Jock was the most important person in J.R.'s life. Sure, he loved his mama, but she seemed to have all her attention drawn on his younger brother Gary (a "wimp" J.R. declared) and then after younger baby Bobby. Jock and J.R. just drew closer, as Jock exerted more pressure on J.R. to be the best, in order to one day insure that Ewing Oil would continue to thrive long after he (Jock) left. His admiration, and constant attempts, to please his father would be a driving motivation in J.R.'s life for years to come.

After finishing high school, J.R. enrolled in the University of Teas at Austin. He knew he'd eventually end up at Ewing Oil, but his parents wanted him to get a degree. J.R., who at a very early age discovered he had a certain charm with women, took full advantage of that in college. Early in his college career, he briefly dated a woman named LeeAnn Nelson, whom he eventually got pregnant, but then discarded for lack of interest. LeeAnn was forced to drop out of school but would re-enter J.R.'s life many years later. Soon after that, J.R. met one of the greatest loves of his life. One summer, while staying in Europe, he met a beautiful redhead named Vanessa. He and Vanessa shared a passionate affair, but they had to end it, with both parties very much in love, because Vanessa was already engaged to another man. Not wanting to hurt the man she was too marry, but knowing full well she did not have the same passion that she and J.R. shared, Vanessa slept with J.R. one more time before the latter had to leave Europe. Eventually, she married and became Vanessa Beaumont and soon discovered that she was pregnant---with J.R.'s baby. She made no attempts to contact him, telling her husband that the child, Baby James, was his.

J.R., a little depressed over losing Vanessa, came back to the states, and eventually graduated college. At Jock's urging he did a short stint in the army before returning to Dallas to assume the role of Vice President at Ewing Oil under his daddy. It was around this time that he was asked to be a judge in the Miss Texas pageant, to which J.R. agreed. The winner of the contest---Sue Ellen Shepard, immediately captivated him. Using his trademark charm, J.R. began to woo her, they dated, and eventually, they ended up man and wife.

Marriage to Sue Ellen was blissful at first, but things started to go downhill fast. J.R. looked to his wife for some pleasure in the bedroom, but Sue Ellen was very refined and even a little cold in those days, and didn't always provide the "services" that J.R. needed. He grew bored with his wife, so he started looking elsewhere for sexual relations, starting a string of infidelities that would be legendary. Sue Ellen herself just grew to be tired---she wasn't even pregnant yet! J.R. thought that no surprise since they were rarely sleeping together anymore. As his marriage with his wife grew sourer, and J.R. grew colder to her, he delved into working more.

When his brother Gary left the ranch, leaving behind a young wife, Valene, and baby Lucy, J.R. shouldn't have been surprised. He was surprised when Valene, whom he considered trash, took the baby and ran. J.R. secretly tracked her down in the east months later, and using some of his "goons" that he had come to rely on in various dealings at Ewing Oil, threatened her into giving Lucy over to be raised at Southfork. Valene, scared, was forced to hand the baby over. When she later tried legal actions to get her daughter back, J.R. thwarted her at every turn, using his vast influence over the courts in Dallas. Lucy was raised at Southfork, and no one ever questioned how J.R. got her---they just assumed Valene had given her up. When Jock retired in 1977, J.R. was named President of Ewing Oil. Already, he had become one of the most powerful businessmen in Dallas, with the whole town in his pocket to some degree or another. He ran things smoothly—and his way---until 1978, when Jock insisted, at the urging of Bobby's new wife (a Barnes no less, the Ewings main enemies) that he join the company. Bobby came aboard and immediately started to question J.R.'s not always legal dealings. J.R. resented Bobby for his interference---he had learned long ago that going by legal means isn't always the easiest way to get things done, and winning was what it was all about.

It was then that J.R. tried various schemes to get Bobby out of Ewing Oil altogether, such as setting him up on faulty business deals, and the like. He seemed to be always thwarted in some respect, while Bobby would just assume more responsibility at the company and prove to Jock how much on an asset he was. At home, J.R. used anything in his power to split up Bobby and Pam, a union he saw as unfit and dangerous (a Barnes and a Ewing!). Again, J.R. would always be thwarted somehow, but he certainly did some damage along the way. However, Bobby grew more and more frustrated at J.R.'s attempts to ruin his marriage and his ruthless business tactics. A final straw came when J.R. had Cliff Barnes, his nemesis and Pam's brother, framed for the murder of his former secretary Julie Grey. Disgusted, Bobby pretty much withdrew from Ewing Oil to focus on his newly started Ewing Construction.

At home, things were not going well for J.R. A few weeks after they had spent one night together, Sue Ellen announced she was pregnant. J.R. was thrilled. However, soon Sue Ellen fell into a deep depression and began drinking more and more, eventually telling J.R. that the baby probably wasn't his, but was rather Cliff Barnes, whom she'd been sleeping with! J.R. was disgusted with her, and ignored her through the run of her pregnancy. Eventually, her drinking began to cause such a stir that the family was insisting that J.R. get her some help. He was forced to commit her to a sanitarium. Sue Ellen managed to still drink in there though, eventually escaping and getting into a car accident, where she prematurely gave birth to a son, John Ross Ewing.

