Jack Webb’s Daughter Lisa Breen Says the ‘Dragnet’ Star Was a ‘Good Dad’: ‘He Was There for Me’

Lisa Breen was only three months old when her parents, Jack Webb and Julie London, split in 1953, but she stayed close to her father. “He was a good dad,” Lisa tells Closer of Jack, best known as no-nonsense L.A. cop Joe Friday on Dragnet. “If there was ever anything I wanted or needed, he was there for me.”

While Joe Friday rarely showed off his softer side, Jack could be a mush, especially when it came to his pets. “He was a great animal lover,” says Lisa. “He had a Great Dane named Friday and a standard poodle named Mister, and those dogs adored him. He walked into the room, and they would freeze, like, ‘Oh, he’s here! The king!'”

During a childhood birthday party at her mother’s house, Lisa recalls, the family’s German shepherd puppy, David, got hit by a car. “My dad was there, and he was so great,” she says. “I was hysterical, and I just remember how he held me and let me cry.”

And though Joe Friday almost never smiled, Jack could be a crack-up. “He was brilliant and funny,” gushes Lisa. “If you really got to him and said something funny, oh, he had a great laugh.”