On New Year’s Day 1993, CBS introduced viewers to a Boston doctor who packed her bag and headed west to Colorado Springs. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman became a Saturday night ritual for families who wanted a Western with a heart. William Olvis wrote the sweeping theme. Beth Sullivan created the show, and it ran for six seasons and 150 episodes before its finale on May 16, 1998.
Fans were not ready to let go. Two TV movies followed in 1999 and 2001, and the Dr. Quinn cast has stayed close ever since. Some of them have even talked about a reunion fans have been hoping for. Nearly 30 years after the last episode, here is what happened to the people who brought the town to life, and which of them are still with us.
Is Orson Bean Still Alive?
Orson Bean played Loren Bray, the gruff owner of the general store who slowly softened toward Michaela. Before the show, he was a familiar face from game shows like To Tell the Truth. His career stayed busy afterward. He played the eccentric Dr. Lester in Being John Malkovich in 1999, then charmed a new generation as Roy Bender on Desperate Housewives from 2009 to 2012.
Sadly, Bean died on February 7, 2020, at age 91. According to CBS Los Angeles, he was struck by a car while crossing Venice Boulevard and then hit by a second vehicle. The Hollywood Reporter also reported his death. He had been on his way to see his wife of 27 years, The Wonder Years actress Alley Mills, perform in a play at the Pacific Resident Theatre.
Is Larry Sellers Still Alive?
Larry Sellers played Cloud Dancing, the Cheyenne medicine man who became Michaela’s friend and teacher. Sellers was born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, on October 2, 1949, and he was Osage with Cherokee and Lakota roots. Off camera, he taught the Osage language and served as a ceremonial leader in his community. His final film role came in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which was released after his death.
Sellers died in December 2021 at age 72, as reported by the Osage News and a Post and Courier obituary. No cause of death was made public. Jane Seymour paid tribute on Instagram, calling him “truly the heart and spirit of Dr. Quinn.”
Is Barbara Babcock Still Alive?
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Barbara Babcock played Dorothy Jennings, the town’s newspaper editor. The part earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1995. She had already won an Emmy in 1981 for playing Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues.
After the series, she appeared in Space Cowboys in 2000 and played Diane McCarty on Judging Amy. Babcock stepped away from acting in 2004, the year she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, according to IMDb and Wikipedia. She is still alive at 89, having been born on February 27, 1937.
Is Henry G. Sanders Still Alive?
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Henry G. Sanders played Robert E., the town blacksmith. Long before Colorado Springs, he starred in Charles Burnett’s landmark 1978 film Killer of Sheep. His later work kept him in demand. He played Cager Lee in Ava DuVernay’s Selma, then spent years as Prosper Denton on her series Queen Sugar, which ran from 2016 to 2022.
Sanders was born on August 18, 1942, in Houston, Texas, which makes him 84 today. His credits also include Rocky Balboa and Whiplash.
Is Jonelle Allen Still Alive?
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Jonelle Allen played Grace, the businesswoman who ran the town café. She came to the show with serious stage credentials. Allen made her Broadway debut at age six, and in 1972 she earned a Tony nomination for the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona.
She reprised Grace in the 1999 TV movie. More recently, she joined the audio drama Forever and a Day in 2020. Wikipedia and IMDb both list her birth date as July 8, 1948, so she is 78.
Is Jim Knobeloch Still Alive?
Jim Knobeloch played Jake Slicker, a role he took over from Colm Meaney after the pilot. He has a personal tie to the show, too. Knobeloch was once married to Beth Sullivan, the creator of Dr. Quinn.
In 2001 he moved to Australia, where he has lived and worked ever since. He played a U.S. Secretary of Defense on the prison drama Wentworth in 2020 and has done voice work on Smiling Friends. Born March 18, 1950, in Belleville, Illinois, he is 76.
Is Frank Collison Still Alive?
Frank Collison played Horace Bing, the lovelorn telegraph operator. Movie fans also know him as Wash Hogwallop in the Coen brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? He voices Grandpa Goodman on the animated series Mr. Pickles.
Collison is a founding member of the Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice, California. That is the same stage Orson Bean was heading toward on the night he died. Collison was born on February 14, 1950, in Evanston, Illinois, and he is 76.
Is Helene Udy Still Alive?
Helene Udy played Myra, who found love with Horace. She was part of the show for its first four seasons and returned as a guest in season five. Before Dr. Quinn, she appeared in The Dead Zone, and she later guest-starred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Udy is alive and has kept working in independent films. She has also produced and directed plays in Los Angeles. Published sources disagree on whether she was born in 1961 or 1962, so she is in her early to mid 60s.