Believing the baby to be Cliff's (Cliff believed the son was his also), J.R. had little affection for it or Sue Ellen during the early months of pregnancy. He was disgusted with his wife because she took such a distant emotional role in mothering, although she eventually shaped up. Unhappy with Sue Ellen, J.R. took on a new mistress---her sister Kristin. Getting her a job as a secretary at Ewing Oil, J.R. began sleeping with her and confiding in her about many of his business dealings. He set her up in the Ewing condominium, and eventually they both plotted how they could get J.R. a nice, clean divorce from his wife. Eventually, it came out that J.R. was the father of little John Ross, and from that moment on, J.R. took an overwhelming interest in his son and showered him with love.

With Ewing Oil once again mainly under his control, J.R. decided to try to take it into the 1980's with a big bang. Learning about some valuable Asian Oil leases, J.R. made an effort to bid on them but learned that they would be VERY expensive---$100 million dollars. Taking out a loan from banker Vaughn Leland, J.R. was forced to put up collateral, so underneath his parent's noses, he mortgaged Southfork! He managed to get the Asian fields, and set about slowly repaying the loan back.

Along with this, J.R. concocted a plan to get Cliff Barnes out of the Office of Land Management (OLM), where he had recently taken a position and was doing everything in his power to thwart Ewing Oil's plans for future developments. J.R. paid young lawyer Alan Beam to convince Cliff to leave the OLM, run for Senate, only to be surprised when his campaign money would deplete—because it had all been supplied by J.R.! As well, he prompted Alan to marry Lucy and get her off of Southfork, with promises of riches for Alan.

A typhoon in Asia set drilling on the fields back, and J.R. was getting later and later with his loan payments to Vaughn Leland, who is about to take away Southfork (which J.R. put up as collateral). Bobby eventually got wind of this, told the family, and Miss Ellie saved the day by opening up a section of Southfork for drilling in order to get some quick cash. However, Jock was disgusted with his eldest son and immediately put Bobby back at Ewing Oil to keep an eye on J.R.

Things began to really fall apart when J.R.'s plans for Cliff and Lucy via Alan (whom he then made an enemy of) fell through, and J.R.'s relationship with Kristin started to turn sour. At home, Sue Ellen was inches away from running off with Dusty Farlow and taking John Ross with her. Desperate, J.R. called upon Kristin to help him with a plan to get Sue Ellen drinking again (to recommit her to the sanitarium), with the promise of marrying her if they are successful. When their plan worked (although indirectly because of Dusty's supposed death), J.R. dumped Kristin because she was no longer needed. Soon after, J.R. got insider information that the country that held the Asian Oil wells that Ewing Oil owned was going to be overthrown, and thus the wells would be shut down and Ewing Oil would take a huge loss. Not wanting this to happen, J.R. sold out Ewing Oil's interest in the fields to the Cartel of Oil Barons and banker Vaughn Leland, while still retaining a 25% interest for legitimacy purposes. When the country was overthrown hours after J.R. sold the fields, those he had sold to, know ruined were ready to kill him. In fact, one man, Seth Stone, killed himself.

Therefore, it really came as no surprise when a mysterious assailant shot J.R.. J.R. was left paralyzed by the shooting, and forced to temporarily leave Ewing Oil. Jock prompted Bobby to step in as full President, infuriating J.R. Meanwhile, Sue Ellen began to grow closer with J.R. in his convalescence, especially after Kristin was revealed as the shooter! J.R. didn't prosecute her, though, because she revealed that she was pregnant with his child. J.R. sent her off to California.

Eventually, J.R.'s cheating ways resurfaced and he was on the outs again with Sue Ellen. He hatched a plan to ruin Bobby in order to force him to step down as President of Ewing Oil by using his own various contacts to get Bobby entangled in situations where he would take financial loss and not be able to deliver on goods promised. J.R.'s plan worked, and Bobby did resign as President, letting J.R. once again reclaim the title spot. He immediately set about creating a new image for himself, and hired public relations woman Leslie Stewart to do so. The two shared a flirtation, and eventually slept together. J.R. also decided that he wanted the Asian Oil fields back, so he secretly financed a counterrevolution in the country where the wells were located, in an effort to get them back---and it worked! Cliff Barnes got wind of this, got suspicion of J.R.'s involvement in the coup, and started to do some digging. Gathering up some hearty evidence, he took his information to a Senate Investigative Committee, claming that J.R. financed the coup! The senate put J.R. in a preliminary hearing. Worried, J.R. used Afton Cooper, who was seeing Cliff at the time, in order to access all the files Cliff had to prosecute J.R. Thus, when the trial came, J.R. was able to refute every point Cliff made because he knew about it ahead of time. This, combined with the President of the Asian country speaking on J.R.'s behalf, got him off the hook.

