The Only Main Actors Still Alive From Little House On The Prairie

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NBC’s classic Western show “Little House on the Prairie” was filmed from 1974 to 1983. During this time, the story of the Ingalls family and their family-friendly toil and trouble won four Emmys and numerous other awards — as well as the hearts of the viewers. Thanks to its lengthy tenure, “Little House on the Prairie” featured an impressive cast of characters for a show that takes place in a small frontier settlement. Famous names like “Arrested Development” and “Ozark” star Jason Bateman (whose first screen acting role was the adopted late-game Ingalls kid, James) visited the titular Plum Creek farm and its neighboring small town of Walnut Grove during the show’s lifetime. However, the series’ main cast remained aboard for so much of its run that its audience came to know their characters the best.

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With its many reruns and overall cultural impact, “Little House on the Prairie” has made its mark in TV history. Nevertheless, the series ended over four decades ago. As such, many of its main actors have already passed away — although a surprising number of them are still with us. Here’s a look at the “Little House on the Prairie” actors who are still alive and what they’ve been up to since the show ended.

The only character to appear in all 204 “Little House on the Prairie” episodes, Melissa Gilbert’s Laura Ingalls — later Laura Ingalls Wilder — is the fictional version of the original author of the “Little House on the Prairie” book series and shares the same name. The second child of the Ingalls family learns to act like a proper lady when needed to, but she’s most comfortable as a mischievous tomboy with a big personality. Her strong, independent nature and preference for the great outdoors make her a perfect pioneer figure and a focal point of a great many episodes. In fact, by the time the ninth and final season arrived, the show was called “Little House: A New Beginning” and focused exclusively on Laura and her husband Almanzo (Dean Butler).

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Gilbert starred on “Little House on the Prairie” throughout the show’s run and was an integral part of the three post-series movie specials that acted as the series’ sendoff. This wasn’t the only mark she would leave on the entertainment industry, though. Gilbert was already an experienced child actor when she joined the show’s cast, and while Laura Ingalls remains her best-known role, she has continued to work until today, appearing in dozens of projects since “Little House” came to an end. Notably, she voiced Batgirl in the classic 1990s “Batman: The Animated Series,” played Kate Delacroy in the legal drama “Sweet Justice,” and appeared as the recurring season 3 character Anna Sheridan in the sci-fi cult classic series “Babylon 5.”

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Behind the scenes, Gilbert is best known for her tenure as the president of the Screen Actors Guild, having served from 2001 to 2005. She has also written multiple books.

Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls (Karen Grassle), like Laura and the rest of the Ingalls family, is a fictionalized version of a real 18th century pioneer. A former teacher who enjoys taking over the Walnut Grove school whenever the opportunity arises, “Ma” Ingalls settles in the area with her husband Charles (Michael Landon) and becomes an integral and tenacious part of the community, acting in support role for many other characters but also having plenty of adventures of her own.

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Grassle made several TV movies when she was still starring on “Little House on the Prairie” and continued to work sporadically in movie and TV productions after the show was over. However, she has maintained a fairly leisurely pace, having only taken a handful of roles since the show was ended and often gone on lengthy breaks between projects. In fact, after playing Mrs. Sutherland in Lawrence Kasdan’s star-studded 1994 Western “Wyatt Earp,” she didn’t reemerge as a screen actor until 2012, when she played Aunt Dorothy in Michael A. Goorjian’s “Tales of Everyday Magic” and “My Greatest Teacher.” Her most recent film role was in the 2021 drama “Not to Forget,” in which she plays the main role of Melody opposite fellow elder Hollywood statespeople Louis Gossett Jr., Cloris Leachman, and Olympia Dukakis.

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Outside screen acting, Grassle is a theatrical actor who has appeared in multiple productions over the decades, including the 1971 Shakespeare adaptation “Tale of Cymbeline” at New York’s Delacorte Theatre — in which she played Imogen opposite the likes of Christopher Walken and Sam Waterston — and a more recent turn as the eponymous Daisy in the 2016 Riverside Center for the Performing Arts production of “Driving Miss Daisy.” Grassle has also written a memoir titled “Bright Lights, Prairie Dust.”

Laura Ingalls’ younger sister Carrie is the third child in the family and starts the series as a pre-schooler. Shy and comparatively childish, her role is not always as pronounced as those of her parents and older siblings, but she’s nevertheless an integral part of the show.

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Carrie’s age could have made the sizable role pretty demanding for a single actor. Fortunately, the show chose to cast identical twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush to play the character. Alternating in the part, the pair played Carrie throughout the character’s eight-season tenure on “Little House on the Prairie.” In one memorable season 5 episode, “The Godsister,” the two even appear on the screen at the same time, with Sidney portraying Carrie and Lindsay playing her imaginary friend, Alyssa.

Neither Lindsay nor Sidney Greenbush remained in the acting business for long after “Little House on the Prairie” was over. The former’s only role after the Western show was a guest star turn in a 1983 episode of the private detective show “Matt Houston,” while the latter’s sole post-“Little House” credit is the 1983 comedy-drama “Hambone and Hillie.”

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A comparatively late addition to the group of core characters, Dean Butler’s Almanzo Wilder first appears in season 6 of “Little House on the Prairie.” Despite his belated arrival, he soon becomes one of the show’s most important characters thanks to his budding relationship with Laura Ingalls. The two eventually marry, and the retitled season 9 of the show sends the Ingalls family to Iowa, where Laura and Almanzo remain the show’s uncontested centerpiece.

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Butler continued acting after “Little House on the Prairie.” Apart from the three farewell specials, he appeared as a guest star in two episodes of “Fantasy Island” and three episodes of “The Love Boat,” playing a different character in each episode. Meanwhile, on the big screen front, he portrayed Darrell in the 1985 romantic drama “Desert Hearts.” His screen appearances became more sporadic after the mid-1990s, but the role younger people may best remember him from hails from this period: Butler played Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Dawn Summers’ (Michelle Trachtenberg, who tragically died in 2025 at 39) father, Hank, on Joss Whedon’s The WB supernatural drama “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

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Apart from acting, Butler has focused on working behind the scenes. From 2011 to 2019, he produced and wrote pro golfer David Feherty’s talk show, “Feherty.”

The eldest child of the Ingalls family and the one others look up to, Mary Ingalls (Melissa Sue Anderson) is a “Little House on the Prairie” mainstay for the show’s first eight seasons. Unlike many other main characters, her departure after season 8 is permanent, and she doesn’t appear in the post-show TV movies. Mary’s inherent composure as a character is necessary since some of her storylines are seriously dark — such as the character going blind as a teenager and later losing her infant child in a fire. Suffice to say, Anderson’s 1978 Emmy nomination for the role was well-deserved.

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Anderson remained busy after her time on “Little House on the Prairie” ended, filming multiple roles a year well into the 1990s. Notably, she became known as major character Yvette Marcel in the “Memories of Manon” and “The Mystery of Manon” arcs of “The Equalizer,” Dulcie Niles in the 1990 horror-comedy “Dead Men Don’t Die,” and First Lady Hollister on the 2006 NBC/USA Network disaster miniseries “10.5: Apocalypse.” Her most recent role was in the 2018 Uma Thurman-Tim Roth comedy “The Con is On.” 

Anderson lives in Canada with her family, and she became a naturalized citizen in July 2007. Like many of her colleagues from the show, she has written a “Little House on the Prairie”-themed autobiography titled “The Way I See It: A Look Back at My Life on Little House.” 

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