Joan Van Ark (born June 16, 1943 in New York, New York) is an actress who is best known for playing Valene (Val) Clements Ewing Gibson Waleska Ewing on the CBS primetime soap operas Dallas (1978-1981) and Knots Landing (a role she originated in a guest appearance on Dallas (TV show), from which Knots Landing was spun off) from 1979 to 1992.
She won the Soap Opera Digest Award for "Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role: Prime Time" for the role, in 1986. She was nominated for the same award in 1988 and 1991. She also appeared Off-Broadway in the role temporarily vacated by Marian Seldes in Edward Albee's play, Three Tall Women.
Joan Van Ark and her husband John Marshall (1968-present) have one child, voice actress/performer Vanessa Marshall, who was born in 1970.
She played the role (which she originated) of "Gloria Fisher Abbott" on the soap opera The Young and the Restless from 2004 to 2005.
Joan Van Ark also had a scene in M.A.S.H. where she played Erika, a nurse working with Captain Pierce (Hawkeye). She was wounded in a scene where 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.