No sooner did Kristin blow back into town, telling J.R. that she wanted money given to her on a regular basis for the son that she had bore him back in California. Confronting him one night at Southfork while high on drugs, Kristin ended up taking a nosedive off the Southfork balcony, and drowned in the pool. Cliff, who was visiting Southfork to talk to Bobby, eventually found her and tried to get J.R. prosecuted, but it was revealed that Kristin died from a fall induced by drugs, and J.R. was cleared. His world was not brightened when he discovered that Sue Ellen had run off with John Ross, and was staying with Dusty (he didn't really die) on his ranch in San Angelo.

J.R. became determined to get his boy back, at any cost. Sue Ellen had started divorce motions, and had every legal right to have her son---after all, she had not kidnapped him. J.R. was forced to take extreme measures to try to get the boy back, and almost resorted to kidnapping. Each attempt failed, prompting J.R. to concoct a scheme to get Sue Ellen KICKED off Southern Cross (Dusty's ranch), by ruining Dusty's father and the owner, Clayton, financially. Taking out a loan and using Ewing Oil as collateral, J.R. bought up all the oil that was being refined at Clayton's refineries---leaving Clayton with no means of income. J.R. sat on the oil, prepared for Clayton to reach the brink of ruin. Once Clayton was there, J.R. proposed him with a deal---kick Sue Ellen off the ranch, and he'll sell him the oil for his refineries, at a cheaper price. Clayton refused, and Miss Ellie got wind of J.R.'s scheme. She took over, sold the oil back to Clayton at a lower price, used the money and some of the Ewing wealth to pay back the loan, and saved Ewing Oil.

J.R. and Sue Ellen (now separated from Dusty) got divorced, with Sue Ellen gaining full custody of John Ross. J.R. was devastated. He suffered further losses when Jock was killed while on a trip to South America. J.R. sank into a deep depression, but managed to come out of it with the renewed notion to make Ewing Oil bigger and better than ever. In the wake of his death, and prior to his will being read, J.R. was kept on as President of Ewing Oil, and gained 20 voting shares towards the company, with the other shares being distributed among the family.

Strangely enough, because of visits with John Ross, J.R. and Sue Ellen (who had moved to her own place in Dallas) saw each other a lot. There was obviously an attraction still there, but Sue Ellen tried her hardest to fight it. She started dating Cliff Barnes, a move that did not please J.R. at all. Despite this, J.R. and Sue Ellen spent more and more time together, growing closer, so much so that Sue Ellen believed he had really changed into a decent person.

Unbeknownst to her, he was enacting a plan to ruin Cliff in order to get him out of the way. Using Marilee Stone as a decoy and fake geological reports, J.R. got Cliff (who was then running his mother's company, Wentworth Tool and Dye) to invest $4.5 million dollars into a dry hole. When Cliff did so, J.R. gleefully announced that he'd been duped. Cliff, desperate for money, turned to Sue Ellen for a loan, but she refused (their relationship had already been strained at that point) and J.R. once again visited Cliff, offering him $4 million for a oil field that Cliff had earlier invested in. To get himself out of a jam, Cliff agreed. J.R. then asked Sue Ellen to marry him again, and she accepted. However, the depressed Cliff's suicide attempt put a temporary halt to their plans. It was only temporary though, as they ended up marrying for the second time a few months later.

Around this time, J.R. learned that the baby that Bobby adopted, Christopher, was really his son. Using Pam's ignorance of this issue, J.R. blackmailed Bobby for his voting shares in Ewing Oil. Soon Bobby discovered the truth that Kristin had miscarried J.R.'s baby, and the situation was resolved.

New tension was created when Jock's will was read. It effectively split Ewing Oil in half, giving half of the assets to Bobby and the other to J.R. The terms of the will stated that both brothers were to compete for a year, and whomever made the most profit in a year's time would gain 51% control of the company. Bobby and J.R. delved into the contest. For J.R.'s part, he obtained 25% of Holly Harwood's oil company, as well as blackmailed an official into a special oil variance that allowed him to overpump oil in order to open cut-rate (and highly profitable) gas stations. When his variance was revoked thanks to Donna and Bobby, J.R. took some of Harwood's Oil and illegally sold it to Cuba. The contest was causing strains for the family, and Miss Ellie was about to break Jock's will, leading her to clashes with J.R. Meanwhile, Holly, wanting revenge on J.R. seduced him and arranged timing so that Sue Ellen would see them in bed together, causing Sue Ellen to be disgusted with J.R. and go back to the bottle.

