Jean Smart's husband has died

[samhexum]

Richard Gilliland, who met Smart when he played Annie Potts' beau on DESIGNING WOMEN, was 71.

 

BTW, Delta Burke also met her hubby on the show when he played her ex-hubby.

 

Gilliland, who was married to the actress Jean Smart for more than 30 years, passed away on March 18 following a brief illness.

 

Prior to his death, he and Smart were scheduled to work together this summer in a film directed by Tate Taylor.

 

“I met him when he was kissing someone else,” Smart said during a 2017 interview with Northwest Prime Time, explaining that she quietly asked fellow cast member Delta Burke to find out if Gilliland was on the market. “Naturally, Delta walked up to him and blurted, ‘Jean wants to know if you’re married.'”

Smart said that she and Gilliland instantly hit it off after she “lured” him into her dressing room to help her out with a crossword puzzle. They were married in June 1987 in “Designing Women” cast member Dixie Carter’s rose garden.

 

Gilliland is survived by his son Connor, 31, daughter Bonnie (“Ani”), who turns 12 in May, sisters Ann Norberg and Wendy Knaack, brother John Wells and “scores of loving, devastated friends,” according to a press statement.