Garrison "Gary" Arthur Ewing is a fictional character from the CBS
soap opera, Knots Landing, a spin-off of Dallas. The character of Gary
Ewing was first played by actor David Ackroyd in a 2-part Dallas
season two episode "Reunion" in 1978. Gary Ewing was the middle son of
oil baron Jock and Miss Ellie Ewing, the father of Lucy Ewing and the
ex-husband of Valene Ewing. Over a year later, the part of Gary Ewing
was recast for the spin-off Knots Landing with actor Ted Shackelford
in the role, and Gary became one of the main stars of the series in
1979. Shackelford played Gary Ewing in Knots Landing for its entire
fourteen seasons (1979â€"1993), while continuing to make occasional
appearances in Dallas during that time. The character of Gary made his
last Knots Landing appearance in 1997, in the reunion series Knots
Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. Shackelford reprised his character
for the new, updated version of Dallas in 2013.From the outset, Dallas
was centered on the lives of the wealthy Ewing family who lived in
Dallas, Texas. Once the show became a success after the 5 episodes
that made up season 1, the producers decided to expand the roles of
certain characters. They introduced the parents of Lucy Ewing
(Charlene Tilton), who had not been shown on-screen until that point.
After the success of Dallas, Jacobs' presented his initial idea again
and created Knots Landing, with some alterations of his original
script. In an interview, Jacobs explained: " Well, that's pretty good,
but you know-and then he pulled out the pages that we'd left for them
a few years ago on Knots Landing, or a year before on Knots, and he
said, 'Is there any way we can make this a spin-off?' I just took one
of the couples and made it, you know, Val and Gary who had already
been created on the parent series and putting them into the mix, but
when you have four couples and you change one, you sort of have to
change the dynamic all the way around. However, once I wrote the
script, remarkably little changed from the script and the pilot as you
would see it." Gary Ewing was originally played by actor David
Ackroyd, but Ackroyd was unable to sign on for the spin-off, and the
role was recast to Ted Shackelford.Gary Ewing was born in early
January 1944 to oil baron Jock Ewing and his wife Miss Ellie Ewing of
Dallas, Texas. Gary was their second son having been conceived just
before Jock went off to Europe to fight in World War II. As Jock was
not with Miss Ellie during her pregnancy with Gary, she tended to view
him as more hers than Jock's and Gary became her favorite son, while
the relationship between Jock and Gary was always distant. Gary was
often considered the black sheep of the family, as he was mostly
influenced by his mother and embraced the Southworth tradition of
ranching on Southfork and had no interest in Ewing Oil. Gary also
tended to run away from the expectations placed on him as Jock Ewing's
son, secretly married a woman from "the wrong side of the tracks" just
3 days after meeting her, before bringing his pregnant wife home to
meet his family. He became a teenage father, and an alcoholic due to
the pressures that were put on him. Jock and older brother J.R. viewed
Gary as weak and lacking the Ewing character but Gary was very
friendly with his younger brother, Bobby.Gary married Valene Ewing
(Joan Van Ark) in January 1961, when Gary was 17 and Valene was 15.
Valene was soon pregnant, and many months into the pregnancy, Valene
pestered Gary to take her to visit his family at the Southfork Ranch.
They settled at Southfork, much to J.R.'s annoyance. Unlike J.R., Jock
liked Valene, but demanded that Gary face up to all his
responsibilities as a husband and father. To help the newlyweds out,
Miss Ellie gave Gary a job as ranch foreman. Gary and Valene's
daughter, Lucy, was born in the fall of 1961. However, J.R. kept
harassing the young couple, and Gary and Valene were soon fighting.
Under the pressure, Gary took to heavy drinking, became violent, and
eventually walked out on his family. With Gary gone, J.R. then forced
Valene out of Southfork. Valene fled to Virginia with baby Lucy, and
later to her home state of Tennessee, hoping to have her mother,
Lilimae Clements, care for her child, but was refused. Valene and Lucy
were tracked down by heavies hired by J.R., who ripped Lucy out of
Valene's hands and took Lucy back to Southfork, to be raised by her
paternal grandparents. When Valene later tried legal action to get
Lucy back, J.R. warned Valene that he'd kill her if she returned to
the state of Texas. Gary Ewing Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter