In 1978, Van Ark landed her most famous role of Valene Ewing. The character first appeared on the CBS series Dallas, then was a leading character for 13 seasons on its spin-off Knots Landing (1979–92). For her performance on Knots Landing, she won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Actress in 1986 and 1989. She left the show in 1992, although she did return for the series' final two episodes in 1993 as well as the 1997 miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 1985, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination as host of the Tournament of Roses Parade on CBS. From 2004 to 2005, she starred in the soap opera The Young and the Restless. She reprised her role of Valene in an episode of the new Dallas series in 2013.
Early life and education
Joan Martha Van Ark was born on June 16, 1943, in New York City to Dorothy Jean Van Ark (née Hemenway) (1917-1983) and Carroll Clement Van Ark (1897-1972). Van Ark's father was an advertiser and public relations consultant, photographer and contributor to periodicals such as Collier's and The New Yorker. Carroll Van Ark's paternal grandfather Gradus was an immigrant from The Netherlands who settled in Holland, Michigan.[3] Both of Van Ark's parents were also writers.[4] After 1952, Van Ark grew up in Boulder, Colorado, with three siblings: Carol, Mark and Dexter.
"My dad was in PR in Denver. When I was 16, he arranged for her (Julie Harris) to speak with me. She ended up calling the dean of the Yale School of Drama, who agreed to meet with me. I became the second woman after Julie to be admitted when it was all men."[5] - Joan Van Ark
At age 15 as a student reporter, Van Ark met and interviewed actress Julie Harris, who recommended that Van Ark apply to the Yale School of Drama, which Harris had attended in her early twenties. Van Ark followed in Harris' footsteps and went to Yale Drama on a scholarship. In 1964,[6] Van Ark was one of the few acceptees to attend the Yale graduate program without first having earned an undergraduate degree. Van Ark was also reportedly the only female student on campus at the time. She attended for only one year. Years later, Harris appeared on Knots Landing as Lilimae Clements, the mother of Valene Ewing, Van Ark's character.[4][7][8][6]
After Harris died in 2013, Van Ark announced at a Broadway memorial service the creation of the Julie Harris Scholarship, which provides annual support to an actor studying at the Yale Drama School.Alec Baldwin, who played Harris' son and Van Ark's brother on Knots Landing, made the first contribution.[9] In 2021, Yale Drama became tuition-free and was rebranded the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.[10]
Van Ark and her new husband moved to Los Angeles, where she started garnering television credits. In 1971, she revisited Broadway, where she earned a Theatre World Award and received a Tony nomination (Best Featured Actress in a Play) for her performance as Agnès in Molière's The School for Wives, directed by Stephen Porter.[11]
Van Ark starred opposite Ray Milland and Sam Elliott in the horror film Frogs, which was theatrically released on March 10, 1972.
In 1974, Van Ark, tapped as a late replacement for Mary Ure, returned to Broadway as Silia Gala in a revival of Pirandello's The Rules of the Game, which was performed by the New Phoenix Repertory Co. at the Helen Hayes Theater and also featured Glenn Close, who, in addition to playing a bit part as a neighbor, served as Van Ark's understudy in the lead role of Silia.[12][13]Game reunited Van Ark with School for Wives director Stephen Porter as well as Wives co-star David Dukes. In 1975, a production of Game was also broadcast on Great Performances as one of its Theatre in America selections.[14]
Van Ark co-starred opposite Richard Boone in the science fiction outing The Last Dinosaur, which was filmed at Tsuburaya Studios in Tokyo and on location in the Japanese Alps.[15] The picture was intended to be released theatrically but failed to find a distributor and instead aired as a TV movie in February 1977.[citation needed]
After working for several years in a variety of guest roles on television, in 1978, she gained her best-known role as Valene Ewing (originally as a one-time appearance) on Dallas. Van Ark kept a tight schedule and was flying a lot the week of her Dallas debut, as Dallas was being filmed in Texas and she was simultaneously shooting an episode of The Love Boat in L.A. and doing voiceover work for Estée Lauder in New York.[16]
However, writers later worked the character into a couple of additional episodes; and in 1979, Van Ark then carried the Valene character over into the long-running spin-off, Knots Landing, in which she co-starred for thirteen of the show's fourteen seasons. She left in 1992, although she did return for its final two episodes in May 1993. Her character was married three times to husband Gary Ewing, played in the series by Ted Shackelford; and during the show's run, also had two other marriages: to Ben Gibson (Doug Sheehan) and Danny Waleska (Sam Behrens).
