Series star Melissa Gilbert has had a dream Hollywood career. Following Little House, she’s starred in numerous films and television projects since, including a memorable run on Dancing With The Stars. On top of that, she’s written a series of children’s books. She’s also flirted with a political career, though a back injury curtailed a proposed run at a congressional seat.
While Dean Butler did find some acting success after playing Laura Ingalls’ husband Almanzo, with notable guest-shots on The Love Boat, Murder She Wrote, and stage roles in West Side Story and Into The Woods, his true calling has been behind the camera. In addition to producing a series entitled Fleherty for The Golf Channel, he’s made two documentaries about the real-life Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder.
Richard Bull began his long-running acting career as a stage performer in his native Chicago. After working for over five decades, notably on Little House and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Bull passed away in 2014, after spending the last several years of his life in the Chicago Motion Picture Television Fund Campus.
Melora Hardin has had a wildly successful TV career since the end of her run on Little House. She played Jan on the U.S. version of The Office, Trudy on the long-running series Monk, and recently won an Emmy for her work on Transparent. On top of that she also has a music career, releasing several albums and playing Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway.
Despite massive success, Patricia Neal lived a tragic life. She had iconic parts in The Day the Earth Stood Still,__ Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and an Oscar-winning performance in Hud. __However, she went through numerous personal hardships: a troubled marriage to Ronald Dahl; her infant son receiving brain damage in a freak car accident; the death of another of their children due to measles; and multiple strokes that severely impacted her quality of life. Neal fought on for many years, before succumbing to lung cancer in 2010.
