Picture the opening credits: three girls running down a grassy hill toward the camera while that swelling piano theme plays. Little House on the Prairie premiered on NBC in 1974 and ran for nine seasons, through 1983, followed by three TV movies that closed the story of Walnut Grove. Based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about her own pioneer childhood, Michael Landon turned it into appointment television for families who watched together.
More than 50 years later, the Little House on the Prairie cast looks very different. The grown-ups who ran the mercantile, the church, and the doctor’s office are gone. Many of the children who grew up on that set are still here, and one of them walked back onto a prairie set in 2026. Here is the answer, member by member, starting with the stars we have lost.
Is Karl Swenson still alive?
Karl Swenson played Lars Hanson, the kindly mill owner who founded Walnut Grove. He appeared in 40 episodes from 1974 to 1978. He also voiced Merlin in Disney’s The Sword in the Stone in 1963.
No. Swenson died of a heart attack in Torrington, Connecticut, on October 8, 1978. He was 70. The episode in which Lars Hanson dies aired eight days later, a coincidence that haunted the cast for months. Swenson was the first major cast member lost, and the next loss would come from the man Landon trusted most.
Is Victor French still alive?
Victor French played Isaiah Edwards, the gruff, big-hearted mountain man the Ingalls girls adored. He also directed episodes of the show. He left from 1977 to 1979 to star in Carter Country, then returned to Walnut Grove in 1981. Landon cast him again as Mark Gordon on Highway to Heaven, which ran from 1984 to 1989, and French directed 12 of its episodes.
No. French died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989, at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 54. According to Hello! Magazine, he died about three months after his diagnosis. His son Victor French Jr. died in April 2026 at 63. “Victor was just a very sweet, good man,” Dean Butler wrote of the son on Instagram, as reported by Parade. The rest of French’s story is just as tender. Two years after French died, his best friend on the show was gone too.
Is Michael Landon still alive?
Michael Landon, born Eugene Maurice Orowitz in Queens, was already famous as Little Joe on Bonanza when he became Charles Ingalls. On Little House, he was the star and the guiding force behind the camera. He followed it with Highway to Heaven. His final project was the CBS pilot Us, which he wrote, directed and starred in.
No. Landon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 1991 and died at his home in Malibu on July 1, 1991. He was 54. Britannica and Wikipedia both record that he died about three months after the diagnosis. He left behind nine children. The town doctor who treated half of Walnut Grove outlived him by 14 years.
Is Kevin Hagen still alive?
Kevin Hagen played Dr. Hiram Baker, the town doctor everyone called Doc Baker. He appeared in more than 100 episodes and three TV movies. In 1992 he moved to Grants Pass, Oregon, and kept acting on local stages.
No. Hagen died of esophageal cancer at his home in Grants Pass on July 9, 2005. He was 77. The Associated Press, via the Seattle Times, reported that he had been diagnosed a year earlier. Walnut Grove’s preacher would follow two years later.
Is Dabbs Greer still alive?
Dabbs Greer played Reverend Robert Alden in 76 episodes from 1974 to 1983 and returned for two of the TV movies. He never stopped working. He played another minister on Picket Fences, and in his early 80s he played the elderly Paul Edgecomb in The Green Mile (1999).
No. Greer died of kidney and heart disease on April 28, 2007, in a Pasadena hospital, according to Fox News. He was 90. The next loss was a man better known for sacking quarterbacks.
Is Merlin Olsen still alive?
Merlin Olsen played Jonathan Garvey, a farmer and Charles’s close friend, in 51 episodes from 1977 to 1981. He was already a legend with the Los Angeles Rams’ “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line. He then headlined his own NBC series, Father Murphy, which ran from 1981 to 1983. He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
No. Olsen was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2009 and died at City of Hope in Duarte, California, on March 11, 2010. He was 69. The Deseret News and Wikipedia both confirm the date. Over at the mercantile, Walnut Grove’s most patient husband lived to 89.
Is Richard Bull still alive?
Richard Bull played Nels Oleson, the long-suffering owner of Oleson’s Mercantile, in 147 episodes. Viewers of the 1960s knew him first as “Doc” on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He was married to actress Barbara Collentine from 1948 until his death.
No. Bull died of complications from pneumonia in Calabasas, California, on February 3, 2014. He was 89. In the Associated Press obituary carried by CBS News, Alison Arngrim remembered him as calm and sensible, just like Nels. His TV wife outlived him by four years.
Is Katherine MacGregor still alive?
Katherine MacGregor played Harriet Oleson, the town’s loudest gossip, in 153 episodes across all nine seasons. Before that, she worked on the New York stage under the name Scottie MacGregor and had an uncredited part in On the Waterfront. After the show, she turned to her Hindu faith and taught acting to children with the Wee Hollywood Vedanta Players.
No. MacGregor died in Woodland Hills, California, on November 13, 2018. She was 93. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed her death through a spokeswoman. That is where the losses end. Every remaining member of this main cast is still with us, starting with Harriet’s on-screen son.
Is Jonathan Gilbert still alive?
Jonathan Gilbert played Willie Oleson, Nellie’s bratty little brother, from 1974 to 1983. He is the adopted son of actors Paul Gilbert and Barbara Cowen, which makes him the brother of Melissa Gilbert. He walked away from acting after the show and became a stockbroker.
