Dallas was one of the biggest soaps of its era and commanded massive audiences throughout the 80s. One of the biggest stars of the show was Lucy Ewing – played by Charlotte Tilton and she is looking a lot different since her time on the show.
The 59-year-old actress played one of the most memorable characters in TV history, Lucy Ewing. The ‘Poison Dwarf’ was always involved with the soap’s biggest storylines and at the centre of a ton of romantic plotlines.
Sir Terry Wogan was the first to describe her as the Poison dwarf due to her height and her character on screen. At just 4’11” she is one of the smallest actresses to be on screen but it didn’t stop her character from being incredibly fiery.
The former soap star was spotted in her hometown of Nashville sporting some Christmas leggings, a red scarf, green jumper and Gillet style coat. Rocking a pair of Ugg boots, she looked to have just done a spot of shopping.
She is looking tremendously different from her time on the show where she was considered a huge sex symbol. She was the girl next door of all the boys’ dreams and started out on the show at the tender age of just 17. The show was based around an oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, played by Larry Hagman and his family with Barbara Bel Geddes playing the matriach Miss Ellie and Jim Davies playing Jock.
During the shows best stint on TV, it was raking in a huge 65 million viewers per week. This was due to its huge storylines like the “who shot JR?” teaser where the viewers were made to wait a whole 8 months to find out who the gunman was. The storyline was one of the biggest ever seen on TV and the show as a whole has shaped soaps of the future and shown them the way.
The ‘who done it’ episode in 1980 of ‘who shot JR?’ remains the second highest rated prime-time telecast ever. It reached over 90 million American viewers which represented 53% of all American households and 76% of the U.S. television audience. It surpassed any previous record, but it was beaten by the last episode of M*A*S*H in 1983.
Every season the series was left on a cliffhanger as a way to draw viewers back to the show for the next season and the ‘who shot JR?’ episode was the biggest cliffhanger ever. Not only could the TV series be capable of keeping audiences on a shoe-string, it was also capable of shocking us too. For instance, the ninth season of the show was later revealed to all be a dream of Pam Ewing. This was something no-one saw coming and stunned a lot of the audience.
Dallas is one of the longest lasting full-hour prime-time dramas in American TV history. It was on our screens for a full 357 episodes which is crazy when you think about it. Only 4 other full-hour shows have more episodes, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (400+ episodes), Bonanza (430 episodes), Law & Order (456 episodes) and Gunsmoke (635 episodes).
Dallas debuted in 1978 and was on our screen for 12 years til the show ended in 1991. Charlene was an ever-present in the show and even made it for the multiple reboots of the show in both 2012 and 2014. She was such an integral part of the show that she was commanding a huge £36,000 per episode.
Getting the role at the age of just 17 changes Charlene’s life forever, she quickly became famous and a big sex symbol throughout the UK. She appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show and explained how she was when she was 17 and that she connected with the role of Lucy as soon as she read the script.
“I was a latchey kid. I ran up the streets of Hollywood.”
“I read the description of the character: my age range, a ‘manipulative little sex pot.’ But being raised by her family, because she doesn’t have her parents. I said, ‘That’s my part.’ I clicked with this character.”
The show ran for 12 years and so shaped the path of Charlene’ life. After Dallas, she never really found another TV role to keep her acting career going. She has appeared in a number of spoof movies, such as The Silence of the Hams (1994), Superhero Movie (2008) and Paranormal Calamity (2010). Although she never landed another role on TV she has taken part in a number of reality series’.
Unfortunately for Charlene, her time on the farm was very short and she was the second celebrity to be evicted from the process. The show was not a big hit and after just two seasons channel five announced that the show would not be returning for a third season.
Charlene did return to our screens for another reality TV show in the form of Dancing on Ice. She appeared in the 2012 run of the show which had been off air for four years at the time. The minor reboot of the show was relatively successful for Charlene, where she did much better than her stint on ‘The Farm’.
Charlene made it through the first 4 weeks of the show and went out in the fifth after she lost a skate0off against Sam Nixon, a children’s TV presenter. On leaving the show Charlene talked about her time on the show with high praise.
“I feel alright. I’ve had the most amazing experience. I’ve worked with the best wardrobe, hair and make up department I’ve ever worked with.”
During the seventh series of the show, she was paired with Matthew Gonzalez, an American figure skater who has previously worked with Daniella Westbrook. The eventual winner of the show was Emmerdale’s Matthew Wolfenden who won the three-person final against former X Factor contestant Chico Slimani and Hollyoaks actress Jorgie Porter.
Since her stints on The Farm and Dancing On Ice, and her roles in a couple of spoof movies, Charlene Tilton has not made any more TV appearances. These recent pictures show that she’s changed quite a lot in the last 40 years and almost unrecognisable as the Dallas star.
