Dallas ( /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Divided between Collin, Dallas, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties, the city had a population of 1,197,816 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The city is the largest economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (the DFW MSA) that according to the March 2010 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,371,773. The metroplex economy is the sixth largest in the United States, with a 2010 gross metropolitan product of $374 billion.

Dallas was founded in 1841 and was formally incorporated as a city in February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, healthcare and medical research, transportation and logistics. The city is home to the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South, Dallas is the main core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

Larry Martin Hagman (born September 21, 1931) is an American film and television actor, producer and director most widely known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. He is also the son of actress Mary Martin.

Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His mother, Mary Martin, later became a Broadway actress and his father, Benjamin Jack Hagman, was a district attorney. His parents divorced in 1936 when he was five years old. He lived with his grandmother in Texas and California. His famous mother became a contract player with Paramount in 1938 and occasionally took him to her movies.

In 1940 his mother met and married Richard Halliday and gave birth to a daughter, Heller, the following year.^{[citation needed]} Hagman attended the strict Black-Foxe Military Institute (now closed). When his mother moved to New York City to continue her Broadway career, Hagman again lived with his grandmother in California.^{[citation needed]} A couple of years later, his grandmother died and Hagman joined his mother in New York. At age 14 (in 1945) while attending boarding school, he began drinking heavily which led to serious health problems later in life.^{[citation needed]}

Clifford "Cliff" Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, was a character on the popular American television series Dallas. The Barnes family were competitors and sometimes enemies of the Ewing family. Cliff was the son of Willard "Digger" Barnes and Rebecca Barnes Wentworth. J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) was Cliff's personal nemesis; Cliff and J.R. were the only two characters to appear throughout the entire run of the series.

During the show's original conception, the character of Cliff was modeled after the late Robert F. Kennedy. However, he evolved into a bumbling sad sack who was very much his own worst enemy. A lawyer and a bureaucrat, not an oil man, Cliff was out of his element when dealing in the cutthroat oil business and, despite repeated attempts, would always be outsmarted and outdone by his rival J.R. Cliff finally beats J.R. in the final season, and takes over Ewing Oil.

Cliff's half-sister, Pamela (played by Victoria Principal), married Bobby Ewing (played by Patrick Duffy), J.R.'s younger brother.

Dallas F. Eakins (born Dallas Yoder on February 27, 1967 in Dade City, Florida) is a former American ice hockey defenseman and current head coach of the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League.

Eakins' mother, Carol Ploof, was a native of Macon, Georgia. His birth father was a Native American, Ted Yoder, who Eakins believes was "Cherokee". Both parents split up shortly after his birth. Ploof later married Jim Eakins, a Canadian, long-distance truck driver, and Dallas subsequently adopted his stepfather's last name.

On October, 1974, Eakins' family relocated to Peterborough, Ontario.

Eakins was drafted 208th overall by the Washington Capitals in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. He went on to play 120 career NHL games, scoring no goals and 9 assists for 9 points, thus becoming the second Floridian to play in the NHL, and the first to ever record a point. However, the majority of Eakins career was played in the AHL and the IHL. In those two leagues, Eakins played 882 games, scoring 43 goals and 179 assists for 222 points while playing on 10 different teams (not to mention the 8 NHL teams Eakins played on during that time). Eakins won a Calder Cup and a Turner Cup as a member of the Chicago Wolves and has also played in the OHL.

Taylor Strba Hall (born November 14, 1991) is a Canadian ice hockey left winger currently playing for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. Hall has had a highly successful junior career, helping the Windsor Spitfires to two consecutive Memorial Cup championships in 2009 and 2010. He was named Most Valuable Player of the Memorial Cup tournament both years. Hall's agent is former NHL defenceman Bobby Orr. On July 5, 2010, Hall signed his first professional contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

Hall was born in Calgary, Alberta, he is the son of Steve Hall and Kim Strba. His father was a former Canadian Football League player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa Rough Riders in the mid-1980s, after which he was a member of the Canadian national bobsleigh team. His mother introduced him to organized hockey at the age of five while his father maintained a backyard rink every winter which Hall and his friends practiced on relentlessly. His family moved to Kingston, Ontario, in 2005, where he attended high school at Frontenac Secondary School.^{[citation needed]}