Yes. Jonathan Gilbert was born on April 28, 1967, and is 59. He keeps a very low profile. Wikipedia, citing Melissa’s memoir, says he lives in New York City and that the siblings have not been close since he left California at 18. The next Ingalls child on our list chose a microphone booth over Wall Street.
Is Matthew Labyorteaux still alive?
Matthew Labyorteaux joined in 1978 as Albert, the orphan Charles and Caroline adopted. He stayed until 1983 and then starred as computer whiz Richie Adler on CBS’s Whiz Kids. As an adult he moved mostly into voice work, including Jaden Yuki on Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. In 1992 he and his older brother Patrick, also a Little House actor, founded the Youth Rescue Fund to help young people in crisis.
Yes. Labyorteaux was born on December 8, 1966, and is 59. “I was a shy, shy kid. I had my animals. I really didn’t know that I was popular,” he told Page Six in 2021, as quoted by Nicki Swift in August 2026. His life after Albert stayed mostly out of the spotlight. The youngest Ingalls sister was played by two people, and both are still here.
Are Lindsay & Sidney Greenbush still alive?
Twins Rachel Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush shared the role of Carrie Ingalls, the toddler who tumbled down that hill in the opening credits. They played her from 1974 to 1982 and then retired from acting.
Yes. The twins were born on May 25, 1970, and are 56. According to the official Little House website, Sidney competed in Women’s Pro Rodeo and has stayed active in the equestrian world. Lindsay has worked with horse trainers and served on the board of A Minor Consideration, Paul Petersen’s nonprofit for former child actors. Both returned for the show’s 50th anniversary celebration in Simi Valley. Laura’s future husband came along later than the girls, and he just hit a milestone birthday.
Is Dean Butler still alive?
Dean Butler joined in 1979 as Almanzo Wilder and stayed through the final season and three TV movies. He went on to The New Gidget and played Buffy’s father, Hank Summers, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Behind the camera, he produced two Little House documentaries and the bonus features for the show’s DVD sets. In 2024, he published his memoir, Prairie Man: My Little House Life & Beyond.
Yes. Butler was born on May 20, 1956, and turned 70 this year. He still turns up at cast reunions and shares memories of the set with fans online. Laura’s older sister, meanwhile, made a whole new life in another country.
Is Melissa Sue Anderson still alive?
Melissa Sue Anderson was 11 when she was cast as Mary Ingalls. Mary’s blindness storyline earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination in 1978, and she left the series in 1981. She later starred in the slasher Happy Birthday to Me. Her 2010 memoir is The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.
Yes. Anderson was born on September 26, 1962, and turned 64 last month. She has lived in Montreal since 2002 and became a Canadian citizen in 2007. According to Hello! Magazine, her husband of 35 years, producer Michael Sloan, died in August 2025. Later that year she reconnected with Melissa Gilbert. Her daughter Piper looks remarkably like her. Ma Ingalls, meanwhile, is now the oldest surviving member of the main cast.
Is Karen Grassle still alive?
Karen Grassle played Caroline Ingalls, the steady heart of the family. She trained in London, worked on stage before the show and returned to theater after it. In her 2021 memoir, Bright Lights, Prairie Dust, she wrote about her drinking during the show’s early years and her bitter pay dispute with Landon. The two made peace before he died.
Yes. Grassle was born on February 25, 1942, and is 84. She once pitched a storyline in which Caroline cracked under the strain of prairie life. As she told Entertainment Weekly in 2025 (republished by AOL), the producers “didn’t want Caroline to have a nervous breakdown.” Her TV daughter Laura has had a busy, complicated 2026.
Is Melissa Gilbert still alive?
Melissa Gilbert was not yet 9 when she was cast as Laura Ingalls, and she carried the show for nine seasons. She later played Helen Keller in the 1979 TV movie The Miracle Worker, opposite Patty Duke.
Yes. Gilbert was born on May 8, 1964, and is 62. After two seasons as investigator Georgie McGill on Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart, she told fans in July 2026 that she would not return. “The answer to that is no I will not,” she wrote, according to Entertainment Now. This year she also learned she has older biological brothers, a family discovery that rewrote her own life story. One of her old castmates went further in 2026 and actually stepped back into the prairie.
Is Alison Arngrim still alive?
Alison Arngrim played Nellie Oleson, the most gloriously hated girl on 1970s television. After her TV husband Steve Tracy died of AIDS-related complications in 1986, she became an AIDS awareness activist. She also speaks for PROTECT, a child abuse prevention group. Her 2010 memoir is Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.
Yes. Arngrim was born on January 18, 1962, and is 64. And here is the twist: she is in Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie. She does not play Nellie. In the second episode of the 2026 reboot, she plays Ida, a strange woman in the woods whom Laura and Mary meet while searching for a friend. She told Fox News she got about two weeks’ notice. Makeup painted her teeth for the part, and she joked that her dentist “is going to be horrified.” Her advice for Willa Dunn, who takes over Nellie in season 2, is to “brace herself.” Then she added, “if she really does it right, they’ll love her too.” Arngrim also repeated something Landon used to say: “‘Little House’ is never going away.” Her cameo proved him right.
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