Many actors are happy to achieve one starring role in a long-running series. American actor Sheree Wilson has managed two. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she played April Ewing in the era-defining drama series Dallas. After being written out of the show in a scene so brilliantly acted that it won the Best Death Scene at the 1992 Soap Opera Digest Awards, she struck gold again, starring alongside Chuck Norris in nearly 200 episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger.

Wilson hails from Minnesota and was initially set for a career in fashion. Whilst working as merchandiser on a business shoot, she was mistaken for a model, a chance incident that led to her becoming established as one of America’s top models and appearing in ad campaigns for the likes of Clairol and Maybelline. This piqued her interest in acting and, early in the 1980s, she relocated from New York to Los Angeles. Her first notable role was as part of the main cast of Our Family Honour, a big-budget ABC drama whose cast included the likes of Ray Liotta and Michael Madsen. The following year, she joined the cast of Dallas, then already established as one of the biggest shows on American television. She remained an integral part of the cast until 1991 when she was killed off in the show’s final season.

In 1993, Wilson was cast as one of the stars of Walker, Texas Ranger, a CBS crime action drama that would run until 2001 and is still regularly rerun on channels around the world. She remains a regular presence on American screens, with recent projects including the film Flip Turn, an inspirational film about an autistic boy who becomes a champion swimmer.