Joan Van Ark

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Joan Van Ark (born June 16, 1943 in New York, New York), is perhaps best known for her role as Valene Clements Ewing beginning on Dallas with Larry Hagman and then on the spin-off series, Knots Landing, alongside Michele Lee. During the 13 seasons as Val, she earned six nominations and two Soap Opera Digest Awards for Best Actress. Joan also starred in the TV comedies, "Temperature Rising" and "We've Got Each Other." In May 1997, she reprieved her role of Valene in the CBS mini-series, "Knots Landing Reunion: Back to the Cul-de-sac," and again, in December of 2005, Joan appeared in a second reunion with the other cast members of the long running CBS Television hit. In addition, she played a regular role for a year on CBS Television's "The Young and the Restless."

Joan Van Ark, just out of high school, was the second youngest student to attend the Yale School of Drama on a scholarship. The youngest was Julie Harris. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Years later, they would co-star on the CBS Television series, "Knots Landing." Van Ark began her professional career at the Minneapolis Guthrie Theater in Moliere's "The Miser," opposite Hume Cronyn and Zoe Caldwell. More here. That was followed by "Death of a Salesman" at the Guthrie with both Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. After a season at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Joan was cast in the national touring company of "Barefoot in the Park" directed by Mike Nichols. She recreated the role in the critically acclaimed London Company and later on Broadway. She earned a Tony nomination for her performance in "The School for Wives," and she won the Theater World Award for "The Rules of the Game."

Van Ark also appeared off-Broadway opposite John Rubenstein in "Love Letters." More recently, she co-starred in the New York production of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Three Tall Women." Her Los Angeles theater credits include "Cyrano de Bergerac," playing Roxanne opposite Richard Chamberlain's Cyrano, "Ring Around the Moon" with Michael York and Glynis Johns, "Chemin de Fer," Heartbreak House" and "As You Like It," for which she won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Award. She also appeared as Lady Macbeth in the Grove Shakespeare Festival's production of "Macbeth."

Van Ark has also starred in the Williamstown Theater Festival productions of "Night of the Iguana," "The Legend of Oedipus" and the festival's 40th anniversary production of Steven Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."

Other noteworthy roles

M*A*S*H

Joan Van Ark was also featured in an episode of M*A*S*H, where she played Erika, a nurse working with Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda). When a Communist soldier brought in with other casualties grabbed a surgical knife and held the hospital at bay, her character was slashed in the hand. Throughout the episode, she developed a relationship with Hawkeye.

Rhoda

Van Ark guest starred in an early episode of Rhoda, playing Joe Gerard's (Rhoda Morgenstern's then-fiance) glamorous looking, seemingly perfect ex-wife. In the episode, Rhoda and her mother, Ida (Nancy Walker), stop by (the former) Mrs. Gerard's house to pick up Joe's son, and Ida, as only Ida could, seeing how insecure Rhoda feels in the presence of Mrs. Gerard, succeeds in puncturing the woman's "perfect" facade.

Family

Joan Van Ark and her husband (since 1966) John Marshall have one child, voice actress/performer Vanessa Marshall, who was born in 1969.

Trivia

• In Dutch, her name is literally "Joan of Ark."

Had a steamy love scene in "When The Dark Man Calls"

External links

• Joan Van Ark at IMDb