Jim Davis (actor)  Jim Davis (born Marlin Davis, August 26, 1909 – April 26, 1981) was an American actor, best known for his role as Jock Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap opera, "Dallas", a role which continued until he was too ill from a terminal illness to perform. Born in Edgerton in Platte County in northwestern Missouri, Davis attended high school in Dearborn, and the Baptist-affiliated William Jewell College in Liberty. At WJC, he played end on the football team and graduated with a degree in political science. He served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. He was known as Jim Davis by the time of his first major screen role, which was opposite Bette Davis in the 1948 melodrama "Winter Meeting",. His subsequent film career consisted of mostly B movies, many of them Westerns, although he made an impression as a U.S. Senator in the Warren Beatty conspiracy thriller "The Parallax View". In the episode "Little Washington" of the syndicated television series "Death Valley Days", Davis portrayed Mark Tabor, a U.S. Representative from Nevada with aspirations to become governor of the new state. Collectively, Davis appeared 13 times on "Death Valley Days". In 1965, Davis played an historical figure, the wagon master Ezra Meeker, who is abandoned by members of his wagon train, who decided to stop the trip to Oregon instead to prospect for gold in the episode "Devil's Gate". In 1967, Davis was cast as the freighter Luke Campbell of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the episode "The Day They Stole the Salamander", a reference to a Salamander Safe. In 1969, Davis played Colonel William G. Butler (1831–1912), who takes revenge on the since ghost town of Helena, Texas, after its citizens refuse to disclose the killer of Butler's son, Emmett. Butler arranges for the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway to bypass Helena; instead Karnes City, south of San Antonio, became the seat of government of Karnes County. In 1954–1955, Davis starred and narrated the syndicated Western anthology television series "Stories of the Century". He portrayed Matt Clark, a detective for the Southwest Railroad who works to bring notorious gunfighters and outlaws to justice. His costars were Mary Castle and Kristine Miller. "Stories of the Century" was the first Western series to win an Emmy Award.