J.R. EWING
(LARRY HAGMAN)
JOHN ROSS EWING II:
First-born of the EWINGS, married to SUE ELLEN, who gave birth to his son JOHN ROSS. His life is centered around EWING OIL, the family oil company. Machiavellian and selfish to the hilt, greedy and revengeful like nobody else, the only person he really cares about is his son.
Sexually insatiable, he has had lots of lovers, since his love-hate relationship with SUE ELLEN used to be unstable and completely unpredictible. Only his father JOCK had some influence on him and kept the company away from bankrupt, because J.R.´s dark business deals were based on blackmail and bribe. His sarcastic sense of humor and his anti-hero looks made of him a very uncommon villain, always true to himself.
J.R. was performed as a teenager by KEVIN WIXTED in the miniseries “DALLAS: THE EARLY YEARS”. HAGMAN resumed his role for the 2 sequels filmed to date, J.R. RETURNS and WAR OF THE EWINGS, though the series finished with his presumed suicide.
J.R. HIGHLIGHTS
SUE ELLEN EWING
(LINDA GRAY)
SUE ELLEN SHEPARD EWING:
J.R.´s wife, whom he married twice, JOHN ROSS EWING III´s mother and KRISTIN´s older sister. She was raised by an ambitious woman, PATRICIA, who wanted to get what she never had through her daughters. SUE ELLEN met his husband-to-be at the MISS TEXAS´67 contest and married him 3 years later.
As time went by, the couple got estranged and J.R.´s attitude pushed her into booze and adultery. Vulnerable and self-destructive, she´d rather keep her social status than get her independence. J.R.´s dangerous influence turned her life into a daily tragedy. However, her love to her son helps her to overcome her many breakdowns.
After losing his lover NICHOLAS PEARCE tragically, SUE ELLEN ended up married to British director-writer DON LOCKWOOD and settled down in London. When she returned to SOUTHFORK in the Sequel, already separated, eventually shared the EWING OIL ownership with her ex-brother-in-law BOBBY against J.R., now chairman of WESTSTAR OIL.
SUE ELLEN HIGHLIGHTS
BOBBY EWING
(PATRICK DUFFY)
BOBBY JAMES EWING:
Youngest son of JOCK and MISS ELLIE, married to PAMELA during 5 years, they adopted CHRISTOPHER, SUE ELLEN´s nephew. Their marriage always was under pressure, especially from J.R.´s part, who saw him as a rival in front of his daddy and PAM as a spy for his enemy CLIFF.
His nature is opposite to J.R.´s: honest, idealistic and sometimes violent, he used to womanize until he met PAMELA. Their relationship was based on sincerity and total understanding. His honesty made him a very respected man, which caused his oldest brother´s jealousy.
He has worked for EWING OIL, in construction business and in politics, reaching the Senador charge. His participation in the show as J.R.´s antagonist ended temporarily in Season 7. When his death became a nightmare of PAM´s, BOBBY returned to his family´s life, and afterwards lost both his first and his second wife, APRIL, the latter in a tragic event in Paris. As did J.R., he re-appeared in the 2 TVM´s post-DALLAS.
BOBBY HIGHLIGHTS
PAMELA EWING
(VICTORIA PRINCIPAL)
PAMELA BARNES EWING:
BOBBY´s wife and supposed daughter of JOCK EWING´s eternal rival, DIGGER BARNES, and his wife REBECCA. She became very close to the EWINGS though nobody accepted her at first. True and warm, her strong personality allowed her to resist J.R.´s attacks, who always was ready to make her apart from her husband.
Employed in a store, running her own aerobics gym or working in his brother´s oil company, she used to channel her energies through these jobs. Discovering her real roots as an illegitimate dauhter and not being able to birth a child led her to undergo a treatment in a mental hospital. Her overconfidence in people around her caused her disappointments once in awhile.
After a car accident left her desfigured, PAM vanished from her loved ones´ life to avoid them suffering, since she had few months left to live. In her last scene, this character was played by actress MARGARET MICHAELS.
PAMELA HIGHLIGHTS
ELLIE EWING
(BARBARA BEL GEDDES)
ELEANOR SOUTHWORTH EWING FARLOW:
JOCK´s wife, mother of J.R., GARY and BOBBY, her second husband was CLAYTON FARLOW. Her first marriage merged the EWING oil empire with her father´s troubled lands, thus saving the family fortune through oil-rich SOUTHFORK.
