World Agriculture Directory: the home of the world's largest agriculture database. Fastest way to find events, farms and agribusiness that suit your needs. Agriculture Event Directory

Cattlemen Hall of FameBeef cattle barons, cowboys, breeders and builders from around the world

Fictional Cattlemen

Jock Ewing: The Oilman Who Saved Southfork Ranch

The founding father of television's best-known Texas ranch family, played by Jim Davis, was an oilman first and a rancher by marriage.

Who Is Jock Ewing?

Jock Ewing is the patriarch of the Ewing family in the television series Dallas, which premiered in 1978. Creator David Jacobs made him the founder of Ewing Oil and the head of Southfork Ranch, the property that became the show's central setting. Actor Jim Davis played him from 1978 to 1981, and the character is the fixed point around which his sons J.R., Gary and Bobby circle.

Jock is a fictional figure, and this profile treats him that way. He belongs on a cattlemen's hall of fame site because he is one of the best-known images of the Texas rancher-businessman, a man whose land and his money came from different places. The records reviewed for this page describe him as a successful rancher but give few details about his herd, so the ranching side of his story is thinner than the oil side.

Jock Ewing's Early Life and Rise in the Oil Fields

According to the series backstory summarized in the Jock Ewing article, Jock was born in 1909. He came into the Texas oil fields through his older brother Jason and became friends with Willard "Digger" Barnes, a relationship that would later turn into one of the show's longest feuds. His first marriage, to Amanda Lewis, failed.

In the story he founded Ewing Oil in 1930, when he was still in his early twenties by the show's arithmetic. He built it into one of the most powerful independent oil companies in Texas. That detail matters for the ranching theme: Jock's fortune was made by drilling, not by selling beef, which makes him a cousin of the real Texas families who turned oil royalties into ranch acreage.

How Jock Saved Southfork Ranch in 1936

Southfork enters Jock's life through his second marriage. He married Miss Ellie in 1936, the same day her family was set to lose the ranch, and the marriage secured the property. From then on Southfork was the family seat, and Jock took an active hand in running it, working with foreman Ray Krebbs in the years the series shows.

Ray Krebbs is also Jock's son, born of an affair during World War II, and the ranch hand and the founder's family are tied together by that secret. In the series Southfork is as much a place of inheritance fights as a working ranch, and the land is the prize that outlasts every oil deal.

Ewing Oil and the Handoff to J.R.

Jock retired as president of Ewing Oil in 1977 and named J.R. his successor, the decision that sets the series in motion. The older son's aggressive deal-making, set against Bobby's more cautious approach and Gary's departure from the family business, gives the show its tension.

A 1981 storyline has Jock separate from Miss Ellie over the Takapa land deal before the two reconcile. It is a small example of how the writers tied land, marriage and money together, and it shows Jock as a man who could put a deal ahead of his household.

What Made Jock Ewing Work as a Character

Jock endures in memory less for what he does on screen than for what he represents. The record describes a founder whose authority is largely exercised from behind the desk and the portrait, and later from the absence his death created.

For anyone studying how Texas ranching is portrayed in popular culture, the useful lessons are these, all drawn from the series record:

  • He combined two assets, oil company and ranch, and the show treats the ranch as the family's anchor.
  • He kept the land through a marriage that saved Southfork in 1936, not through cattle sales.
  • He chose a successor, J.R., and the choice drove the story for years.
  • He worked alongside a foreman, Ray Krebbs, rather than running every task himself.
  • He carried secrets, including a son born during the war, that later became plot points.
  • His limits were human ones: a failed first marriage and a deal that strained his second.

Jock Ewing's Death and the Wes Parmalee Storyline

Jock's story ends in 1981, when the helicopter he is in crashes into a lake while returning from Venezuela. His body is never found, and he is declared dead in 1982. The storyline was written after Jim Davis died, so the character left the show through the plot instead of being recast. A memorial headstone stands at Southfork in the story.

In 1986 and 1987 Steve Forrest played Wes Parmalee, a man who claimed to be Jock. Viewers reacted poorly, and the producers dropped the plan to reveal him as Jock. Dale Midkiff took on the younger Jock in the 1986 prequel Dallas: The Early Years.

Jock Ewing in Texas Ranching Culture

Jock's portrait became a set focal point and was sold at auction in 2011, which shows how fully the character became an object of fandom. For readers who want the actual business of Texas beef, the ranching section on farm.FM covers working ranches, and a farm.FM story about Southfork and Texas ranches follows how the real place relates to the television one.

Fans of the series can also check the show's awards and production history through the Television Academy page on Dallas.

Timeline

  1. 1909Jock Ewing is born, in the series backstory
  2. 1930Founds Ewing Oil, per the series backstory
  3. 1936Marries Miss Ellie the day her family was due to lose Southfork
  4. 1977Retires as president of Ewing Oil and names J.R. successor
  5. 1978Dallas premieres with Jim Davis as Jock
  6. 1981Helicopter crashes returning from Venezuela
  7. 1982Declared dead in the storyline
  8. 1986Dale Midkiff plays young Jock in Dallas: The Early Years; Wes Parmalee storyline begins
  9. 2011Jock's portrait is sold at auction

Frequently asked questions

Who was Jock Ewing?

Jock Ewing is the fictional patriarch of the Ewing family in the series Dallas, founder of Ewing Oil and master of Southfork Ranch, played by Jim Davis from 1978 to 1981.

Did Jock Ewing raise cattle?

The series presents him as a successful rancher who ran Southfork with foreman Ray Krebbs, though the sources reviewed do not detail his herd, so his reputation rests mostly on oil.

How did Jock Ewing die?

In 1981 the helicopter he was in crashed into a lake on the way back from Venezuela. His body was never found, and he was declared dead in 1982 within the story.

Who created Jock Ewing?

David Jacobs created the character for the 1978 series Dallas. Jim Davis originated the role, and Dale Midkiff later played him as a young man in a 1986 prequel.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

More from the hall