Joan Van Ark is an American actress, best known for her role as Valene Ewing on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing.
Joan was born on June 16, 1943 in New York City, the daughter of Mary (née McCarty) and Richard Van Ark. She has two sisters, Mary and Nancy. Joan was educated at the High School of Performing Arts and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
Joan’s acting career began on the stage, appearing in such Broadway productions as The School for Scandal and The Crucible. She made her television debut in 1966 on an episode of The Doctors. Her film debut came the following year in The Happening.
Joan’s breakout role came in 1978 when she was cast as Valene Ewing on Knots Landing. She played the role for 14 seasons, until the series ended in 1993. During her time on the show, she earned two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series.
Since Knots Landing, Joan has appeared in a number of television shows and films, including Dallas, Melrose Place, The Young and the Restless, and Beverly Hills, 90210. She has also appeared in the films The Beverly Hillbillies and Batman Forever.
Joan has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Gary Devore, with whom she had one child, actor James Van Ark. Her second husband is actor John Marshall Jones. She has two stepchildren from her second marriage.
Joan currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
General Info
Full Name
Joan Van Ark
Profession
Voice Actor
Education
Yale School of Drama
Nationality
American
Family
Spouse
John Marshall
Children
Vanessa Marshall
Parents
Dorothy Jean Hemenway, Carroll Van Ark
Siblings
Carol Kuykendall, Mark Clark Van Ark, Dexter J. Van Ark
Accomplishments
Awards
TV Land Anniversary Award
Nominations
Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play
Movies
Frogs, Moment of Truth: A Mother's Deception, Always Remember I Love You, The Last Dinosaur, Loyal Opposition: Terror in the White House, Red Flag: The Ultimate Game, Held for Ransom, The Judge and Jake Wyler, My First Love, It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown, Tainted Blood, Tornado Warning, Net Gam...
TV Shows
Knots Landing, Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, Spider-Woman, Peyton Place, McMillan & Wife, Temperatures Rising, Thundarr the Barbarian, Santo Bugito, Pretty the Series, Tarzan and the Super 7, Testimony of Two Men, Matt Lincoln, Adventures from the Book of Virtues, The Client, The Silent For...
[Of herself along with Michele Lee]: When two characters or two actresses are together for a while there is bound to be chemistry developing. I think Michele and Joan do adore one another, and the writers saw something between the lines there, and they wrote toward that. I didn't even know Michele before we started the show but we became great friends, and still are.
2
You've got to realize that any lady on a soap is devoting her life to it, 24/7.
3
When you're on a long running series, you reach a very rarefied, high oxygen area and after a while to keep a show on the air they have to make some very drastic changes.
4
[on her religion]: I'm Presbyterian and I don't go to church very much.
5
[on a long-running prime-time soap opera]: What I'm surprised at this time around is how emotional it's been. And I'm getting all verklempt even now.
6
[When her series' star and best friend Michele Lee, who played Karen Fairgate MacKenzie, became a director on Knots Landing (1979)]: She just sort of picked, cause Michele has the director vibe in her, and she just picked some scenes that, you know, were just - not generic - but signature Knots kind of scenes, and I was just in awe of the work. I mean, there was one that I did see because I watched the first maybe fifteen minutes of the reunion, and there was a scene where I got married to Ben where Ted said, 'May I kiss the bride?'
7
[on why its time for another Knots Landing (1979) reunion show] They want to see if we're in wheelchairs and walkers yet.
Facts
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Fact
1
Had left her best-known role on Knots Landing (1979), at the end of the thirteenth season to star in the pilot of the NBC sitcom that was ill-fated, therefore, she returned for the series finale.
Replaced Marlo Thomas (who broke her ankle) at the request of Richard Benjamin in the London stage production (Piccadilly Theatre) of Barefoot in the Park.
7
She has played the same character (Valene Ewing) on three different series: Dallas (1978), Knots Landing (1979) and Dallas (2012).
Has two brothers, Dexter J. Van Ark and Mark Clark Van Ark.
21
Was the second youngest student to attend Yale School of Drama on a scholarship, the youngest was Julie Harris, later playing her mother on Knots Landing (1979).
22
Runs marathons and is something of a Track and Field historian.