His marriage in shambles, J.R. was not pleased to hear that he lost the contest for Ewing Oil---a project of Bobby's had come in at the last minute. Both brothers agreed to a truce (encouraged by a note from Jock in his will), each taking over 35% of Ewing Oil. Things remained hectic for J.R., though as he placed his hand in many different relationships. Sue Ellen had agreed to stay married to him, solely for John Ross's sake, but let him know that she was disgusted with him. She eventually started having an affair with John Ross's camp counselor, Peter Richards, a move that J.R. got wind of and was determined to stop by framing Peter for possession of drugs. As well, Miss Ellie announced her marriage engagement to Clayton Farlow, prompting J.R. to team up with Clayton's sister Jessica in order to stop the wedding. He was not successful. J.R. and Katherine Wentworth, Pam's half-sister, both worked their hardest to keep Bobby and Pam apart, even sleeping together in the process.

Cliff had blackmailed Sly, J.R.'s secretary into spying on him, but J.R. found out and turned Sly right back on Cliff in order to feed him false information. Blackmailing government official Edgar Randolph, J.R. managed to get some inside information on the bidding figures the government was asking for offshore drilling tract Gold Canyon 340. Using Sly to let Cliff know that J.R. was in meetings with Randolph, J.R. managed to convince Cliff (via Sly, whom Cliff believed was still legitimately spying for him) that J.R. had the minimum bidding figures the government wanted, and then sold false ones to Cliff. Cliff, determined to get the tract, bid a little higher than what he believed J.R. was going to bid, was surprised when J.R. bid staggeringly low, but was pleased to get the tract nonetheless, despite having spent hundreds of millions to get it. What Cliff didn't know was that Vaughn Leland, the banker whom he got a loan from in order to pay for the bid and to eventually pay for drilling costs, was really working for J.R.----who was secretly "the bank" financing Cliff. Vaughn made Cliff put up Gold Canyon 340 and Barnes-Wentworth Oil (which he was running) as collateral. Then, in order to make sure Cliff never struck oil so that he would be forced to foreclose and HE (J.R.) would receive the tract and Barnes-Wentworth, J.R. paid off Cliff's drilling team to avoid hitting a strike. As the clock ticked, Cliff almost had to foreclose, but hired a new drilling team that hit oil, and Cliff was in the clear, but furious at the recently exposed J.R. for what he had done.

In the wake of Bobby's shooting, Sue Ellen and J.R. got close once again, only to be dragged apart by old problems, such as his flirtation with Mandy Winger and J.R.'s rude treatment of his cousin, Jamie, who had just arrived at Southfork. On the outs once again, J.R. began an affair with Mandy. Seeing that Bobby and Pam were getting closer, J.R. set out to stop this by sending Pam on a wild goose chase around the world, making her think her former lover Mark Graison was still alive. Things soon took a turn for the worse, when Jamie presented J.R. with a document stating that she owned 1/3 of Ewing Oil. Eventually, she teamed up with Cliff, who found a similar document from his father's old papers, and the two teamed up to get 2/3 of Ewing Oil for themselves. J.R. worked frantically to stop them, eventually giving 10% of Ewing Oil to Jamie's brother Jack when he provided evidence that negated Cliff and Jamie's claims. Meanwhile, Mandy was pressuring J.R. into marriage, leaving J.R. to bide his time, as Sue Ellen was just starting to drink again because of his cruel behavior towards her----just as J.R. wanted it.

Sue Ellen quickly got herself off the bottle, though, and set about ruining J.R. by destroying his relationship with Mandy. Secretly buying a lingerie company, and hiring Mandy as the top model, Sue Ellen managed to cause such a rift between the two (J.R. did not approve of such work by Mandy), that they split up. When she revealed her role in everything to J.R., he was thoroughly impressed, and once again attracted to her. Slowly, the two found their way back to each other and resumed their relationship. J.R. was also disgusted at the time when a man named Wes Parmalee showed up in Dallas claiming to be Jock, but he was quickly proved a fake.

On the business spectrum, J.R. kept busy. Wanting the 10% back from Jack, J.R. quickly aligned himself with Jack's ex-wife April Stevens, who had a claim to 50% of his holdings---and thus 5% of Ewing Oil. J.R. paid for her court case against Jack, helping April to win the 5%, only to have her turn around and sell it to him. The dropping price of oil, due to the Middle East flooding the market, was also a major concern to J.R. at this time. Seeing that he needed to take drastic measures, J.R. hired a mercenary, B.D. Calhoun, to blow up some high-profile Middle Eastern oil fields, in hopes that they would no longer saturate the market and drive American prices up. B.D. went through with his orders, but soon the FBI caught on and was breathing down J.R.'s neck. J.R. ratted out B.D. for immunity, but a vengeful B.D. sought revenge, almost killing J.R. and John Ross, but dying himself in the process. The saga did not end there, though. J.R.'s enemy and West Star president Jeremy Wendell got wind of this story, leaked it to the Justice Department, and they promptly found Ewing Oil guilty of illegal activities and shut it down---stripping J.R. and Bobby of the company name and many of its assets.

Determined to get Ewing Oil back and exact revenge on Jeremy, J.R. set about on his biggest mission yet: to take away West Star by gaining majority control of the stock. J.R. used his own funds, as well as blackmail of April and Cliff, to start buying up some of the stock, but it was not enough. So, he aligned himself with Kimberly Cryder, whose dying father held the majority of West Star's stock. Kimberly was up front with J.R.: she wanted marriage in exchange for her father's stock (which she could get). J.R. began an affair with, but delayed on the marriage issue. Sue Ellen got wind of this, and once again the two spouses were at each other's throats. Kimberly started to make threats against J.R. for not promising her marriage, at which point J.R. told her they were through---he had his own plan. Unloading all his stock, as well as that which April and Cliff owned, J.R. gleefully saw the price of West Star stock plummet, which was all part of his plan. With the stock at an all time low, he planned to buy it in larger bulk; enough to assume majority control and get West Star for himself---in order to make it the NEW Ewing Oil. Sue Ellen and her lover Nicholas Pearce got wind of this and made motions to stop it. Teaming up with Kimberly, Sue Ellen used her own money to buy some West Star stock. Along with (then) outed President Jeremy Wendell (who bought his own chunk through a dummy corporation), the three stockholders confronted J.R., revealing that they had majority control and he was never going to become President.

J.R. was sent reeling from this. Other things were not going his way either. He had found out information that cleared Clayton from implication in the murder of artist David Shulton, but before he would go forward with the evidence, he forced the woman at the center of the murder (and Clayton's friend), Laurel Ellis, to sleep with him. Once Clayton was freed, he found out what J.R. had done and angrily confronted him. As well, when Pam divorced Bobby because she had left town due to being burned, she gave her percentage of Wentworth Industries to Christopher. In an effort to get them for himself, J.R. paid Christopher's biological aunt (on his dad's side), Lisa Alden, to sue for custody of Christopher, with the promise that Lisa would give him the percentage if she won (which J.R. promised he would help with). Bobby found out about this, put a stop to it, and set about getting the ultimate revenge on J.R.: He got back the Ewing Oil name from the government for HIS company. J.R. found out and was furious.

To get revenge on Sue Ellen, J.R. kidnapped John Ross and sent him to a private school under a false name. Furious at J.R., Sue Ellen and Nicholas confronted him, leading to an altercation between Nicholas and J.R. in which Nicholas ended up flying off a balcony. Sue Ellen, shocked and devastated, grabbed a near-by gun and shot J.R. twice. He lived, miraculously, and did not press charges for John Ross's (now back at Southfork) sake. He managed to earn Bobby's pity and earn a place at the new Ewing Oil, where he immediately went beyond his jurisdiction and made deals in areas Bobby told him to stay out of. However, after a long heart to heart talk, Bobby allowed J.R. to become a full partner in Ewing Oil again.

J.R. and Sue Ellen divorced again, and during a hunting trip, J.R. met a beautiful young woman named Cally Harper. Instantly attracted to her, Cally and J.R. slept together, but Cally's backward brothers got wind of this, and had J.R. arrested in the small Arkansas town they were from! Cally helped J.R. escape, only to have him captured again. Cut off from contact with his family, J.R. braved one more escape, and ended up being kidnapped by Cally's brothers and almost killed. Cally saved his life by declaring that they were in love and to be married. So, in order to save his own life, J.R. married young Cally, and promptly afterwards escaped back to Dallas. What he wasn't expecting was Cally to show up looking for him, with their marriage certificate! Miss Ellie welcomed her to Southfork, and insisted she stay.

Their marriage was rough at first, but J.R. eventually warmed up to her, and the two got along fine. The two took a trip together, along with Bobby and April, to Vienna, where J.R. hoped to land a large oil deal. Once there, he was shocked to run into Vanessa Beaumont, his old love. Facing temptation to be with her, J.R. remained loyal to Cally. Upon returning to Dallas, J.R. was shocked when Sue Ellen announced she was getting remarried and leaving Dallas. However, before leaving, she showed J.R. a little project she had been working on---a film that exposed all of his underhanded deeds over the years. Threatening him to leave her alone from then on, Sue Ellen bid her ex-husband goodbye---for the time being.

Ewing Oil soon found itself in hot water when a busty oil tanker that J.R. bought in order to ship a large supply of oil, collided with a West Star tanker and sank, polluting the surrounding ocean. Ewing Oil came under public scrutiny, and a government investigation, headed by Cliff, threatened to shut them down. J.R. pulled out all the stops to get Ewing Oil cleared of all charges, including bribing some of the officials making the ruling with Cliff and employing Michelle Stevens, April's sister, to spy on Cliff. Eventually, evidence spoke the truth and Ewing Oil was found innocent of all charges.

J.R. was shocked when a young man named James Beaumont came to Dallas and announced that he was J.R.'s son with Vanessa! This shocked J.R. and upset Cally, but James's claim was legitimate so he couldn't dispute it. He welcomed James, giving him a position at Ewing Oil. Things with Cally were deteriorating, as she began a flirtation with an art dealer that J.R. quickly sent packing out of town on false charges of solicitation. J.R. began a flirtation with Stephanie Rogers, a public relations woman working with Cliff, and eventually started blackmailing her in order to stop her from helping Cliff's political career so much. Seeing her association with J.R., Cliff cut off all ties with her, but J.R. told her that he was going to call upon her services from time to time in order to sway influential politicians that Stephanie knew.

As time progressed, J.R.'s relationship with James started to decline because of the former's constant interference in his son's life. Things with Cally were also not going well. One day, J.R. decided that he just didn't want to be married to her anymore, so he set about a plan to make her leave Southfork without seeming like the villain. Suggesting a marriage counselor for Cally, he set her up with a therapist that he paid off to advise Cally to leave J.R. It began to work, and Cally started to pack her bags, but John Ross intervened and pleaded Cally to stay. Cally agreed to give her marriage another try, and once again went to her therapist, who continued to pressure her into leaving J.R. Determined to leave this time, Cally overheard her therapist reporting to J.R. that everything was going to plan, and was determined to get revenge.

Parallel to these events, James was also disgusted with J.R. for discovering J.R.'s role in ruining a business plan he had embarked upon with then girlfriend Michelle, and his ultimate role in paying Michelle to leave Dallas. It had just come to J.R.'s attention that Clayton's sister Jessica had come into control of 25% of West Star voting rights due to a bizarre series of murders. With Jessica in a mental ward, J.R. was determined to get those voting rights, so he actually had himself committed to the mental hospital to get Jessica to sign some predated documents that gave the voting rights to J.R. Cally and James got wind of this and decided to get the ultimate revenge. James managed to sneak away J.R.'s release papers from Sly before she even realized she had them, then drew up a HUGE divorce settlement for Cally with a lawyer. Going to the mental institution to visit J.R., James tells him to sign the divorce settlement, or he'll never provide the release papers---after all, J.R. has not told anyone where he is. J.R. does so, but James rips up the release papers anyway, committing his father to the mental ward!

J.R. did everything in his power to get out, but guilt eventually caught up with Cally, and she told Sly where J.R. could be found. Sly made the motions to ultimately release JR, which finally occurred, but not before the papers that J.R. had finally gotten Jessica to sign were shredded by a crazy patient! It was around this time that Cally discovered that she was pregnant, but kept this hidden from J.R., confiding in James. Once released from the metal institution, J.R. set about on a revenge campaign against his son, leading to more animosity between the two of them. Vanessa returned to Dallas, and she and J.R. resumed a relationship. J.R. and Cally divorced.

J.R. was not pleased when Bobby announced he was selling Ewing Oil, as he was disgusted with the oil business following his wife April's death. J.R. tried to convince him not to, or to sell to him, but it was too late---Bobby sold it to South American businesswoman LeeAnn De La Vega. LeeAnn agreed to keep J.R. on at Ewing Oil, for she had greater plans for him. She was actually LeeAnn Nelson, whom J.R. got pregnant and jilted in college, a move that sent LeeAnn on a downward spiral all those years ago that ruined her life at the time. Now, she was back for revenge on J.R.

J.R. and Vanessa got engaged, but at the party, James maliciously announced, in an effort to stop the proceedings, that Cally was pregnant with J.R.'s baby. J.R. confronted Cally about it before leaving town, and she lied and said that baby was James's. LeeAnn, meanwhile, beefed up her revenge plan against J.R. (who didn't recognize her) by trying to seduce him. Making flirtatious motions toward him, LeeAnn and J.R. kissed, while LeeAnn aroused Vanessa's suspicion. Promising J.R. 50% of De La Vega (nee Ewing) Oil, J.R. agreed to sleep with her. Vanessa, meanwhile, grew more suspicious and decided it wasn't healthy, so called of the engagement with J.R. Then, fully prepared to get 50% of Ewing Oil from LeeAnn, J.R. was shocked when she sold 100% of the company to Michelle Stevens, who had returned to town. Michelle told J.R. that she was the new President of Ewing Oil and he was never going to get back in.

J.R. managed to still cause trouble around town though. He slept with Rose McKay, Carter McKay (the head of West Star)'s wife in order to blackmail her into putting a bug into Carter's office so J.R. could spy on his nemesis. J.R. overheard Carter level a threat that implicated him in a murder, which J.R. promptly used as blackmail material, and then to actually implicate Carter.

