He is depicted as a covetous, egocentric, manipulative and amoral oil baron with psychopathic tendencies,[2] who is constantly plotting subterfuges to plunder the wealth of his foes.

J.R. Ewing is considered one of television's most popular characters,[8][9] with TV Guide naming him #1 in their 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

He has a ruthless approach to business and frequently engages in bribery, blackmail and other underhand tactics to defeat and destroy his rivals - his principal nemesis being Cliff Barnes.

However, there are several instances throughout the original series' run where a more sympathetic and complex side to his character is portrayed, such as evidence of his love for his family.

Also in the final season, there are glimpses of a depressive and contemplative nature when musing to Bobby during their cattle drive about how times were changing.

J.R. has two younger brothers, Gary (Ted Shackelford, briefly David Ackroyd) and Bobby (Patrick Duffy); a half-brother, Ray Krebbs (Steve Kanaly), from his father's affair with an Army nurse named Margaret Hunter during World War II.

After coming home from serving for a short time in the Vietnam War during the 1960s, J.R. began his long tenure as an employee of Ewing Oil.

A teenage Gary met his wife Valene Clements (Joan Van Ark) in the early 1960s, they married when she became pregnant with their daughter Lucy (Charlene Tilton).

This led to a rivalry between them in childhood that continued as they grew up, especially when Bobby married Pamela Barnes (Victoria Principal, briefly Margaret Michaels), who was a member of the Ewings' rival family.

Jock had earlier married Digger's girlfriend, Eleanor Southworth, which had caused a dent in their relationship prior to the big schism.

His second and most favored son was John Ross Ewing III (Omri Katz) from his first wife Sue Ellen, born in 1979.

After JR kicked Cally off of Southfork he checked into a sanitarium in order to get Clayton Farlow's sister, Jessica Montford, to sign over voting rights in WestStar stock to him.

A being, later revealed to be demonic, named Adam (portrayed by Joel Grey) pays a visit to J.R., who cannot believe what he is seeing.

Adam then asks J.R. what made him think he was dispatched from Heaven and begins laughing demonically, revealing his true purpose.

According to the Dallas Facebook page, J.R. had indeed shot the mirror, but unlike the Reunion film, he didn't flee to Europe to recover.

As the series begins J.R. has spent the last few years in a nursing home, suffering from chronic depression and not speaking despite visits from Bobby.

John Ross also tells J.R. that he discovered a 2 billion barrel oil reserve under Southfork but Bobby has blocked the drilling.

J.R. finally rouses himself to help his son fight the attempts to block his drilling for oil on the ranch and tells John Ross that Bobby was always a fool.

He reveals that he is working alongside Marta Del Sol, the daughter of an old friend of J.R.'s, who owns millions of acres of land.

J.R. surprises everyone by showing up at a family gathering (acting as an invalid by using a walker) and apologizing to Bobby and Sue Ellen for his past actions.

Realizing he's been fooled, J.R. tells Del Sol he's made a mistake and bites out that Marta should meet his son as "he's a chip off the old block."

J.R. is forced to return ownership of Southfork to Bobby when J.R. and John Ross' Venezuelan investor, Vicente Cano, turns violent against the Ewings when the loan isn't repaid.

The first season ends with John Ross and J.R. joining forces against Bobby, Christopher and Elena, who have apparently reunited as a couple.

At the start of the second season, J.R. is mentoring John Ross in business and dirty tricks and they are plotting to take control of Ewing Energies.

Since J.R. had been a war veteran, his coffin was draped in a U.S. Stars and Stripes flag and was handed folded to John Ross because he was his son and next-of-kin.

In the office at Southfork, Bum tells Bobby, John Ross, and Christopher that J.R. was in Abu Dhabi closing a deal to buy some oil leases but that his real reason for being in Abu Dhabi was because for the last several months he was trying to find Christopher's adoptive mother and Bobby's ex-wife Pamela Barnes Ewing.

Bum reveals that J.R. was in Nuevo Laredo following a lead to take down Harris Ryland using the quail hunt as a cover story.

Bobby, John Ross and Christopher continue working together on the plan and they realise how important it is to find Pam, because she owns one-third of Barnes Global shares along with Katherine and Cliff.

His plan was to have the Ewing family plant the pistol and J.R.'s trademark belt buckle in Cliff's car and safety deposit box.

In 1983 when his wife Sue Ellen wrecked the car at the end of the Southfork driveway, J.R. replaced it with another 1983 Mercedes Benz 380SEL.