During her thirteen years on Knots Landing, Van Ark earned two Soap Opera Digest Awards for Best Actress (1986, 1989) and was nominated an additional six times. Over the course of the program, Van Ark probably received her greatest recognition as an actress during the sixth year, which featured an intricate storyline involving the theft of Valene's twin babies. Their disappearance (and alleged stillborn deaths) prompted Valene to embark on a surreal spiritual journey and pilgrimage in which she left the cul-de-sac in California and morphed into the persona of a character from a novel she had written.[17][18]
"The face-washing scene was an example of when I felt [a scene] couldn’t have gone better. It was everything we were all after. It became a monologue where I felt Valene should change and the audience should go with her on that journey. Of all the things I’ve ever done, I feel that that scene where Val washed her face was the deepest one. It was so rich. There was a combination of the cameraman, the writers, the producers, the director — they all allowed me that monologue in the mirror. We saw Valene become Verna right in front of our eyes."[19] - Joan Van Ark
This dark, gripping tale earned Knots Landing its only placement ever on Nielsen's annual Top 10 programs list. In the 1984–1985 season finale, "The Long and Winding Road," Val finds out that her babies are still alive, and this episode's original broadcast on May 23, 1985, also marked the only time Knots Landing ever reached the #1 spot in the weekly Nielsen ratings.[20][21] In its edition dated June 29, 1985, TV Guide assessed of her performance: "Knots Landing has the grimmest plots but the strongest cast, headed by the incomparable Joan Van Ark as Valene."[22] Later on, she directed two of the series' episodes, one in the last season after she was no longer a regular performer on the serial.
Mirroring their characters' onscreen friendship, Van Ark and KL co-star Michele Lee became good friends while working together on the series. In May 1997, Van Ark reprised her role of Valene Ewing in the CBS mini-series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac; while in December 2005, she appeared in the non-fiction reunion Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again, in which she reminisced with the other cast members about the long-running CBS television show.
Shortly before leaving Knots Landing, she starred opposite Christopher Meloni in an ill-fated pilot called Spin Doctors, a sitcom for NBC that was not picked up.[citation needed]
An ABC Afterschool Special called Boys Will Be Boys: The Ali Cooper Story (1994), which she appeared in and directed, was nominated for a Humanitas. In 1997, Van Ark also directed a documentary short on homelessness and domestic violence for the Directors Guild of America, and the piece was nominated for an Emmy Award.[8]
In April 2001, Van Ark was featured in an episode of the Howard Stern-produced show Son of the Beach as Ima Cummings, the mother of show regular BJ Cummings (played by Jaime Bergman). In 2008, she was reunited with her Knots Landing co-star Donna Mills in an episode of the FX drama series Nip/Tuck. The same year, she also played a network executive in the film Channels.
In 2011, she performed voice work in an episode of the animated comedy series Archer. In 2013, she guest-starred in an episode of the new Dallas series, in which she reprised the role of Valene Ewing. The same year, she also appeared as a guest judge on the Logo series RuPaul's Drag Race.[citation needed]
Personal life
On February 1, 1966, Van Ark married news reporter John Marshall, who later became a correspondent for two decades at KNBC-TV and won both an Emmy and a Golden Mike Award.[28] Van Ark and Marshall were high school sweethearts in Boulder, Colorado, and wed in Trier, Germany, where Marshall was stationed at the time in the Armed Forces Television Service. For their honeymoon, they took a European tour of places made famous by her namesake, Joan of Arc.[29]
The couple's only child is voice actress, model, and singer Vanessa Marshall. In 1997, mother and daughter appeared together in the play Star Dust at the Tiffany Theater.[30]
Van Ark is a long-distance runner who has participated in 14 marathons and made the cover of Runner's World.[29]
Dallas was an American prime time soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who owned the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pam Ewing, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J. R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark. When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J. R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.
Julia Ann Harris was an American actress. Renowned for her classical and contemporary roles, she earned numerous accolades including the record five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, three Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, and a BAFTA Award. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979, received the National Medal of Arts in 1994, the Special Lifetime Achievement Tony Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2005.
Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of Dallas, it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of four married couples living on a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. Throughout its 14-year run, storylines included marital strife, rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, politics, addictions, environmental issues, corporate intrigue, and criminal investigations. By the time of its conclusion, it had become the third-longest-running primetime drama on U.S. television after Gunsmoke and Bonanza and the last scripted primetime drama show that debuted in the 1970s to leave the air.
Dianne Evelyn Wiest is an American actress. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress for 1986's Hannah and Her Sisters and 1994's Bullets Over Broadway, one Golden Globe Award for Bullets Over Broadway, the 1997 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for Road to Avonlea, and the 2008 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for In Treatment. In addition, she was nominated for an Academy Award for 1989's Parenthood.
Charlene L. Tilton is an American actress and singer. She is widely known for playing Lucy Ewing on the CBS prime time soap opera Dallas.
Linda Ann Gray is an American film, stage and television actress, director, producer and former model, best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing, the long-suffering wife of Larry Hagman's character J.R. Ewing on the CBS television drama series Dallas. The role also earned her a nomination for the 1981 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as well as two Golden Globe Awards nominations.
