Joan van Ark was born on June 16, 1943, in New York City, New York. Her parents were not connected to the film industry.
When Joan was a teenager acting in Denver, she met actress Julie Harris, and their lives would never be the same.
Julie pushed her to go to the highly regarded Yale Drama School and gain admission using a scholarship she had also set up.
This made Joan Van Ark the second-ever woman to enroll at the Drama School
She [Harris] wrote to the dean and asked him to meet me. “Long story short, my parents drove me to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet the dean, who gave me a scholarship,” Joan recalled.” It was meant to be.” Joan went on to perform in the theatre for a few years, but her real passion was in Television.
Temperature’s Rising, Spider-Woman, and Days of Our Lives
Joan achieved enormous renown as a result of her roles in Temperature’s Rising, Spider-Woman, Days of Our Lives, and even one Bonanza episode. But her role as Valene Ewing on Dallas in 1978 was where she first achieved great popularity. She ended up playing the most important role she has ever had.
Because of how popular the show was, Joan appeared on its spin-off, Knots Landing. a program that was actually written prior to Dallas. Dallas was initially chosen by the producers because it was the best option for portraying affluent households at the time. Joan was then forced to play the same part in Dallas instead of joining the Knots Landing cast.
13 Seasons of Knots Landing ensued for Joan Van Ark
The person who actually convinced Joan to accept the part while already working on two other projects was her husband, renowned newscaster John Marshall. There was a moment when Val Ewing’s mother was scheduled to make her television debut. Surprise, surprise—Julie Harris was chosen for the position. The person who mattered the most to her in all the world was this.
“When the producers told me they had finally last someone to play my mother, I held my breath,” she recalled in a 1984 interview with Florida Today. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, are they going to say Phyllis Diller or Zsa Zsa Gabor, or who?’ Then they said it was Julie Harris, and I went right through the roof. I couldn’t believe they had picked her to be my mother. They didn’t even know we were friends.”
327 Episodes later, Joan Van Ark was ready for new ventures
13 Seasons and 327 episodes later, Joan left a season before the show saw its final season air. She knew many blamed her leaving on the cancellation of the show, but she was ready for new adventures. “I have loved more than life the 13 years I’ve had on that show,” she said. “[Knots Landing creator] David Jacobs is a great influence on my life, has taught me so much about so many things.”
“Ted [Shackelford] is the other half of every breath I take on the show, and personally, he’s a large part of my heart. The people are my family–we have shared marriages, deaths, and divorces. It’s far more difficult to leave than I thought.” Joan thereafter appeared on The Young and The Restless as Gloria Fisher.
In high school, John Marshall first met Joan, and the two quickly got married. They have a lovely daughter named Vanessa Marshall who works in the entertainment industry at the moment. After 56 years of marriage, the pair is still very much in love and leads extremely private lives away from the spotlight.
78 years old with a net worth of $10 million
At 78 years old, Joan has amassed a $10 million net worth and is still as gorgeous as ever when seen out and about in Los Angeles. She was last seen three years ago and was just seen paying for parking at a meter while wearing workout clothes and a ponytail.
She co-starred in the 2017 television film Psycho Wedding Crasher, which was her most recent and final appearance on screen.
Joan Van Ark, who has worked in the film industry for the past 50 years, has joined The Actor’s Studio as a life member. What an icon!
Bo Derek is 66 now
Actress Bo Derek captivated audiences with her extraordinary beauty from the moment they first laid eyes on her. This stunning woman, who is probably best known for her part in the movie 10 that her husband directed, still has the same endearing appearance.
Bo recognized early on that acting was her vocation. Her mother, who worked for the Swedish-American actress Ann-Margeret, helped her land her first movie job when she was barely 16 years old. Bo initially met the actor and director John Derek while they were both working on the film Once Once a Love.
Bo was then 17 years old, and John, who was 30 years older than her, was married to the actress Linda Evans. John made the decision to get a divorce in order to be with Bo.
Bo, now 64, talks about her teenage affair and how she still regrets destroying Evans’ marriage to John.
“I was at least partially to blame for some severe suffering Linda Evans endured. She had shown a lot of kindness and grace. Funny enough, I just saw her yesterday. We were at a charity jewelry trunk exhibition.
She continued to be amazing and fabulous. When I’m around her, I always feel terrible. Years later, it’s just been engrained,” Bo stated to Interview Magazine in 2016.
Before getting married in Las Vegas in 1976, Bo and John dated for two years, spending the majority of that time in Mexico and Europe so that John could escape being detained for dating a minor.
Her blonde cornrow braids, which were a distinguishing aspect of Bo’s earlier appearances, have somehow managed to stick in people’s minds as the thing that makes her memorable. She explained that getting that hairstyle was her husband’s suggestion, and she didn’t realize how much they would mean to her.
“I’m blond, it was the latter decade of the 1970s, and everything was fluffy,” What will you change about your appearance? John, who is a talented photographer, had always believed that would be a wonderful look for me.
And so we did. Then he suggested that they present Blake with these images to see if he would be interested. She told Interview Magazine, “That would be incredibly excellent for the part, so you don’t appear ordinary.
Bo had a variety of roles over the years, notably in John’s films, such as Tarzan, The Ape Man (1981), Bolero (1984), and Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990), as well as the television shows 7th Heaven, Lucky, and Queen of Swords.
At the age of 71, John Derek passed away in 1998. Bo had no intention of getting married again, but she began dating 60-year-old actor John Corbett. “We make each other laugh and enjoy each other’s company.
Bo once stated, “We still hold hands after 15 years, and we still have barbecues with friends once or twice a week. They made the decision to get married in 2020.
Horses, who play a significant role in Bo’s life, have become her obsession. Riding Lessons: All That Matters in Life I Learned from Horses is the title of an autobiography she also penned.
She became an animal activist who advocates for the rights of animals because she cares about them. She devotes a lot of her time to missions that demand an end to the slaughter of horses.
Bo is still one of the most attractive actresses now and leads a happy life in California.
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