 Amanda Ewing, Jock's first wife, as played by Diane Franklin | |
| Amanda Lewis Ewing † | |
| Occupation: | Housewife |
| Marital status: | Divorced |
| About: | Is reassured by Jock of his love for her, inspite of her descent into dementia, which her mother also suffered from; Was regulary visited by him even after he began courting Ellie Southworth, as he reluctantly had to ask her for a divorce when Ellie became pregnant with son J.R. |
| Spouse(s): | Jock Ewing (1927-1935) |
| Parent(s): | Mother, only mentioned, but not in name |
| Sibling(s): | None mentioned |
| Children: | None |
| Other relatives: | None mentioned |
| Played by: | Lesley Woods in "The Wheeler Dealer" (Dallas (first series), Season 3) Susan French in "Deeds and Misdeeds", (Dallas (first series), Season 8) |
| Appears on: | Dallas:The Early Years (1986 TV movie) Dallas (first series) (2 episodes) |
Amanda Lewis Ewing, the first wife of Jock Ewing, in the 1986 CBS-TV movie Dallas:The Early Years. The part of Amanda is played in the movie by Diane Franklin. The elderly Amanda was played twice on the CBS-TV series Dallas, first by Lesley Woods in the Season 3 episode "The Wheeler Dealer" (ep.# 24), then by Susan French in "Deeds and Misdeeds" in Season 8 (ep# 28).
About Amanda[]
In the film, the scene which focuses on the relationship between Jock and his first wife Amanda, is focused on when he vists her at a state mental hospital in Fort Worth, TX. It is revealed by Jason, as he tells Digger that he had married her, in spite of knowing of her severe psychiatric problems, which her mother also suffered from, and when asked by Digger as to what her mother was like, he tells him that she was "loony", as they wait outside the hospital while he visits her. For all of the bad characteristics he, and J.R. would later show in their business dealings in the years to come, apparently this seeing his wife's slow descent into dementia while they were together, may have put something into his character, as later evidenced by his love for Ellie Southworth, whom he had been dating while his estranged wife Amanda resided in the mental hospital.
A young Jock has the painful task of breaking the news of his plan to divorce her, because he's gotten Miss Ellie, whom he had been seeing, pregnant, and that he must marry her.
Vowing that he'd always love and take care of her, his visits to see Amanda may have continued over the years, as he reluctlantly and painfully had to break the news to her, upon another visit, while she blankly and absently sang to herself, that he had to get a divorce from her, for he planned to marry Miss Ellie, whom he'd been courting for a few years beforehand, as he had gotten her pregnant with child, which turned out to be J.R.
Lesley Woods as Amanda Lewis Ewing in the episode in Seaaon 3 of the CBS-TV series "Dallas" titled "Wheelers and Dealers".
In keeping his word to Amanda years earlier, Jock, accmpanied by Miss Ellie, Bobby, and Pam, visits Amanda in the Colorado mental hospital in the episode "Wheelers and Dealers" in Season 3; J.R., who said some disparaging words about Jock's first wife and her mental state, refused to visit her, as he peeved Bobby to the point where they almost came to blows, as Jock broke up the scuffle. In her state, she could only remember her own name intially in seeing Jock for the first time in many years, but couldn't initially remember his.
Susan French appears as Amanda in the Season 8 episode of the CBS-TV "Dallas" series titled "Deeds and Misdeeds".
By Season 7, when she appears in the episode "Deeds and Misdeeds", the Ewings, namely Bobby and J.R., this time, travel back to Colorado to visit Amanda at the Rolling Hills Sanitarium there (this time, played by Susan French) retreive some important documents which Jock had calculatiingly entrusted to Amanda as to the original ownership of Ewing Oil, as the two brothers and Cliff Barnes and Jack Ewing, the son of Jock's brother Jason and cousin to J.R. and Bobby, as to how the shares of the company would be shared amongst the heirs and to whom whould have majority ownership of the company.