence for distributing cocaine to police officers who were undercover.
Tragic incidents also occurred in his life. Haggerty suffered third-degree burns to his arms when a diner carrying a burning drink unintentionally caught his renowned beard on fire in 1977 when he was dining. Despite being admitted to the hospital and supposed to stay for a month, he left after just ten days, claiming to have expertise of curing animals.
“The first couple of days I just lay in the dark room drinking water, like a wounded wolf trying to heal myself,” he said, reflecting on his injury, to People magazine.
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