What Happened To The Cast Of Little House On The Prairie

It’s epic. It’s all-American. Sometimes it’s overly sentimental; other times, triumphant. It offers classic good guys, stands against prejudice, and isn’t afraid to make fools of its characters sometimes. It’s “Little House on the Prairie,” which lasted nine seasons and three TV movies, most of which did not, in fact, take place on a prairie, but rather in the creekside town of Walnut Grove. Fans forgive that fact, as well as the other key fact that it deviates significantly from the original autobiographical books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Executive producers Ed Friendly and Michael Landon disagreed on that last point, but Landon won out, realizing that if the show were to have longevity, it would need more than just the books as source material. (The Netflix reboot may change that.)

It has been 50-plus years since the series first aired, and many of the characters who played middle-aged adults on the show are no longer with us. Most of the kids still are, though. Let’s take a look at what happened to the main cast of “Little House on the Prairie.” 

Michael Landon — the star, executive producer, and frequent writer-director of the series — gained fame as Little Joe Cartwright on “Bonanza.” Leveraging his success, he learned how to write and direct as well, and when the show eventually ended, he hopped straight on to “Little House,” where he lasted eight seasons before leaving (though he returned for the final TV movies).

Landon subsequently created “Highway to Heaven,” the only show in his career that he completely owned. Starring alongside “Little House” pal Victor French, he played an Earthbound angel on heavenly probation, roaming from town to town to help people in need, with the help of godly superpowers. The show ended after five seasons and the death of French (a TV movie remake aired in 2021); Landon continued to work in TV and was set to create a new series for CBS called “Us,” but a diagnosis of inoperable pancreatic cancer ended those plans. He died soon thereafter in 1991.

One of the few adults from “Little House” who’s still alive at the time of writing, Karen Grassle is 83 years old, having last acted in the 2021 feature film “Not to Forget,” which was the final movie for Olympia Dukakis and Cloris Leachman. The movie, part of the Let’s Make a Difference project to help raise Alzheimer’s awareness, also starred Louis Gossett Jr. and Tatum O’Neal. Grassle starred as an Alzheimer’s patient whose criminal grandson is court-ordered to care for her.

While “Little House” was on the air, Grassle frequently guest-starred on other shows; once it ended, she returned to live theater, first in Santa Fe, then Louisville, and finally the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also appeared in a series of commercials for Premier Bathrooms. In 2021, she published her memoir, “Bright Lights, Prairie Dust: Reflections on Life, Loss, and Love from Little House’s Ma.” In it, she revealed tensions between her and Landon, especially after she asked for a raise and he refused.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn’t the only iconic young girl played by Melissa Gilbert — she was also Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker” and Anne Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank.” As she grew up, she remained on the small screen, but mostly starring in TV movies such as “Without Her Consent” and “House of Secrets,” though she voiced Batgirl in “Batman: The Animated Series.” She was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 2001 and ran for Congress in Michigan before leaving the race due to health issues.

In the late aughts, her career came full circle as she played Caroline Ingalls in a touring musical production of “Little House on the Prairie.” Soon thereafter, she competed on Season 14 of “Dancing With the Stars,” finishing in fifth place despite sustaining a concussion mid-show. In 2025, she appeared on Michael Landon Jr.’s show “When Calls the Heart.”

After “Little House” ended, Melissa Sue Anderson — the only cast member to ever get Emmy-nominated for it — took an unlikely turn into slasher cinema as Ginny, the “final girl” in J. Lee Thompson’s “Happy Birthday to Me.” It has remained her most significant starring role to date; like her onscreen sister, she appeared in some TV movies, but didn’t take to it in the same way. Several guest-star roles ultimately brought her to the 1987 series “The Equalizer,” where she met and married the show’s creator, Michael Sloan. Both became naturalized Canadian citizens and moved to Montreal; Anderson acted only sporadically through the ’90s, choosing to be a stay-at-home mother instead.

Sloan, who was 15 years older than Anderson, died in August 2025. Anderson’s last onscreen role was a small cameo in the independent film “The Con Is On,” starring Tim Roth and Uma Thurman. 

Twins are a godsend for TV showrunners who want to cast kids. Switch them out, and you get to have twice as much time on set with the character. To keep it a secret that two identical young actresses were playing Carrie, the production initially billed them under the compound name of Lindsay Sidney Greenbush. Both appeared in the same scene for the episode “The Godsister,” as both Carrie and Carrie’s imaginary friend. Their real names are Rachel Lindsay Rene Bush and Sidney Robyn Danae Bush, but they took the “Greenbush” name for acting work as their father, a character actor known for horror movies like “The Hitcher” and “Jason Goes to Hell,” used the screen name of Billy Green Bush or Greenbush.

Their twin magic worked for several commercials, most notably for Doublemint gum. Yet after Sidney starred in the Lillian Gish comedy “Hambone and Hillie,” and Lindsay appeared on one episode of “Matt Houston,” they both opted to quit acting.

