After working for several years in a variety of guest roles on television, she gained her best-known role as Valene Ewing ( originally as a one-time guest appearance on Dallas ) in 1978.

Lilimae's illegitimate son Joshua ( Alec Baldwin ), whom she'd abandoned as a baby, came to live with her and Valene.

Mack was able to get the charges dropped ( as he had done with Paige a season earlier ) when a hidden fingerprint proved Jill closed the trunk of Gary's car herself and the whole thing was exposed as a plot by Jill to frame Gary. Valene's Aunt Virginia " Ginny " Bullock ( Lilimae's sister ) came to Visit Knots Landing and ended up moving in with Valene on Sea-view Circle.

With Gary gone from Southfork Ranch, J. R. had Valene followed and ' run out of town ' as he took her daughter and manipulated Gary away from her.

Heartbroken over the loss, Valene left Knots Landing for Tennessee, where she developed psychosomatic amnesia, calling herself Verna Ellers ( a character from one of her novels ) and becoming a waitress.

Abby discovered the truth and demanded 51 % of Peter ’ s compensation in return for keeping it secret, but when Peter discovered that Abby had known that Valene ’ s babies had been kidnapped from the start, he used this against her.

Jill made an elaborate plan where she edited audio recordings of Ben ’ s voice to make Valene think Ben was trying to contact her, and forged letters from him.

Although both Shackleford and Van Ark appeared in the 1991 series finale of Dallas playing " alternative " versions of Gary and Valene ( the episode depicted a fantasy world in which J. R. had never been born ), there have been no real crossovers of story or characters from Knots Landing to Dallas or vice-versa since the 1985-86 season of each show ( which, on Dallas, turned out to be a dream had by Pam Ewing ).

Valene ( still believing herself to be “ Verna ”) became engaged to a man in Tennessee, but Gary finally found her and brought her back to Knots Landing where she re-united with Ben but still refused to believe that her babies were dead.

They were married briefly, and Gary left Southfork Ranch and later divorced Valene.

Valene and Ben agreed to raise the babies together, and they married.

After a season of irrational behavior, Valene was cured, and she married Gary again.

In the storyline, Valene was married three times to husband Gary Ewing ( played in the series by Ted Shackelford ), and had two other marriages during the show's run.

The insecure Gary met Valene when they were aged 17 and 15 years old respectively.

Years later, Valene and her daughter Lucy reconnected, causing Valene and Gary to reunite.

In Season 3, she moved in with Valene and Gary, remaining in Knots Landing until Season 7.

Valene attempted to forge a bond with her mother Lilimae ( Julie Harris ), who moved in with her and Gary.

Valene returns to her house in Knots Landing, throwing Gary out.

Before marrying Abby, Gary slept with Valene one more time.

She was shocked to learn that Gary was the father of Valene ’ s babies.

Lilimae spent the rest of the season mourning him, while Cathy moved on to Ben, whose marriage to Valene was failing due to the continued threat of Gary, who by then knew that he was the father of her twins.

Gary took an increased interest in Valene's twins, initially at Valene ’ s resistance.

Valene and Gary became separately involved with another divorced couple, Danny and Amanda Waleska.

Valene proclaimed that she loved Danny more than she ’ d ever loved Gary or Ben.

Gary proposed to Valene, who accepted.

Valene and Gary got together and after Danny ’ s murder ( by Julie, as revenge for her mother ’ s death ), but a fall off a horse led to some psychiatric problems for a while.

Gary believed Valene dead when he saw a car with her in it blow up.

In the two-hour series finale on May 13, 1993, Karen returned to Mack, and Nick ’ s accomplice Vanessa Hunt ( Felicity Waterman ) killed Treadwell, paving the way for Valene to return to Gary.

Valene smiled and welcomed Abby back to the cul-de-sac before rushing Gary away.

In May 1997, she reprised her role of Valene Ewing in the CBS mini-series, Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, while in December 2005, she appeared in the non-fiction reunion Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again in which she reminisced with the other cast members of the long running CBS television show.

By the time Valene discovered she was pregnant, she was in love with Ben, but he could not take the fact that she was pregnant with another man ’ s babies and they broke up.

Valene decides to tell Gary and the police what really happened at Clay McKinney's house the night before he was found dead, and they accept her explanation.

Valene was told that the babies were stillborn, and when she insisted that she ’ d heard them crying, nobody believed her.

Ben returned to Valene and promised to make their marriage work, however this promise was compromised when he was contacted by Jean Hackney ( Wendy Fulton ), who had tricked Ben into doing a mission for an underground organization to kill Greg Sumner, and when Ben and Valene ’ s children were threatened, he finally agreed to do this.

Abby told Scott Easton ( Jack Bannon ), a man working for Lotus Point, about her problem, and he had Valene ’ s babies kidnapped after their birth, though without Abby's consent.

Laura refused to forgive Valene for Ben's plan to kill Greg and ended their friendship.

Rumors began surfacing that both Van Ark and Shackelford would reprise their roles as Valene and Gary.

Back at the Seaview Circle cul-de-sac, Valene throws Mack and Karen a party for their 15th wedding anniversary.

Clay's drinking and presistent advances towards Valene begins to compromise their working relationship.

Gary and Valene can hardly control their laughter.

In the show's first episode, which aired on December 27, 1979 on CBS, a giddy Valene ran on the beach, proclaiming to Annie Fairgate that she ’ d never seen the ocean.

Jill then stole the tapes of Ben ’ s messages and the letters, leaving Valene with no proof when she tried telling people.

Valene survived and said that Jill had tried to kill her, but Jill had provided herself with an alibi ; she slipped drugs into a man ’ s drink and brought him to her hotel room in San Francisco.

Mary Robeson ( Maree Cheatham ) told Valene that she was Meg ’ s grandmother, as she was Laura ’ s biological mother.

Valene refused to believe it, and when she investigated Mary Robeson further, she was kidnapped in Florida.

Joan Van Ark ( born June 16, 1943 ) is an American actress, most notable for her role as Valene Ewing, which she originated on the CBS series Dallas and continued for thirteen seasons on its spin-off, Knots Landing.