Sheree J. Wilson
Encyclopedia
Sheree Julienne Wilson is an American
actress, primarily known for her roles in soap opera
s and television
. She is best known for her role as April Stevens
on the American prime-time television series Dallas
(a role she played from 1986 to 1990), and as Alexandra "Alex" Cahill-Walker, on television series Walker, Texas Ranger
from 1993-2001.
executives, Wilson moved to Colorado
at the age of nine. In 1981, Wilson received a degree in fashion merchandising and business from the University of Colorado at Boulder
.
and within eighteen months, had appeared in over thirty commercial campaigns for Clairol
, Sea Breeze
, Keri-Lotion and Maybelline
. Her print work ran in such popular magazines as Mademoiselle
, Glamour
and Redbook
.
After three years of modeling, Wilson moved to Los Angeles
. Her first roles included the black comedy Crimewave
directed by Sam Raimi
, Velvet, an ABC
/Aaron Spelling TV movie, and an episode of the espionage series Cover Up. The following year, she had a lead with Tim Robbins
in the comedy Fraternity Vacation
, and also appeared in the 1985 CBS
television miniseries Kane & Abel, with Peter Strauss
. This immediately led to Our Family Honor
, a CBS drama about Irish
cops versus the Mafia
, in which she starred with Ray Liotta
, Michael Madsen
and Eli Wallach
. Her career continued to flourish, with a role in the TV movie News at Eleven in 1986.
Later in 1986, Wilson gained the role she is best known for, as April Stevens
on the CBS series Dallas
, a role she played for almost five seasons (1986–1990). Wilson left the series in the first half of the 1990-91 season (which would be the show's final season) as she was pregnant. Her character was gunned down during her honeymoon (with new husband Bobby Ewing) in Paris
. Wilson’s performance earned her the “Soap Opera Digest Award” for Best Death Scene.
In 1993, she signed to perform in the lead female role as Alex Cahill in Walker, Texas Ranger
, opposite Chuck Norris
. She played the role until 2001. In 1994, she played the lead female role as Leslie in Hellbound
, also opposite Norris. During this period, she also co-starred in the Showtime movie Past Tense
.
In 2006, Wilson starred in Fragile, an independent short.
In November 2008, Wilson attended the 30th anniversary reunion party of Dallas
at Southfork Ranch
in Parker, Texas
with cast members Larry Hagman
, Patrick Duffy
, Linda Gray
, Ken Kercheval
, Steve Kanaly
and Charlene Tilton
.
with her sons.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress, primarily known for her roles in soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. She is best known for her role as April Stevens
April Stevens Ewing
April Stevens, was a character that appeared in the later seasons of the popular American television series Dallas, played by Sheree J. Wilson ....
on the American prime-time television series Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
(a role she played from 1986 to 1990), and as Alexandra "Alex" Cahill-Walker, on television series Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...
from 1993-2001.
Early life
The daughter of two IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
executives, Wilson moved to Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
at the age of nine. In 1981, Wilson received a degree in fashion merchandising and business from the University of Colorado at Boulder
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
.
Career
While working in Denver on a fashion shoot, one of the photographers mistook Wilson for the model; he introduced her to a New York modeling agent, who signed her on the spot. She moved to ManhattanManhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and within eighteen months, had appeared in over thirty commercial campaigns for Clairol
Clairol
Clairol is a personal care products division of Procter & Gamble. The Clairol company was started in 1931 by Lawrence M. Gelb and wife, Joan, who named their enterprise after a hair-coloring preparation they found while traveling in France....
, Sea Breeze
Sea breeze (cocktail)
A Sea Breeze is a cocktail containing vodka with cranberry juice and grapefruit juice. The cocktail is usually consumed during summer months due to availability of the fruit ingredients. The drink may be shaken in order to create a foamy surface...
, Keri-Lotion and Maybelline
Maybelline
Maybelline is an American makeup brand sold worldwide and owned by L'Oréal. Their motto is Maybe she's born with it. Maybe it's Maybelline.-History:...
. Her print work ran in such popular magazines as Mademoiselle
Mademoiselle (magazine)
Mademoiselle was an influential women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications....
, Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
and Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
.
After three years of modeling, Wilson moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Her first roles included the black comedy Crimewave
Crimewave
Crimewave is a 1985 comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, an unusual slapstick mix of film noir, black comedy and several eras, starring Reed Birney, Paul L. Smith, Louise Lasser, Brion James, Bruce Campbell, and Sheree J. Wilson. It was Raimi's first studio film following the success of The Evil Dead...
directed by Sam Raimi
Sam Raimi
Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series Hercules: The...