The son of TV western stuntman Ted French, Victor French was mostly known for Westerns, appearing 23 times on “Gunsmoke” and interacting with Michael Landon on “Bonanza.” Though he usually played heavies due to his large size and rough demeanor, Landon saw something else in him and cast him as gentle giant Mr. Edwards in “Little House,” and subsequently as Mark on “Highway to Heaven.” French briefly left “Little House” to star in his own sitcom, “Carter Country,” playing a small-town police chief with a more educated deputy played by Kene Holliday; when it was canceled after two seasons, he returned to Walnut Grove.

French also taught acting and directed theater in Los Angeles. He died of lung cancer in 1991, shortly after filming the final episode of “Highway to Heaven.” His son Victor Jr. makes convention appearances looking and dressing almost exactly like his father.

Harriet Oleson’s harried husband, Nels (Richard Bull), was, in many ways, the real hero of “Little House on the Prairie,” serving the community and keeping the local store adequately stocked while managing to deal with his shrill, snobbish wife and their enfant terrible daughter, Nellie. A prolific TV actor, Bull had previously been best known as the Doctor on “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” following a breakthrough role in the bioweapons drama film “The Satan Bug.” 

Perhaps naturally, Bull had also been on “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” before “Little House.” He played the coroner on “The Streets of San Francisco,” and appeared three times on “Highway to Heaven.” His final acting appearance was as a farmer on the Kelsey Grammer-starring “Boss,” following cameos in Bob Odenkirk’s comedy “Let’s Go to Prison” and the Larry the Cable Guy vehicle “Witless Protection.”

Bull died of pneumonia in 2014.

Katherine McGregor (real first name Dorlee) was a stage actress on and off Broadway under the name of Scottie McGregor. Her stage work scored her bit parts in movies like “On the Waterfront,” but it wasn’t until she decided to go by Katherine that she got the role of her lifetime — that of Harriet Oleson. The closest thing to a regular (adult) villain that a wholesome show like “Little House” could have, Harriet eventually became such a popular comedic heel that the show was obliged to give her occasional moments of redemption.

After the series ended, McGregor returned to the stage. Turning to Hinduism while she was in rehab for alcoholism, she went on a pilgrimage to India and began teaching acting to children, having had none of her own. She formally retired in 2000 and died in 2018 in a retirement home at the age of 93.

Audiences may have hated to love Harriet, but they loved to hate her spoiled brat of a daughter, Nellie. Laura’s arch-nemesis was portrayed by Alison Arngrim, who began her TV career in commercials at the age of 12. Young fans frequently didn’t realize Arngrim was playing a character when she portrayed Nellie, and many despised her. Eventually, though, her character went through a surprising babyface turn, as Nellie matured and married Percival Dalton (Steve Tracy).

When Tracy died from AIDS, Arngrim began volunteering for related charities. She also became a spokesperson for abuse survivors after alleging that her brother molested her. In the aughts, she developed a successful stage career in France, doing comedy and telling anecdotes from her life, later compiled in the book “Confessions of a Prairie B**ch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.” Along with former costar Dean Butler and superfan Pamela Bob, she cohosts the “Little House: Fifty for 50” podcast.

In real life, he was the brother of Melissa Gilbert, but onscreen, his sister was her enemy, Nellie. Willie Oleson was one of the few characters to last the entire run of the series, but after that, Jonathan Gilbert just disappeared. Even sister Melissa didn’t know where he’d gone, though she heard rumors he’d been a stockbroker.

In 2024, Jonathan was announced as one of the guests at the “Little House” 50th anniversary reunion, though up until the last minute, there was still suspense as to whether he’d actually show. He did, and revealed that he’d been traveling the world. After growing up on the show, he wanted to find a home, and he said it took him all those years to realize that home was with his fellow surviving castmates.

Besides Willie, Gilbert’s only other major acting credit is a voiceover role in his sister Melissa’s movie “The Miracle Worker.”

When Dean Butler and Michael Landon saw the character’s name in the script and the original novels, they just assumed it was pronounced “al-MON-zo,” and the series followed suit. Later, audio recordings of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder revealed that it’s actually “al-MAN-zo.” Since the TV show departs a lot from the true story anyway, the “wrong” pronunciation is now considered canon for the TV version of the character only.

Butler continued to act after “Little House,” earning a new generation of fans as Hank Summers, the father of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He has since mostly left acting to produce, not just documentaries about “Little House,” but also sports and entertainment shows. Alongside Arngrim and Bob, he too cohosts the “Little House: Fifty for 50” podcast. He most recently produced the Golf Channel series “Feherty,” featuring former golfer-turned-broadcaster David Feherty. The TV show was positively reviewed and ended in 2021 after 10 seasons.

Like so many others on this list, Kevin Hagen was also a TV Western veteran, on shows that naturally included “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza.” He was the son of two professional ballroom dancers. Prior to “Little House,” his most long-term series role was as Inspector Dobbs Kobick on “Land of the Giants.” He appeared onscreen sporadically in the years after the show’s debut, guesting on “M*A*S*H” (twice) and “Quincy, M.E.” He appeared in some small movie cameos, with his last one being the Larry Cohen comedy “The Ambulance.” Released in 1990, it’s notable for being the first movie where Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee plays himself.