Tenacious, simple and kind, she used to hide the real reasons behind her temper rages. Her main fault was letting J.R. do his own. The family conflicts considerably affected her, particularly when her sons fought for the company´s control. She feels a great love for the land, though the most important thing to her was keeping her FAMILY UNITED.
ELLIE was performed by actress DONNA REED in Season 7, and by MOLLY HAGAN since 15 years old in THE EARLY YEARS.
JOCK EWING
(JIM DAVIS)
JOHN ROSS EWING:
MISS ELLIE´s husband, formerly married to AMANDA, committed at a COLORADO sanitarium due to a mental problem. All his life was devoted to build the EWING OIL empire, powerful oil company, even if he had to turn to devious tactics.
He transmitted his business experience to his oldest son, who did not hesitate to step on him out of greed. His sense of honor and integrity were qualities everbody admired in him. He was killed in 1981, in a helicopter accident flying over the South American jungles, after accomplishing a mission for US Government. In his will, it was established his wish to let BOBBY and J.R. share EWING OIL.
Years later, a man called WES PARMALEE tried to pass off as the late patriarch, amnesiac and with a new face, belonging to actor STEVE FORREST. The beginning of his rivalry with DIGGER was revealed in the above mentioned telemovie, starring DALE MIDKIFF as young JOCK.
RAY KREBBS
(STEVE KANALY)
RAYMOND "RAY" KREBBS EWING:
Natural son of JOCK and MARGARET, a nurse he met during WWII. At 15, he became an orphan and moved out to the EWING Ranch from KANSAS, with a note to JOCK. Time passed by: he got the job of foreman and was recognized as a EWING thanks to the appearance of his supposed father AMOS KREBBS.
His being PAMELA´s ex boyfriend did not stop him and BOBBY to resume their friendship started when teenagers. True and simple, he was a womanizer as a single and faithful to his wife afterwards. There were problems between them every time DONNA was successful professionally.
Traits of his personality are a certain pride and a feeling of inferiority that kept him away from his wife for a long time and eventually made them apart. RAY moved to Europe with his second wife JENNA and her children, though he returned twice, to sell his lands out.
DONNA KREBBS
(SUSAN HOWARD)
DONNA McCULLUM CULVER KREBBS:
RAY´s wife, whom he met when still married to Senator SAM CULVER; he stood by him due to his health condition and, after his death, she resumed her relationship with RAY.
Orphan and low-class, she was college mate and friend of BOBBY´s and, after her graduation, she got married with CULVER, a very cultured, respected, much older man she deeply admired.
After she had an affair with CLIFF, the SOUTHFORK foreman asked her to marry him. Intelligent, outgoing and cerebral, she succeed in politics, as a writer and as a business woman. After making apart from RAY, DONNA found out she was pregnant, but their differences were irreconciliable and she left to WASHINGTON, where ended up marrying another Senator, ANDREW DOWLING, and giving birth to RAY´s daughter, MARGARET.
LUCY EWING
(CHARLENE TILTON)
LUCY ANN EWING COOPER:
Oldest daughter of GARY and VALENE, raised and spoiled by her grandparents. After a troubled adolescence as a nymphomaniac rebel and a few heartbreaks, she married a Medicine student, MITCH COOPER. Immature and ironical, the main thing to her was being loved.
Her modelling job and the couple´s social differences led to divorcement. Since then LUCY could not live happily and, after a bitter experience as a waitress, she re-married her ex-husband and moved to ATLANTA.
LUCY´s character returned in late Season 10, separated from MITCH and starting a brief relationship with opportunist CASEY DENAULT. Not long after she left to Italy to run an art gallery for her friend ALEX BARTON. LUCY also appeared in one episode of KNOTS LANDING, where she tried unsuccessfully to re-build her relationship with her parents.
CLIFF BARNES
(KEN KERCHEVAL)
CLIFFORD BARNES:
PAMELA´s older brother; raised by their father´s sister, they developed a relationship based in mutual confidence, weakened by PAM´s marriage to BOBBY. Logically, after her divorce they became inseparable again, both emotionally and financially.
Since very young CLIFF had to work hard for paying his LAW career, and afterwards used everybody to try to ruin the EWINGS, from his charge as a Attorney´s Assistant, as BOBBY´s Senate legal adviser or as a chairman in BARNES-WENTWORTH OIL.
His obsession with J.R. eventually became him a replica of his and stopped him from keeping the women who loved him. Divorced from late JAMIE EWING, she has a daughter with club singer AFTON COOPER, though they never re-united as a couple, but he did met his already teenage heiress PAMELA REBECCA, at the end of J.R. RETURNS.
Core Characters Section by TONI DÍAZ