Joan van Ark was born on June 16, 1943, in New York City, New York. Her parents were not connected to the film industry.Julie pushed her to go to the highly regarded Yale Drama School and gain admission using a scholarship she had also set upWhen Joan was a teenager acting in Denver, she met actress Julie Harris, and their lives would never be the sameThis made Joan Van Ark the second-ever woman to enroll at the Drama School

She [Harris] wrote to the dean and asked him to meet me. “Long story short, my parents drove me to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet the dean, who gave me a scholarship,” Joan recalled.” It was meant to be.” Joan went on to perform in the theatre for a few years, but her real passion was in Television.Joan achieved enormous renown as a result of her roles in Temperature’s Rising, Spider-Woman, Days of Our Lives, and even one Bonanza episode. But her role as Valene Ewing on Dallas in 1978 was where she first achieved great popularity. She ended up playing the most important role she has ever had.