Jim Davis
Jim Davis (born Marlin Davis, August 26, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American actor, best known for his role as Jock Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap opera, Dallas, a role which continued until he was too ill from a terminal illness to perform.
He was known as Jim Davis by the time of his first major screen role, which was opposite Bette Davis in the 1948 melodrama Winter Meeting,[3] a lavish failure for which he was lambasted in the press as being too inexperienced to play the part properly. His subsequent film career consisted of mostly B movies, many of them westerns, although he made an impression as a U.S. senator in the Warren Beatty conspiracy thriller The Parallax View.
Davis performed in numerous television series episodes in the 1950s-1970s. After years of relatively low-profile roles, Davis was cast as family patriarch Jock Ewing on Dallas, which debuted in 1978.
During season four, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma but continued to film the show as long as he could. In many scenes as the season progressed he was shown seated, and his voice became softer and more obviously affected by his illness. He wore a hairpiece to cover the hair he'd lost from chemotherapy. A season four storyline regarding the Takapa development and Jock's separation from Miss Ellie was ended abruptly at the end of season four. The writers depicted the couple suddenly leaving to go on an extended second honeymoon when it became obvious that Davis could no longer continue to work. Their departure in a limousine in the episode "New Beginnings" was Davis' only scene in that episode, and his condition was so poor that close watching reveals (based on his unsynchronized lip movement) that he overdubbed his one last line of dialogue. It was his final appearance on the show. He died of complications from his illness while season four was being aired.
Filmography (145 Appearances)
Don't Look Back: The Story of Leroy "Satchel" Paige
The Day Time Ended
Comes a Horseman
Killing Stone
Dallas
Trail of Danger
The Choirboys
Just a Little Inconvenience
Enigma
Hunter
The Quest
Law of the Land
The Runaway Barge
Satan's Triangle
The Parallax View
The Cowboys
Inferno in Paradise
Deliver Us from Evil
Kung Fu
Bad Company
The Streets of San Francisco
Banacek
The Honkers
The Sixth Sense
The Trackers
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
Big Jake
Night Gallery
Monte Walsh
Rio Lobo
Five Bloody Graves
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
The Ice House
They Ran for Their Lives
The Road Hustlers
The High Chaparral
Hondo and the Apaches
The Guns of Will Sonnett
Fort Utah
El Dorado
The Time Tunnel
Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
The F.B.I.
Laredo
Zebra in the Kitchen
Branded
Daniel Boone
Iron Angel
Miss USA
The Lucy Show
Stoney Burke
Buttons and Her Beaus
The Mike Douglas Show
The Gambler Wore a Gun
Gunslinger
Frontier Uprising
The Magnificent Seven
Outlaws
The Aquanauts
The Tall Man
Coronado 9
Noose for a Gunman
Laramie
Bonanza
Alias Jesse James
Rawhide
Yancy Derringer
A Lust to Kill
The Donna Reed Show
Rescue 8
Flaming Frontier
Wolf Dog
The Toughest Gun in Tombstone
Raiders of Old California
26 Men
Perry Mason
Have Gun, Will Travel
Guns Don't Argue
The Quiet Gun
Last Stagecoach West
Apache Warrior
Monster from Green Hell
The Restless Breed
Four Women in Black
The Badge of Marshal Brennan
The Silent Service
Duel at Apache Wells
O. Henry Playhouse
Frontier Gambler
The Maverick Queen
Blonde Bait
The Wild Dakotas
The Bottom of the Bottle
The Vanishing American
Last of the Desperados
Gunsmoke
The Last Command
Timberjack
The Millionaire
Hell's Outpost
The Outlaw's Daughter
December Bride
Lassie
The Outcast
The Big Chase
Jubilee Trail
Stories of the Century
Woman They Almost Lynched
General Electric Theater
Ride the Man Down
Cavalcade of America
Death Valley Days
The Big Sky
Woman of the North Country
Gang Busters
Rose of Cimarron
Dangerous Assignment
The Sea Hornet
Silver Canyon
Little Big Horn
Cavalry Scout
Oh! Susanna
Three Desperate Men
California Passage
The Showdown
The Cariboo Trail
Hi-Jacked
The Savage Horde
Yes Sir, That's My Baby
Brimstone
Hellfire
Red Stallion In The Rockies
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Winter Meeting
The Fabulous Texan
Merton of the Movies
Gallant Bess
Up Goes Maisie
Swing Shift Maisie
Pilot #5
Stand by for Action
White Cargo
Tennessee Johnson
Keep 'Em Sailing
Northwest Rangers