‘Dallas’ 2013: Hail and Farewell to Those We Lost

Ben Stivers, Dale Robertson, Dallas, Frank Crutcher, Franklin Horner, Joan Van Ark, Julie Harris, Knots Landing, Laurence Haddon, Lillimae Clements, Ray Krebbs, Steve Forrest, Steve Kanaly, Valene Ewing, Wes ParmaleeIn 2013, “Dallas” fans said goodbye to several people who contributed to the original series. Here’s a list of those we lost, along with a few notable deaths that occurred among the show’s extended family. Click on each person’s name to learn more about his or her career at IMDb.com.

Bruce Baron, Dallas, Linden Chiles, Martin Cassidy, Marc Breaux

Deanne Barkley

Died April 2 (age 82)

Barkley wrote “Curiosity Killed the Cat,” a ninth-season episode. She also produced several television movies.

Bruce Baron

Died April 13 (age 63)

In the eighth-season episode “Shattered Dreams,” Baron played the Texan who tried to chat with Sue Ellen and Pam during their visit to Hong Kong. He also headlined several Asian B-movies in the 1980s and ’90s.

Marc Breaux

Died November 19 (age 89)

Breaux is best known as the choreographer of “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins.” He also acted, including appearing in the fourth-season episode “End of the Road, Part 1” as Mark Harrelson, Jordan Lee’s attorney.

Martin Cassidy

Died August 26 (age 75)

Cassidy played Frank Carp, the private detective J.R. hired to learn more about Mandy Winger, in the eighth-season episode “Shadows.” Cassidy also played various roles in four “Knots Landing” episodes in 1983 and 1990.

Linden Chiles

Died May 15 (age 80)

Chiles played Christopher Mainwaring Sr., father of Lucy’s closeted fiancé Kit, in the second-season episode “Royal Marriage.” His other roles include the dad on the acclaimed ’70s family drama “James at 15.” Chiles continued to work until his death; his final role will be in “Road to Paloma,” a film slated for release next year.

Charles Cooper

Died November 29 (age 87)

Cooper played Herb Reynolds in the second-season episode “The Heiress.” “The Heiress.” In “The Crucible,” a 13th-season episode, he played Curley Morrison, one of the men murdered by Jessica Montford. Cooper also did several episodes of “The Practice” and made appearances in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Ben Stivers, Dallas, Dan Gerrity, Franklin Horner, Julie Harris, Knots Landing, Laurence Haddon, Lillimae Clements, Steve Forrest, Wes Parmalee

Steve Forrest

Died May 18 (age 87)

After starring in the ’70s cop show “S.W.A.T.,” Forrest joined “Dallas” at the end of the 1985-86 “dream season” as mysterious ranch hand Ben Stivers. When Pam woke up, Forrest stayed with the show, except now his character was named Wes Parmalee, who claimed to be the presumed-dead Jock Ewing. Forrest appeared in 15 episodes altogether.

Dan Gerrity

Died November 20 (age 59)

In the 13th-season episode “Sex, Lies and Videotape,” Gerrity played Mike, the bartender who served Cliff in the scene where he meets and flirts with Rose McKay. Gerrity also played a maitre’d on “Knots Landing” and became a stage actor in Los Angeles and a public radio journalist in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Laurence Haddon

Died May 10 (age 91)

Haddon played Franklin Horner, the Ewings’ banker, in 17 episodes from 1980 to 1986. He also played Mitch Ackerman, the doctor who delivered Val’s twins and helped arrange their kidnapping, during “Knots Landing’s” sixth season. The character was named after the production supervisor for “Dallas,” “Knots Landing” and “Falcon Crest.” Haddon was also a regular on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” playing one of television’s first non-stereotypical gay men.

Julie Harris

Died August 24 (age 87)

Harris, the most celebrated actress in Broadway history, played Lillimae Clements, Lucy Ewing’s other grandmother, on “Knots Landing” from 1980 until 1987. (The 1982 episode “Daniel” briefly reunited her with Larry Hagman, her co-star in the 1959 Broadway production of “The Warm Peninsula.”) Harris received six Tonys, an Oscar nomination and an Emmy nomination during her storied career.

Arthur Malet, Dale Robertson, Dallas, Jane Kean, Paul Mantee

Jane Kean

Died November 26 (age 90)

In the third-season episode “Mastectomy, Part 1,” Kean played Mitzi, the waitress at the diner where Sue Ellen and Dusty Farlow have a secret rendezvous. Kean is probably best known as Joyce Randolph’s replacement in “The Honeymooners” revivals of the 1960s and ’70s. She also did two guest spots on the David Jacobs-produced ’80s western “Paradise.”

Dudley Knight

Died June 27 (age 73)

Knight played the Dallas hotel shop manager where Val signed copies of “Capricorn Crude” in “New Beginnings,” the fourth-season “Knots Landing” episode that also featured appearances by Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Eric Farlow.

Arthur Malet

Died May 18 (age 85)

During the fifth season, Malet appeared twice as Forest, the Herbert Wentworth loyalist who tipped off Rebecca to Cliff’s embezzlement scheme. The actor returned during the 13th and 14th seasons as Ryan, one of the inmates who befriend J.R. during his stint in the sanitarium.

Paul Mantee

Died November 7 (age 82)

Mantee played Cochran, the Air Force general who told J.R. about Holly Harwood’s contract to supply the military with fuel, in the sixth-season episode “A Ewing is a Ewing.” He later became a regular on “Cagney & Lacey” and “Hunter.”

Shirley Mitchell

Died November 11 (age 94)

Mitchell played the woman who let Jenna into the missing Jack Ewing’s apartment in the ninth-season episode “Twenty-Four Hours.” Mitchell’s career spanned six decades and included guest spots on “I Love Lucy,” “Petticoat Junction,” “Three’s Company,” “CHiPs” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”

Dale Robertson

Died February 27 (age 89)

During the sixth season, Robertson appeared in five episodes as Frank Crutcher, the first man to court Miss Ellie after Jock’s death. He is best known for his many western roles, including starring in the 1960s television series “Tales of Wells Fargo.” Robertson joined “Dallas” after appearing as a regular during “Dynasty’s” first season.

Mann Rubin

Died October 12 (age 85)

Rubin wrote two episodes of “Knots Landing,” including “New Beginnings,” which drew 21.3 million homes, becoming the most-watched broadcast in the show’s history. (It’s the only “Knots Landing” episode to follow an original episode of “Dallas” on CBS’s Friday night schedule.) Rubin’s TV writing credits date to the 1940s.

Bea Silvern, Dallas, Jane Sincere, Kirk Scott, Valentin de Varas

Kirk Scott

Died November 16 (age 77)

Scott played Ewing Oil’s public relations chief in the sixth-season episode “Barbecue Three” and one of the private eyes J.R. hired to find Jenna after she jilted Bobby in the eighth-season entry “Déjà Vu.” During Season 13, he made three appearances as Mr. Spangler, the lawyer who executed Atticus Ward’s estate.

Bea Silvern

Died August 23 (age 87)

In the 10th-season episode “The Ten Percent Solution,” Silvern played Senator Dowling’s maid. Two years later, she returned in “Fathers and Other Strangers” as Sarah Ewing, one of the Jews rescued by Jock Ewing during World War II. She was also a regular on “The Secrets of Midland Heights,” one of the Lorimar-produced nighttime soaps of the early ’80s.

Jean Sincere

Died April 3 (age 93)

In 14th-season episode “Heart and Soul,” Sincere played the hotel maid who discovered Johnny Danzig’s dead body. She began her career in the 1940s and continued to perform after she turned 90, including a recurring role on “Glee” as a librarian.

Valentin de Vargas

Died June 10 (age 78)

De Vargas played Patrick Wolfe, the first prosecutor in Jenna Wade’s murder trial, in two eighth-season episodes. His first role was as a Latino student in the “Blackboard Jungle” in 1955.

What do you remember about these artists? Share your memories below and read more features from Dallas Decoder.

Critique: ‘Knots Landing’ Episode 55 — ‘Daniel’

Daniel, Knots Landing, J.R. Ewing, Larry Hagman

Surprise

J.R. Ewing is sitting across from Abby Cunningham in his hotel room, where he’s invited her to join him for a seafood lunch. Of course, J.R. wants more from Abby than her company. She promised to sneak him a copy of Val’s soon-to-be-published novel about the Ewings, but Abby sent only a handful of chapters. When J.R. tells her he wants to see the whole manuscript, Abby says she can arrange it — if J.R. lets her know what Gary’s going to inherit in Jock’s will. J.R. tries to charm his way out of giving up this information, but Abby won’t hear it. She fixes a steely gaze upon J.R., picks up a crab leg and — crunch! — cracks it in two. Our hero has met his match.

This is one of several terrific scenes in the “Knots Landing” episode “Daniel,” although my favorite moment comes later, when Abby returns to J.R.’s hotel room with the missing chapters from Val’s book. J.R. keeps up his end of the bargain too, telling her that Gary will soon come into “big money” courtesy of Jock’s will. J.R. then launches into a story about how a teenaged Gary spent one summer working at Southfork to earn the motorcycle he desperately wanted. That September, Jock took him to the showroom, where Gary picked out his bike, revved it up — and drove it through the dealership’s plate-glass window. The purpose of J.R.’s tale: He wants Abby to keep Gary out of his showroom. “Your showroom?” she asks. “Keep him out of Dallas,” J.R. responds.

