Several veteran Hollywood stars of the 1980s appeared at the Southfork Experience in Texas last week.
Charlene Tilton, Linda Gray and Audrey Landers were there talking about their time on the popular television series Dallas.
And so was blonde pinup Joan Van Ark, 81, who rose to fame in 1978 on the show starring Larry Hagman and Patrick Duffy.
Van Ark got her most famous role as Valene Ewing in that series.
The character first appeared on Dallas, then was a main character for 13 seasons on its spin-off Knots Landing, which aired from 1979 to 1992.
Joan Van Ark was spotted this week at the Southfork Experience in Texas; photographed here in 1979
The Yale graduate rose to fame in 1978 in Dallas; seen with Patrick Duffy
His name has become synonymous with Knot’s Landing.
He left the show in 1992, although he returned for the final two episodes of the series in 1993, as well as the 1997 miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac.
Joan reprized her role as Valene in an episode of the new series Dallas in 2013.
From 2004 to 2005 he starred in the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
The star was born in New York City and later moved to Boulder, Colorado.
Van Ark began his professional career in theater after graduating from Yale.
He was in The Miser, Death of a Salesman and Barefoot in the Park of Molière.
The blonde then moved to Los Angeles where He co-starred with Bette Davis in The Judge and Jake Wyler, a two-hour television movie from 1972.
Van Ark also played the role of Erika on M*A*S*H in 1973.
Van Ark also appeared in Bonanza, Night Gallery, The Six Million Dollar Man, Petrocelli, The Love Boat, Quincy, Kojak, Barnaby Jones and Rhoda.
He also appeared in three separate episodes of Medical Center, Cannon, and The Rockford Files.
Here she is seen as a young woman who started in theater.
She is best known for her role as Valene Ewing, which began in Dallas in 1978 and then continued in the spin-off series Knots Landing in 1979.
Pictured is the cast of Knots landing: Joan, Ted Shackelford, Donna Mills, Nicolette Sheridan, Kevin Dobson, William Devane and Michele Lee.
The star with Doug Sheehan in Knot’s Landing
Van Ark was also a regular cast member on the comedies Temperatures Rising (1972–73) and We’ve Got Each Other (1977–78).
He also did an episode of The Love Boat in 1978.
Next up was Knots Landing, in which she co-starred in thirteen of the show’s fourteen seasons.
It left in 1992, although it returned for its final two episodes in May 1993.
Her character was married three times to her husband Gary Ewing, played in the series by Ted Shackelford; and during the show’s run, she also had two other marriages: to Ben Gibson (Doug Sheehan) and Danny Waleska (Sam Behrens).
Joan is pictured with her husband of 56 years, award-winning television reporter John Marshall.
In 1997, Van Ark reprized her role as Valene Ewing in the CBS miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac.
In 2005, he appeared in the nonfiction reunion Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again, in which he reminisced with the other cast members about the show.
He worked with Christopher Meloni on Spin Doctors and then made Boys Will Be Boys: The Ali Cooper Story (1994).
She originated the role of Gloria Fisher Abbott on The Young and the Restless from 2004 to 2005.
(Left to right) Audrey Landers, Linda Gray, Patrick Duffy, Van Ark, Charlene Hilton and Steve Kanaly of Dallas in 2023
A fan named Alicia S Anderson took this photo from the Southfork Experience this month: Joan is on the right wearing beige.
Here was the Instagram post of her appearance.
In 1978, she also appeared in an episode of Wonder Woman with Shackelford, who would later become her on-screen husband Gary Ewing in both Dallas and Knots Landing.
After Knot’s he made The Nanny and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
In 2001, he participated in the program Son of the Beach, produced by Howard Stern.
In 2008, he reunited with his Knots Landing co-star Donna Mills on an episode of Nip/Tuck.
In 2013, she guest-starred in an episode of the new series Dallas, in which she reprized the role of Valene Ewing.
In 1966, Van Ark married journalist John Marshall, who was her high school sweetheart.
The couple’s only daughter is the singer Vanessa Marshall.