Is Geoffrey Lower Still Alive?
Geoffrey Lower played Reverend Timothy Johnson in 113 episodes and returned for the 1999 TV movie. He trained at the Juilliard School. Sitcom fans may also remember him as Alan, Monica’s boyfriend in an early episode of Friends.
Away from the camera, Lower picked up a second trade. He has worked as a carpenter and general contractor. He was born March 19, 1963, in Casper, Wyoming, and he is 63.
Is Jason Leland Adams Still Alive?
Jason Leland Adams had two roles on the show. He first played General George Armstrong Custer, then returned as the smooth banker Preston A. Lodge III from 1995 until the end. He also led the series Vanishing Son.
Adams has focused on theater since. He co-founded the Evidence Room theater company in Los Angeles in 1994 and has designed sets for dozens of productions. He was born in 1963 and is 63.
Is William Shockley Still Alive?
William Shockley played Hank Lawson, the saloon owner who loved to stir up trouble, in 120 episodes. His film credits include RoboCop and Showgirls.
The Western never left him. In 2025, Shockley wrote and directed his first feature, Long Shadows, starring Dermot Mulroney and Jacqueline Bisset. Film Threat reviewed it when it reached theaters. Shockley was born on September 17, 1963, in Lawrence, Kansas, which makes him 63.
Is Shawn Toovey Still Alive?
Shawn Toovey grew up on screen as Brian Cooper, the youngest of the three orphans Michaela took in. The role earned him four Young Artist Awards. He returned for both TV movies, then stepped away from acting after 2001.
Toovey went home to Nebraska. A 2016 profile in the Omaha World-Herald found him working at the Omaha Children’s Museum. He was born March 1, 1983, in Lincoln, Nebraska, and he is 43.
Are Erika Flores and Jessica Bowman Still Alive?
Two actresses played Colleen Cooper. Erika Flores had the role first, in 59 episodes, and left in the middle of season three. A CBS spokeswoman told the Deseret News in 1995 that her exit was “by mutual agreement and that they honored her request to leave the show.” Flores’s last role came in a 2009 episode of House. Born November 2, 1979, she is 46.
Jessica Bowman took over Colleen for the rest of the run and came back for the 2001 TV movie. She went on to appear in Joy Ride with Paul Walker and in 50 First Dates. She told Hello! magazine, “I left acting because I felt like I had been doing it for so long that I didn’t know anything else.” Today she and her husband own restaurant franchises. Hello! puts her age at 45.
Is Chad Allen Still Alive?
Chad Allen played Matthew Cooper, the oldest of the Cooper children. He was already a veteran child actor, with work on St. Elsewhere and Our House. Later, he starred as detective Donald Strachey in a run of TV movies starting in 2005.
In April 2015, Allen retired from acting to become a psychologist. He earned a doctorate in psychology from Antioch University New England. According to Antioch’s alumni magazine, he works as a clinician at a residential treatment center for young adults and lives in rural Vermont. Born June 5, 1974, he is 52.
Is Joe Lando Still Alive?
Joe Lando played Byron Sully, the quiet mountain man who won Michaela’s heart. He came to the role from One Life to Live. After the series, he starred in and produced Higher Ground in 2000, and he played Judge McMullen on The Bold and the Beautiful.
His bond with his co-star runs deep. After Lando’s family lost their Pacific Palisades home in the January 2025 fires, Jane Seymour took them in. In 2026, he joined her on season five of Harry Wild as a state pathologist. “We knew that everyone gets excited when Joe Lando and I join up,” Seymour told TheWrap. Lando was born December 9, 1961, and he is 64.
Is Jane Seymour Still Alive?
Jane Seymour carried the show as Dr. Michaela Quinn, and the role won her a Golden Globe in 1996. She also met her fourth husband, director James Keach, through the series. The couple married in 1993 and welcomed twin sons in 1995 before divorcing in 2015.
Seymour is 75, born on February 15, 1951, and she is busier than ever. She stars in Harry Wild on Acorn TV and has pushed to bring Dr. Quinn back. She also has a wedding to plan. According to TV Insider, musician and former ER doctor John Zambetti proposed on Valentine’s Day 2026. Seymour confirmed the news at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony on June 11, 2026, as The Express Tribune reported. It will be her fifth marriage.