Hagen moved to Grants Pass, Oregon, in 1992, where he did local theater, including a one-man show covering his time on “Little House on the Prairie.” He got married in 1993 and died of esophageal cancer in 2005 at the age of 77.

A radio star since the ’30s, Karl Swenson had a significant movie career before playing the founder of Walnut Grove, notably as the doomsayer in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” Dr. Geuter in “Judgment at Nuremberg,” and Reverend Hoskins in “Lonely Are the Brave.” His most famous film role, however, was one in which he was never seen: as the voice of Merlin in Disney’s “The Sword in the Stone.” Prior to “Little House,” he was a frequent guest star and eventually a regular on TV’s “Lassie.”

Swenson died of a heart attack during “Little House on the Prairie”; Michael Landon wrote a final episode for Lars after Swenson said he was planning to retire, and Swenson died shortly after filming. All in all, he appeared in 40 episodes of “Little House on the Prairie.”

As a stage actor, Swenson had frequently used the pseudonym of Peter Wayne.

Through his acting career, Dabbs Greer appeared in some 700 TV episodes and movies combined. He worked from the 1930s until the aughts, starting as an extra in 1939’s “Jesse James,” through classics like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “House of Wax,” and wrapping up as the older version of Tom Hanks’ character Paul Edgecomb in “The Green Mile,” though his final ever role was on an episode of “Lizzie McGuire.” He often found himself cast as a reverend, including on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “The Brady Bunch,” and “Picket Fences.”

Prior to “Little House on the Prairie,” he was most familiar to viewers as Mr. Jonas on “Gunsmoke” and Coach Weiss in “Hank.” Post-“Little House,” his longest-running role was as Grandpa Fred Stage on the WB sitcom “Maybe It’s Me,” starring Julia Sweeney and Fred Willard. He also had a bit part in “Con Air.”

Charlotte Stewart’s role as teacher Miss Beadle on “Little House” was her big breakthrough, but perhaps nobody could have suspected what would come next. After being a muse for Michael Landon, she became one for David Lynch. As Mary X in “Eraserhead,” she’s the girlfriend of awkward protagonist Henry, and mother to a mutant baby that looks like a skinned rabbit … which she leaves Henry to take care of. The Lynch connection likely also contributed to her appearance as waitress Charlotte Goodnight in Neil Young and Dean Stockwell’s cult hit “Human Highway,” which also starred fellow Lynch collaborator Russ Tamblyn. Stewart teamed with Lynch again for “Twin Peaks,” as Bobby Briggs’ mother, Betty.

Now in her 80s, she remains active and will soon be seen in the World War II-era mental hospital drama “The Invisible War.” She is also known for her part as Nancy Sterngood in the first and third “Tremors” films.

Linwood Boomer made a memorable impact on “Little House” as Mary’s take-no-guff, tough-love school-for-the-blind teacher, who is blind himself and later becomes her husband. He could easily have had more great roles thereafter, but took more of an interest in writing and producing. Among the shows he worked on behind the scenes were “Night Court,” “Flying Blind,” and “3rd Rock From the Sun.”

He really hit it big, though, with a show based on his own childhood. As a gifted child who was the third of four sons, he saw a lot of opportunity for humor in the dysfunction that could ensue. Originally developed for UPN, it was ultimately passed on and brought to Fox by producer Gail Berman. The show lasted seven seasons, and recently shot a four-episode revival with most of the original cast. You may have heard of it — it’s called “Malcolm in the Middle.”

Born Revoyda Frierson, Ketty Lester had a successful career as a singer long before she was a TV star; her 1962 single “Love Letters” reached No. 5 on the Billboard charts. In the ’70s, she switched to acting, appearing in movies like “Blacula” and “Uptown Saturday Night.” She moved to TV as Helen Grant on “Days of Our Lives” before taking the role of school-for-the-blind teacher Hester-Sue Terhune on “Little House on the Prairie,” where her character frequently challenged the racist perceptions of characters like Harriet Oleson. When the show ended, she appeared as a guest star on the likes of “Quantum Leap” and “L.A. Law.”

A devout Christian, Lester recorded a Gospel album in 1984. In 1994, she was in “House Party 3,” and in 2023, she popped up on ABC’s “Wonder Years” reboot. Now in her 90s as of this writing, Lester remains active on Facebook.

Toward the end of “Little House,” Nellie had become nice, and Harriet was reduced to a comedic foil, so the audience needed someone new to hate. Enter Nancy, Harriet’s replacement adopted daughter. While Nellie had been a snob, Nancy was an actively malicious hellion who richly deserved the humiliation she ultimately received in a carnival dunk tank. Allison Balson portrayed her without a trace of sympathetic characteristics, and Nancy became the new top heel.

She may have done her job too well, as no major roles followed. However, she continues to act and has had some success as a musician and radio star, having produced and hosted the syndicated show “Music Scene Live” for three years. Her last major movie role was in Derek Wayne Johnson’s thriller “Broken Blood.”

For the “Little House on the Prairie” 50th anniversary, she recorded a song about Landon, titled “My Friend.”