{"id":23826,"date":"2023-02-27T15:45:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T20:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=23826"},"modified":"2023-03-07T17:22:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T22:22:35","slug":"charlene-tilton-says-church-and-dallas-co-stars-protected-her-from-fame-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/02\/charlene-tilton-says-church-and-dallas-co-stars-protected-her-from-fame-pitfalls.html","title":{"rendered":"Charlene Tilton Says Faith and \u201cDallas\u201d Co-Stars Protected Her from Fame Pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_24006\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24006\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/02\/Charlene-Tilton_credit-Everett-Collection-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24006\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/02\/Charlene-Tilton_credit-Everett-Collection-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24006\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Everett Collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Actress Charlene Tilton, famous for her role as Lucy Ewing on the popular series \u201cDallas,\u201d spoke candidly about what kept her spiraling out of control as a young actress on the most popular series in America. \u201cI was planted in a really good church when I was on \u2018Dallas,\u2019\u201d she told\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/charlene-tilton-reveals-dallas-co-star-larry-hagman-church-saved-temptations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fox News Digital<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">She also credited great people being around her, including singer Donna Summer, famous for her disco music. Summer herself experienced a dark period away from God before leaving a life of antidepressant dependency to return to Him. In reflecting on her return to God, Summer\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianheadlines.com\/blog\/what-you-didnt-know-about-donna-summer-and-her-journey-of-faith.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">said<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, \u201cI never stopped being a Christian. Being born-again is an affirmation that the person is going to make a personal effort to walk closer to God and bring Him into one\u2019s life and start following His way.\u201d<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Tilton, now 64, was only 17 when she began her role and said her \u201cDallas\u201d castmates were very protective of her. She noted how Larry Hagman, who played her uncle JR Ewing, advised her on handling the pressure of fame. Hagman was already famous from his role on \u201cI Dream of Jeannie\u201d and had nearly buckled from the pressure. \u201cBut he learned from himself, and he really became a shining example to all of us on-set,\u201d said Tilton. \u201cHe used to always say, \u2018Don\u2019t worry, be happy.\u2019 And he lived by that. He had an infectious laugh. He just got so much joy out of everybody. He was eccentric and joyful. I loved that he was never too big to talk to anybody, as big of a star as he was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Tilton spoke highly of how her castmates kept her out of the drug scene in an interview with <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2021\/04\/29\/dallas-charlene-tilton-on-being-offered-drugs-at-studio-54\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Page Six<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in 2021. \u201cThere was a lot of stuff going on in the \u201880s if you remember,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m telling you, it was by the grace of God in their protection that I was not a casualty of the things that were going on in the \u201980s.\u201d She said her castmates expected her to be fully professional despite being so young, which helped to keep her accountable and away from a lot of the party scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Since her time on \u201cDallas,\u201d Tilton has faced setbacks and triumphs. Despite the success of \u201cDallas,\u201d one of Tilton\u2019s accountants embezzled her money and was jailed while another mismanaged it. She also cared for her ailing mother, furthering her financial ruin. Her fianc\u00e9, Cheddy Hart, passed away in 2009, causing Tilton to fall into despair and drinking for a few months before she says God called her out of it. \u201cOne day, I just heard God say to me, \u2018You\u2019re going to just lay down here and join Cheddy, or you\u2019re going to get up and live the life I have for you? I have a purpose and a plan for your life, you know that,\u201d she recalled. She is now a grandma to two boys, living in Nashville near her daughter, Cherish. She also has a role in the new <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/news\/morning\/charlene-tilton-is-heaven-sent-with-new-movie-on-pure-flix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Pure Flix<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0movie\u00a0<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Heaven Sent.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Speaking with \u201c<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newschannel5.com\/talk-of-the-town\/charlene-tilton-stars-in-new-movie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Talk of the Town<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">,\u201d she said she likes how the film portrays Christians as being \u201creal.\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just show them as being holier than thou, it shows them as real people,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actress Charlene Tilton, famous for her role as Lucy Ewing on the popular series \u201cDallas,\u201d spoke candidly about what kept her spiraling out of control as a young actress on the most popular series in America. \u201cI was planted in a really good church when I was on \u2018Dallas,\u2019\u201d she told\u00a0Fox News Digital.\u00a0She also credited&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":24006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Charlene Tilton Says Faith and \u201cDallas\u201d Co-Stars Protected Her from Fame Pitfalls<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charlene Tilton credits church and her &quot;Dallas&quot; castmates for keeping her strong and faithful during her early years of fame.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/02\/charlene-tilton-says-church-and-dallas-co-stars-protected-her-from-fame-pitfalls.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Charlene Tilton Says Faith and \u201cDallas\u201d Co-Stars Protected Her from Fame Pitfalls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Charlene Tilton credits church and her &quot;Dallas&quot; castmates for keeping her strong and faithful during her early years of fame.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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