Meanwhile, Michelle brought on James as 50% owner of Ewing Oil (now renamed as such) and married him---all to anger J.R. Despite this, James and J.R. started to get closer. J.R. got the shock of his life when he discovered (unknown to anyone else) that James had ANOTHER wife, Debra Lynn, who he was still legally married to, as well as a son! Debra Lynn and little Jimmy came to town, and J.R. wrestled with whether to reveal their presence to James: after all, James was his only shot at getting Ewing Oil back, but his 50% was contingent upon being married to Michelle. Eventually, James and Debra Lynn were reunited, Michelle's marriage to James was declared invalid, and James moved back east. Meanwhile, J.R. began to feel more and more depressed.

When Michelle was convicted in the murder of Hillary Taylor, J.R. promised to use his influence to get her released for Ewing Oil---she agreed to give him 50%. What J.R. didn't realize was that Cliff Barnes had earlier tricked her into signing over the other 50% to him. J.R. was NOT pleased when he found out he was co-running a company with Cliff! Still, J.R. was soon faced with an offer he couldn't refuse: Two West Star board members revealed that they wanted him to use his 25% of West Star voting rights (which he had gotten from Clayton, who had received them from Jessica) to vote for them in certain positions, to which they would respond and vote J.R. in as chairman of the board!. They stated they had enough voting power between them to guarantee J.R. the position, but he had to drop all oil related assets in exchange. So, J.R. figured this was an opportunity not to pass up, and was forced to dump his 50% of Ewing Oil---so he sold it to Cliff. Everything was going smoothly until Carter McKay showed up and revealed that J.R. only owned/ the voting rights to the shares---not the shares themselves. Those were owned by Dusty Farlow, Jessica's son and J.R.'s long time nemesis. He revealed to J.R. that he was negating J.R.'s vote and thus J.R. was left with no position at West Star and no Ewing Oil.

Depressed, J.R. got a further shock when John Ross announced he was moving to London with Sue Ellen. Alone in Southfork, J.R. contemplated suicide. He ended up shooting a mirror instead, but soon after left Dallas to spend five years in Europe, regaining his strength and planning his comeback. Returning to Dallas in 1996, J.R. was prepared to get Ewing Oil back from Cliff. Devising an elaborate scheme that included faking his own death, J.R. was depressed to see his plan fail, and have Ewing Oil be sold to Bobby and Sue Ellen, who had returned to Dallas! However, J.R. did manage to finally worm his way into a position as President of West Star.

The following occurred on Return to Southfork

In 1998, John Ross returned to Southfork from college with his fiancée, Karen. When J.R. discovered that Karen was the daughter of his old nemesis Alan Beam, he made plans to stop the wedding. Using his private investigator, J.R. obtained old pictures of Pamela Rebecca and John Ross together (its unclear how he got these), and sent them to Alan anonymously with the information that Pamela Rebecca was also pregnant with John Ross's baby (it's also unclear how J.R. determined this information, perhaps through bribing a doctor). Alan successfully broke up the wedding, but Sue Ellen got wind of J.R.'s role in the scheme. Soon after, John Ross (who had just been signed over 25% of Ewing Oil by Sue Ellen) got drunk, and J.R. took advantage of this, convincing his son to sign the 25% over to him. Sue Ellen and Bobby, unsuccessfully, tried to get it back.

With the price of oil dropping, J.R. was introduced to a man named Robert Stockton, who could supposedly "fix" oil prices to one's advantage. Associating with him, J.R. had his background investigated, unaware that Stockton had a mysterious associate who wanted to ruin J.R. J.R. also got wind that Pamela Rebecca was scheming to break up Karen and John Ross, who were slowly inching their way back to each other in the wake of the wedding. Deciding to team up with her, Pamela Rebecca and J.R. devised a scheme in which Karen would find Pamela Rebecca in bed with John Ross—a plan that was contingent upon Karen having car difficulties to make sure she arrived at the "right moment." J.R. employed one of his crooked mechanics, who cut the brake lines in a weird misinterpretation of J.R.'s orders. When Karen discovered Pamela Rebecca and John Ross, John Ross was the one to run out, upset, getting in Karen's car and getting into a severe accident because of the brake problems!

J.R.'s guilt was horrible. John Ross was near death. What was more, Pam returned to Southfork claiming J.R. was behind her being held in a mental hospital for the last eleven years! J.R. swore he was not responsible, but no one seemed to believe him. After a one-night stand with Afton at the Oil Baron's Ball (which resulted in her being pregnant, which led to an eventual miscarriage), a mysterious party set J.R.'s cabin on fire and he was almost killed. His lover, Anita Smithfield, who had just escaped from Robert Stockton (still gunning for revenge for another mysterious party) and was killed in the fire, along with Robert. Everyone suspected Pam of setting the fire, but she swore her innocence. On the business front, things got really bad. Abby Ewing, now married to J.R.'s cousin Jack, acquired 75% of Ewing Oil from Gary, while J.R. learned that he had been outed at West Star by Jeremy Wendell, who had secretly bought a majority of stock to become the new President. It was also revealed that Wendell was Stockton's father, and behind the revenge on J.R.!

