Karen Grassle.
Karen Grassle (b. February 25, 1942) (pronounced "grass-lee") is a California born television and theater actress best known for playing Caroline Ingalls, the wife of Charles Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. Grassle's mother was a restaurant manager, and her father managed a gas station.
In an interview, Karen remarked that she loved playing the role of Caroline, she said it made her feel like she was part of a great big family. She graduated from high school in 1959, skipping two grades serving as the student body's vice-president, and she then entered the University of California, Berkeley.
She graduated with 2 BA degrees in 1965, one in English, the other in Dramatic Art. She received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and eventually became head of its Voice Department.
Her first acting job in New York City was in the Gingham Tree, and she began calling herself "Gabriel Tree". Using this name, she auditioned for the role of Caroline, in Little House, and won the part against 47 other actresses. Michael Landon convinced her to revert to her birth name.
She was married to Leon Russom. In 1982, she married J. Allen Radford, and later Dr. Scott T. Sutherland in 1991. After the series ended, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she remained active in theater. She would later become co-founder of Sante Fe's Resource Theatre Company, also serving as the art director. Eventually, she moved back to California, where she lives with her daughter.
In 2006, she played in Driving Miss Daisy in the starring role of Miss Daisy at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Credits
- Love of Life: Bonnie Draper
- Gunsmoke: Fran Carter
- Emily, Emily: Terry
- The President's Mistress: Donna Morton
- Battered: Susannah Hawks
- Crisis in Mid-air: Betsy Culver
- Harry's War: Kathy
- The Love Boat: Paula
- Cocaine: One Man's Seduction: Barbara Gant
- Hotel: Susan Walker
- Between the Darkness and the Dawn: Ellen Foster Holland
- Murder, She Wrote: Fay Hewitt, Christine Stoneham
- Wyatt Earp: Mrs. Sutherland