Donna Mills is an American actress. She began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. She made her film debut the next year in The Incident. She then starred for three years on the soap opera Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–70), before starring as Tobie Williams, the girlfriend of Clint Eastwood's character in the 1971 cult thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played the female lead in the heist film Murph the Surf (1975), and had starring roles in a number of made-for-television movies during the 1970s.
Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac is a 1997 American television miniseries which is a continuation of the 1979–1993 prime time soap opera Knots Landing and takes place four years after the series ended. Directed by Bill Corcoran, the four-hour miniseries was originally broadcast in two parts on CBS on May 7 and 9, 1997.
Theodore Tillman Shackelford III is an American actor, known for his roles on television. He played Gary Ewing in the CBS prime time soap operas Dallas and its spin-off Knots Landing (1979–1993), and had a recurring role portraying twin brothers William and Jeffrey Bardwell on the CBS daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless (2006—2015).
Michele Lee is an American actress, singer, dancer, producer and director. She is known for her role as Karen Fairgate MacKenzie on the prime-time soap opera Knots Landing, for which she was nominated for a 1982 Emmy Award and won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Actress in 1988, 1991, and 1992. She was the only performer to appear in all 344 episodes of the series.
Douglas Stuart Sheehan was an American actor who played Ben Gibson throughout four seasons of the prime-time drama Knots Landing from 1983 to 1987. His character was the second husband of Valene Ewing.
Lucy Ann Ewing is a fictional character in the popular American television series Dallas. The character is played by Charlene Tilton and first appeared in the series premiere on April 2, 1978. Tilton left the show at the end of season 8 in 1985, before returning for the last two episodes of season 11 in 1988, becoming a series regular again in season 12. Lucy was then written out again in 1990.
Garrison "Gary" Arthur Ewing is a fictional character from the CBS soap opera, Knots Landing, a spin-off of Dallas. The character of Gary Ewing was first played by actor David Ackroyd in a two-part Dallas season two episode "Reunion" in 1978. Gary Ewing was the middle son of oil baron Jock and Miss Ellie Ewing, the father of Lucy Ewing and the ex-husband of Valene Ewing. Over a year later, the part of Gary Ewing was recast for the spin-off Knots Landing with actor Ted Shackelford in the role, and Gary became one of the main stars of the series in 1979. Shackelford played Gary Ewing in Knots Landing for its entire fourteen seasons (1979–1993), while continuing to make occasional appearances in Dallas during that time. The character of Gary made his last Knots Landing appearance in 1997 in the reunion series Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. Shackelford reprised his character for the new, updated version of Dallas in 2013.
Valene "Val" Ewing, portrayed by Joan Van Ark, is a fictional character in the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing, a spin-off from the long-running series Dallas, in which she also appeared. The character originated on Dallas in 1978 as the mother of Lucy Ewing and ex-wife of Gary Ewing. Van Ark made several guest appearances on Dallas before becoming one of the main stars of the spin-off Knots Landing in December 1979, though she continued to make small appearances in Dallas for the next several years. Van Ark played Valene in Knots Landing for thirteen of its fourteen seasons, which made her one of the show's longest running stars. The character made her last Knots Landing appearance in 1997, when she appeared in the reunion miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 2013, Van Ark reprised her character for the sequel version of Dallas.
Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), An Innocent Man (1989), Live Nude Girls (1995), True Crime (1999), She's Lost Control (2014), Eye in the Sky (2015), and A Call to Spy (2019). Her television credits include regular roles on Gabriel's Fire, Homeland, and Murder in the First, playing Pamela Milton in the final season of The Walking Dead (2022), and Colonel Grace Mallory in The Boys (2019–2024) and Gen V (2023).
Karen MacKenzie is a long-running fictional character in the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing. Karen is portrayed by actress Michele Lee, and has appeared on the show since its pilot episode, first broadcast on December 27, 1979. Knots Landing follows the trials of four middle-class families living on a suburban cul-de-sac known as Seaview Circle in California. Lee portrayed Karen for the entire run of Knots Landing, being the sole cast member to appear in every episode of its fourteen seasons. At the time, her appearances in all 344 episodes set a record for an actress on American primetime television. Karen's storylines focus on family troubles, business dealings, addiction and kidnapping.
Abby Fairgate is a fictional character from the CBS prime time soap opera Knots Landing, a long-running serial about middle class life on the fictional cul-de-sac known as Seaview Circle in Los Angeles, California. She was played by actress Donna Mills between 1980 and 1989. Abby was created by producer David Jacobs as one of Knots Landing's earliest characters. She debuted in the first episode of the second season. Mills remained a principal actor in the series until she left in its tenth season. She returned for the two-part series finale in 1993, and made her last appearance in 1997 when she appeared in the reunion miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac.
The second season of the television series Dallas aired on CBS during the 1978–79 TV season.
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