The metaphor isn’t all that elegant, but no matter. I love watching Larry Hagman in this scene. He delivers every word of J.R.’s speech with a downhome, folksy charm. In J.R. speak, the word “motorcycle” becomes “motor-sickle.” Next to the parable about the blind horse that J.R. shares with John Ross during an early episode of TNT’s “Dallas,” this might be Hagman’s most memorable monologue. It makes me wish he had taken this act to the stage. Imagine: a one-man show where Larry Hagman tells stories, in character as J.R., about growing up on Southfork. It could’ve been this generation’s “Mark Twain Tonight.”

Donna Mills doesn’t have much to do in this scene, but she holds her own against Hagman nonetheless. In J.R.’s previous visits to “Knots Landing,” when Abby was still a new character, the writers tried to elevate her to his level by having him fawn over her (J.R. to Abby in “A Family Matter,” a second-season “Knots Landing” episode: “You know, you are the most delicious conniver it’s been my pleasure to encounter.”). In “Daniel,” with Abby’s bona fides established, we see her and J.R. try to outmaneuver each other, which proves much more entertaining. I especially like when J.R. tells Abby she wants to be “queen” of the Ewing family. “No. I’ll settle for princess,” she purrs. J.R.’s response: “You’ve got it. You get the ermine and the jewels. But the crown stays in Dallas. Because the crown is mine.”

“Daniel” also includes a terrific scene where J.R. shows up unexpectedly on Val’s doorstep. Hagman and Joan Van Ark are always electric, especially when J.R. is pretending to be nice to Val. His “compliment” on her recent redecorating (“I just love what y’all have done with this room. It’s … it’s really you.”) is sublime. As an added bonus, this scene also features a brief encounter between J.R. and Lilimae, which reunited Hagman with Julie Harris, his co-star in the 1959 Broadway production of “The Warm Peninsula.” The best exchange, though, comes when J.R. is introduced to Val’s book editor Joe Cooper, played by Stephen Macht:

J.R.: Her editor? Oh, well it is true, then. You know, there’s been rumors flying all around Dallas about a book called “Corn Crude” or “Crude Porn” or “Corn Pone.”

Joe: “Capricorn Crude.”

J.R.: Yeah, that’s it!

“Daniel” was written by John Pleshette, the great actor who played Richard Avery on “Knots Landing.” Besides J.R.’s appearance, the episode is probably best remembered as the segment where Richard wrecks his car while driving pregnant wife Laura to the hospital, forcing him to deliver their child in the backseat. I watched it with my mom on the night it first aired, but the only thing I remembered were the credits rolling over a shot of Laura holding the child, whom she and Richard name “Daniel.” Seeing the episode again recently (it isn’t available on DVD, but you can find recordings online), I was gripped by the childbirth sequence. The baby isn’t breathing when he’s born, so Richard must force air into his lungs. It’s a touching performance and a reminder that on “Knots Landing,” even jerks like Richard can occasionally be heroes.

Grade: A

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Constance McCashin, Daniel, Knots Landing

Special delivery

‘DANIEL’

“Knots Landing” Season 4, Episode 2

Airdate: October 7, 1982

Audience: 14 million homes, ranking 28th in the weekly ratings

Writer: John Pleshette

Director: Joseph B. Wallenstein

Synopsis: J.R. visits Knots Landing and wishes Val success on her novel, then secretly buys the company that published the book. After J.R. tips Abby off to Gary’s inheritance, she sneaks him an advance copy of Val’s manuscript.

Cast: Tonya Crowe (Olivia Cunningham), Kevin Dobson (Mack MacKenzie), Hank Garrett (Frank), Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Julie Harris (Lilimae Clements), Lisa Hartman (Ciji Dunne), James Houghton (Kenny Ward), Robert Jayne (Brian Cunningham), Kim Lankford (Ginger Ward), Michele Lee (Karen Fairgate), Claudia Lonow (Diana Fairgate), Stephen Macht (Joe Cooper), Constance McCashin (Laura Avery), Richard McMurray (Glen Needham), Donna Mills (Abby Cunningham), Harry Northrup (Wayne Harkness), Pat Petersen (Michael Fairgate), John Pleshette (Richard Avery), Danny Ponce (Jason Avery), Marcia Solomon (Masha), Ted Shackelford (Gary Ewing), Joan Van Ark (Valene Ewing), Lesley Woods (Martha Needham)

Share your comments about “Daniel” below.

The Dallas Decoder Interview: Joan Van Ark

Joan Van Ark

Joan Van Ark

Mark your calendars: The March 18 episode of TNT’s “Dallas” will feature a guest appearance from Joan Van Ark, who immortalized the role of Valene Ewing on the original “Dallas” and its “Knots Landing” spinoff. I was honored to speak recently to Van Ark about her return to Southfork.

