‘Dallas’ Turns 47! Charlene Tilton Opens Up About Life as Lucy Ewing (Exclusive)

DALLAS, Charlene Tilton, 1978-1991 — Everett Collection

Dallas made its TV debut on April 2, 1978, as a six-part miniseries that centered around the dramatic highs and lows of the oil-rich Ewing clan. And as soon as she heard about it, Charlene Tilton, a budding teen actress who grew up in Hollywood and had already appeared on shows such as Happy Days and Eight Is Enough and in the film Freaky Friday, was determined to become a cast member on the new show.

“I read in Dramalogue, now called Backstage West, where they were casting Dallas,” Tilton begins. “The description for Lucy Ewing was, ‘She’s a manipulative little sexpot. She was born with a silver spoon and has everything money can buy.’ She was without her parents, and I knew how that felt, because I have been living on my own since I’m 15. I’ve never seen my father and my mom was quite mentally ill, so I thought, ‘I get her. I know why she’s acting out.’ My agent called Barbara Miller, the casting director, and Barbara had put me in Eight Is Enough and a few other different shows. She said, ‘No, Charlene is too young, not experienced enough.’ ”

DALLAS, Steve Kanaly, Charlene Tilton, (Season 1), 1978-91

Everett Collection

Refusing to take no for an answer, Tilton plotted her way in. “I snuck into the lot on Warner Bros. every day for two weeks,” she says. “If a truck was driving by, I would run alongside it and go into Barbara Miller’s office. I mean, you can’t do that now and don’t try that now, but back then, I was able to get through security and act like I knew where I was going. I went every day. Finally, they said, ‘Come back tomorrow at 5 o’clock.’ And I said, ‘Can I have a script?’ They said, ‘Nope, just show up tomorrow. We’ll give you the script. It’ll be a cold reading and you’ll meet the producer.’ My audition was at 5, so I went there at 1 o’clock when I knew they would be at lunch. I looked around and I saw a copy of the script, and stole it and worked with my acting coach, Jeff Corey.”

Tilton landed the role and was quickly thrown into the deep end once she got to set — but fortunately, the environment was welcoming. “I was so young, and I was really over my head,” she allows. “I didn’t even know what every member on the crew did. I didn’t know the difference between a gaffer and an electrician, but the cast was very close. We bonded like a real family instantly and it was amazing. That was because of Larry Hagman [J.R. Ewing]. He was number one on the call sheet, but he just kept us all together. It was fun, hard work, but I just kept trying to do the best work I could. After we shot the first six episodes, as far as I knew, that was it.”

Tilton watched the first episode with her manager and a friend of hers who was a fellow actor. “After it aired, my friend said, ‘Yup, your life has changed.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘This is a hit. This is huge.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he was right.”

“I think this just might work out, damn it.”

DALLAS, Victoria Principal, Patrick Duffy, Jim Davis, Linda Gray, Larry Hagman, Charlene Tilton, Barbara Bel Geddes, 1978-1991

Everett Collection

Once the reviews came out, Tilton’s friend’s words rang true. “Reviews came out instantaneously and they were wonderful,” she recalls. “In Variety, it said, ‘A new discovery was this wonderful young actress, Charlene Tilton. She’s a wonderful actress and handles her scenes with the aplomb of a much older, seasoned actress and she’s a real looker.’ I said, ‘Oh, gosh. A looker? What does that mean? I’m looking at people when I’m acting? What is that?’ He said, ‘No, that means you’re beautiful.’ I really had no idea what they were saying about me. Literally, that’s how green I was.”

Dallas got a pickup for another season and eventually, the show moved to Friday nights, which, according to Tilton, was usually viewed as the “kiss of death.” “Back then, you had to be home to watch,” she points out. “There was no VCR, no recording. Everyone was kind of saying, ‘Friday? Well, that’s the end of our show,’ and Jim Davis [Jock Ewing] said, ‘I think this just might work out, damn it.’ Oh, he was right. We took off.”

While Lucy had her fair share of emotional storylines over the years, there’s one that Tilton counts as a highlight. “My favorite was a four-episode arc where Lucy was engaged to marry a young man called Kit Mainwaring [Mark Wheeler],” she says. “Kit was the son of a very wealthy Texas oil family, like the Ewings, and J.R. just thought that would be perfect to get Lucy married off to Kip and blend the family fortunes. J.R. always had an angle — he didn’t care about Lucy’s happiness. Well, we couldn’t say the word gay, we had to say homosexual and Kip had to come out and say, ‘Lucy, I love you so much, but I can’t marry you because I’m a homosexual, and it wouldn’t be fair to you.’ That had never been done on television before, and the way they handled it was exquisite. It was so beautifully written, and Mark Wheeler was just a dream to work with. He was excellent.”

Dallas 47 years later: “It changed everything for me.”

As she looks back on her Dallas experience, Tilton can’t help but remember all of the incredible perks that came her way: “I got to travel. I was invited to the White House by President Reagan and it also opened the doors for wonderful opportunities, like doing theater, which I loved.”

She also hosted Saturday Night Live in February 1981, which was memorable for many reasons. “That was crazy,” she says. “They put me up at the Plaza Hotel and I was coming down in the elevator with my publicist and someone got in. It was a gentleman that was quite thin and looked to be my height, but he had on these huge platform shoes.”

Tilton asked where he bought them and the two began talking. “I said, ‘Well, I’m an actress. I’m doing this show this week and I would love to get a pair of those to wear on the show,’ ” she continues. “He goes, ‘Well, you’re doing Saturday Night Live, and I’m doing the show with you. I’m performing, My name is Prince.’ Todd Rundgren was the musical guest but Prince was the unbilled musical guest. So, we do the show, and he played while I was getting ready to do another sketch, and we just knew the world was forever changed. That performance was what catapulted him to being Prince.”

James Franklin

Tilton appreciates that there are still passionate fans of Dallas and is looking forward to meeting them in August at an event called Southfork Experience on the Southfork ranch in Parker, Texas. “Patrick Duffy [Bobby Ewing], Linda Gray [Sue Ellen Ewing], Steve Kanaly [Ray Krebbs] and myself and about 10 other cast members throughout the years will be there,” she enthuses. “We did it last year and people come from all over, and they spent three days with us, or you can buy a one-day ticket, and we do a Ewing barbecue, we do a cocktail reception, and then we do autographs and Q&A panels.” (For more, go to southforkexperience.com)

That the show continues to find an audience 47 years after it premiered means the world to Tilton. “It’s amazing,” she marvels. “I never could have imagined it. It changed everything for me. It was the best training for a young actress like me to go through because they were so professional and they showed up early for work and they were prepared and they worked hard. We also had so much fun doing it.”