, Velvet, an ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
/Aaron Spelling TV movie, and an episode of the espionage series Cover Up. The following year, she had a lead with Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins
Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
in the comedy Fraternity Vacation
Fraternity Vacation
Fraternity Vacation is a 1985 low-budget American sex comedy starring Stephen Geoffreys as a nerdy pledge to the Theta Pi Gamma fraternity at Iowa State, with Tim Robbins and Cameron Dye as egregious Theta Pi Gamma frat boys...
, and also appeared in the 1985 CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television miniseries Kane & Abel, with Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss
Peter Strauss is an American television and movie actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s.-Personal life:...
. This immediately led to Our Family Honor
Our Family Honor
Our Family Honor is an American dramatic television series aired in the United States on ABC as part of its 1985 fall lineup.Launched as a two-hour TV-movie, Our Family Honor was about two New York City families who had known each other since their childhoods and who were involved in competing...
, a CBS drama about Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
cops versus the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
, in which she starred with Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta
[File:Ray Liotta is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams...
, Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
and Eli Wallach
Eli Wallach
Eli Herschel Wallach is an American film, television and stage actor, who gained fame in the late 1950s. For his performance in Baby Doll he won a BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer and a Golden Globe nomination. One of his most famous roles is that of Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
. Her career continued to flourish, with a role in the TV movie News at Eleven in 1986.
Later in 1986, Wilson gained the role she is best known for, as April Stevens
April Stevens Ewing
April Stevens, was a character that appeared in the later seasons of the popular American television series Dallas, played by Sheree J. Wilson ....
on the CBS series Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
, a role she played for almost five seasons (1986–1990). Wilson left the series in the first half of the 1990-91 season (which would be the show's final season) as she was pregnant. Her character was gunned down during her honeymoon (with new husband Bobby Ewing) in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Wilson’s performance earned her the “Soap Opera Digest Award” for Best Death Scene.
In 1993, she signed to perform in the lead female role as Alex Cahill in Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger
Walker, Texas Ranger is an American television action crime drama series created by Leslie Greif and Paul Haggis, and starring Chuck Norris as a member of the Texas Ranger Division. The show aired on CBS in the spring of 1993, with the first season consisting of three pilot episodes. Eight full...
, opposite Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do...
. She played the role until 2001. In 1994, she played the lead female role as Leslie in Hellbound
Hellbound (film)
Hellbound is a 1994 action/thriller film starring Chuck Norris. It was directed by Aaron Norris and written by Ian Rabin, Anthony Ridio and Brent Friedman.-Plot:...
, also opposite Norris. During this period, she also co-starred in the Showtime movie Past Tense
Past Tense (film)
Past Tense is a made-for-television movie mystery.Police detective and part-time novelist Gene Ralston wakes from a nightmare in which he struggles with another man at a sand quarry, falls, and suffocates when he is covered with sand. In the morning he notices that a new neighbor has moved in to...
.
In 2006, Wilson starred in Fragile, an independent short.
In November 2008, Wilson attended the 30th anniversary reunion party of Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
at Southfork Ranch
Southfork Ranch
Southfork Ranch is a conference and event center located near Plano, Texas; it contains the Ewing Mansion, which was the setting for the 1978 - 1991 television series Dallas. The ranch is located at 3700 Hogge Drive in Parker, Texas.-History:...
in Parker, Texas
Parker, Texas
Parker is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,379 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Parker is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land...
with cast members Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
, Patrick Duffy
Patrick Duffy
Patrick George Duffy is an American character actor of stage and film. He is best known for his role on the CBS television drama Dallas, where he played Bobby Ewing from 1978 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1991, Duffy returns to reprise his role as Bobby in a new up-to-date Dallas currently scheduled to...
, Linda Gray
Linda Gray
Linda Ann Gray is an American actress, best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the television prime-time soap opera Dallas.-Career:Prior to acting, Gray began working as a model in the 1960s...
, Ken Kercheval
Ken Kercheval
Ken Kercheval is an American actor, best known for his role as Cliff Barnes on the television series Dallas....
, Steve Kanaly
Steve Kanaly
Steven Francis "Steve" Kanaly is an American actor, best known for his role as Ray Krebbs, foreman of the Southfork Ranch, on the television soap opera Dallas from 1978 to 1989. He reprised the role for the final episode of the series in 1991, and again for the made-for-TV reunion movie Dallas:...
and Charlene Tilton
Charlene Tilton
Charlene L. Tilton is an American actress and singer. She is best known for playing Lucy Ewing in the television series Dallas.-Career:...
.
Personal life
Wilson was married to Paul DeRobbio (now divorced), and has two sons; Luke (b. 1990) and Nicolas (b. 1997). She currently resides in Marina Del Rey, CaliforniaMarina del Rey, California
-Demographics:-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Marina del Rey had a population of 8,866. The population density was 6,094.6 people per square mile...
with her sons.