The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Little House On The Prairie actress Katherine Macgregor
Katherine Macgregor, who played petty, gossiping mother Harriet Oleson in TV’S Little House On The Prairie, has died aged 93.
Macgregor died at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement community in Los Angeles, her representative Tony Sears said.
While her nasty daughter Nellie Oleson was the character viewers most loved to hate on the US show that ran from 1974 to 1983, her cruel, greedy mother Harriet Oleson was just as awful.
They stood in contrast to the warm, loving members of the Ingalls family who were the show’s focus, and often the Olesons’ targets.
William Shatner called California-born Macgregor “deliciously wicked” on the show.
She began as a dancer in New York before shifting to acting, studying under renowned teacher Sanford Meisner.
Her screen career consisted of small film roles and TV guest spots before she landed on Little House On The Prairie, based on a beloved book series that author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her childhood.
Macgregor would stay for the show’s entire run along with actors Michael Landon, the show’s star who died in 1991, and Melissa Gilbert, who played a young Laura Ingalls.
“She was outspoken and hilariously funny,” Gilbert said on social media.
“A truly gifted actress as she was able to play a despicable character but with so much heart. Her Harriet Oleson was the woman our fans loved to hate. A perfect antagonist.”
Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson, said Macgregor “had an extremely long and full life and is at peace ... we will all miss her”.