You just filmed your first scenes as Valene in 15 years. How did it feel to play her again?

It was so funny. My first scene was with Ted [Shackelford] and Patrick [Duffy] and Charlene [Tilton]. They say it’s like riding a bicycle. Once you get back on, it all comes back. But I felt a huge responsibility to do Valene justice. She’s Lucy’s mom and Gary’s wife, and I wanted to do her proud. I won’t flatter myself and say Valene is iconic – but she’s so established – and so I felt I owed the character that kind of care.

Oh, trust me: Valene Ewing is an icon. I know you can’t reveal any plot details, but can you at least tell me if Val has her accent back?

She doesn’t because it wouldn’t make sense. She had it when she left “Dallas,” but the continuum with Valene happened on “Knots Landing,” and so I needed to continue her where we left her off.

Well, that makes sense, although I always loved to hear Val speak.

Oh, I know! It’s very much who she is. She’s a southern steel magnolia.

Van Ark and Shackelford in “Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again”

Van Ark and Shackelford in “Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again”

You mentioned some of your costars from “Dallas” and “Knots.” What was it like to work with Ted and everyone else again?

Ted called me after we had done our scene that first day and he was so dear. He said, “You still got it. You were great every take.” Ted is brutally honest – and that’s a good thing because I want the truth. So for him to say that meant so much to me. And with Charlene – she’s such a pistol! When I see her now, I feel like she’s the parent and I’m the child because she’s got it going on! [Laughs] She calls it like she sees it, and she was so generous and beautiful to me when we were together. And Patrick Duffy and I had a really nice moment [off the set]. It was totally special, and it had to do with Larry [Hagman]. I shared something with Patrick and he returned it right back. It was maybe the most profound, connected moment I had when I was down there.

Speaking of Larry, I must tell you: I’m sad that Val won’t be at J.R.’s funeral, but I suppose it makes sense in the storyline. When he was shot in 1980, Val famously said something like, “If J.R. died, I couldn’t mourn him.”

That’s right! I forgot about that.

So I guess it’s kind of true to character that she’s not there.

Well, yes. People who are hardcore fans have reminded me that there was no love lost between J.R. and Val. And as an actress, I loved to play that because the tension and the friction made for a fun, interesting scene. It was like Abby and Val. That conflict is gold for an actor. But because I loved Larry so much, I would have loved to have been part of the [funeral] episode. But I think character-wise, it made sense that she wasn’t there.

I so wish we could’ve seen J.R. and Val go at it one more time because next to Linda Gray, I don’t think any actress had chemistry with Larry Hagman like you did.

Maybe that’s the Broadway and theater background in both of us, but I always felt – and I guess because of his death and how it hit me harder than I would’ve imagined – but there obviously was something special between us. I think so much of him. He’ll always be part of me. I will carry that as an actress, gratefully. It’s a gift.

Let’s talk about the original “Dallas.” Do you have special memories from those appearances?

Oh, thousands. Larry and Patrick were always cutting up. Always joking. With Barbara Bel Geddes, I remember her always wanting to borrow my lipstick. She’d say, “Oh, what color is that darling? Could I borrow that?” She was just hysterical. She was the most grounded, funny, warm, fabulous person. Just the way you’d imagine her.

As an actress, did you learn from her?

Maybe not “learned” but “observed” because I was also around Julie Harris [Lilimae on “Knots Landing”], who is another great, amazing Broadway actress. I got the deep, true Broadway sense about them. They were the epitome of discipline. They were always brilliant. Both of them.

I’ve always thought it would’ve been cool to put Miss Ellie and Lilimae in a scene together.

Are you right! That would have been a divine combination because they both knew exactly what they’re doing. I remember when Julie worked with Ava Gardner on “Knots Landing.” Both of them were thrilled out of their minds to work with each other.

Well, now that you’ve played Val again, would you like to see “Knots Landing” come back as a series the way “Dallas” has? Would you want to play Val again each week?

I always get asked this. I love her and loved her and yet … I don’t know. I’ve always said that “Knots Landing” was the precursor to “Desperate Housewives” and so many of the shows with fun, continuing storylines – the better soaps. Alan Ball said “Six Feet Under” was “Knots Landing” set in a funeral parlor. Even “Homeland” is a continuing story. So I don’t know that “Knots” lends itself to rebooting. But if it ever came out, you couldn’t do it without Gary and Val.

Well, count me among the people who would love to see it. I bet there’s still a lot of Gary and Val’s story to be told.

I think all of the core actors from “Dallas” and “Knots” are so blessed that David Jacobs and Michael Filerman gave us these great roles. These are great characters that the audience took to, so anytime we can bring them back and revive them, it’s fun for the audience and a gift to the actor. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Share your comments below and read more interviews from Dallas Decoder.