Soon, J.R.'s role in John Ross's accident was revealed by a vengeful Pamela Rebecca, but J.R. fessed up, saying he told the mechanic to "delay" Karen, not tamper with her brakes. John Ross recovered, and the family grudgingly forgave J.R.. It was also revealed that Pam did not set fire to J.R.'s room, Ray's wife Jenna Wade did, in an effort to frame Pam. Jenna revealed this in a suicide note.

With that out of the way, J.R. and Pam declared a truce, but J.R. soon got another shock---Kaitlin Ryan, a woman who looked identical to Kristin Shepard. J.R. hired young private investigator Melissa McSween to check up on Kaitlin, and learned, from Kaitlin herself, that she was Kristin's twin sister given up for adoption by Patricia. What J.R. did not know was that Kaitlin was actually BOUGHT---by Jeremy Wendell! She had come to Dallas having been hired by Katherine Wentworth to destroy Pam's relationship with Christopher, but ended up blackmailing Jeremy for 51% of West Star with the information on how she was "adopted."

Thanks to a major guilt trip by Gary, Abby signed over 60% of Ewing Oil to J.R., giving him 85% control. However, John Ross decided that he wanted back in the oil business, so he guilt-tripped J.R. with the whole accident fiasco, into giving him 25% of the company, leaving J.R. with 60%. J.R. and Sue Ellen experienced a brief rebirth of their attraction when John Ross and Pamela Rebecca's lives were put in danger when they were kidnapped in Hawaii, which J.R. managed to save them from. While rescuing them, J.R. came upon a mysterious folder that carried information about stockholders in a mysterious company.

J.R. took the folder back to Dallas and did some investigating. Soon he learned that the stockholders were listed are for the Clifford Group, the second largest oil company in Texas---that is secretly owned by Cliff Barnes (who was then believed dead)! J.R. was even more shocked to learn the terms of Cliff's will: if Pam, Afton, Lucy or Pamela Rebecca made no motions to take control of the company, then Sue Ellen would get 50% of the stock, and become CEO. Confident that this would be the case, J.R. started to cozy up to Sue Ellen in hopes of getting in on the action. Sue Ellen started to fall for him again.

J.R.'s life was not dull in other aspects as well. He acquired 17% of a company called PetroTech, but needed 8% more to gain majority control. He soon learned who had 8% of the company---his half-brother, Ray Krebbs. J.R. set about a plan in motion to get it: he hired a woman named Jenna Evans to seduce the lonely Ray and get it all on film, so J.R. could blackmail Ray. Also, J.R. aligned himself with Todd Foster, the illegitimate son of April Stevens. In exchange for J.R. using his legal influence to get April's estate away from Michelle and to him (as April's son), Todd promised J.R. the exclusive rights to a massive oil strike that April Oil had just hit. J.R. agreed, helped Todd get April's estate, and was soon signed over the fields.

When Sue Ellen found out that she was going to get majority control of the Clifford Group, she also deduced that J.R. was only wooing her so HE could get in on the action. Disgusted, she swore revenge on J.R. one final time, for everything he had ever done to her. She planned to take majority control of Ewing Oil, the only thing he ever cared about. Using her influence in the oil industry, she set up J.R. to get involved in a deal he couldn't deliver on, putting him in a position where he would have to sell a percentage of Ewing Oil to get quick cash. J.R. fell for the plan, but ended up selling 8% to Bobby. J.R. tried to get it back, but Bobby ended up giving the 8% to Todd, who promised J.R. that he would sell to him once the latter got a few financial things in order.

J.R. and Todd had formed a business relationship, of sorts. With his ex-sister-in-law Donna Dowling very possibly becoming mayor of Dallas, J.R. knew he had to stop her campaign in its tracks. He employed Todd to go and ruin the campaign from the inside, threatening him with the knowledge that if J.R.'s illegal activities are exposed by goody-goody mayor Donna, the whole reason WHY Todd got his mother's estate would be exposed and negated. Todd agreed, but eventually decided not to go along with J.R.'s scheme. Meanwhile, J.R.'s plan for Ray worked as Jenna seduced him. Planning to use the tape to ruin both Ray and Donna, J.R. stupidly confided in Todd, who turned around and gave the tape to Ray. In retaliation, J.R. used his influence to have some of Todd's oil fields shut down, which prompted Todd to sell the 8% of Ewing Oil to Sue Ellen. Around this time, J.R. resumed a relationship with Mandy Winger, who returned to town with a mysterious secret.

Winning is what it is all about to J.R. He will do anything, and cheat anyone, to get what he wants. Lying at the base of his actions, though, is a deep desire to please his daddy, and make Ewing Oil the biggest and the best Texas has ever seen. It's just how he goes about doing that which gets him in trouble.