Lorne Greene, a big Canadian-born actor who played the head of the Cartwright family in the western series “Bonanza” for many years, died yesterday in Santa Monica, California, from problems with his lungs. He was 72 years old.
During the 1960s, “Bonanza,” which was set on the made-up Ponderosa Ranch, was a regular part of American life. The show made Mr. Greene famous all over the world and made him a lot of money.
Officials at Saint John’s Hospital say that Mr. Greene died at 12:14 p.m. His condition had changed a lot since he had surgery for a perforated ulcer in his abdomen on August 19. He got pneumonia while he was getting better.
Last weekend, he got better enough to leave the intensive care unit. On Thursday, his condition got worse, so he went back to intensive care. His secretary said that when he died, his wife and children were with him.
This fall, in a TV movie called “Bonanza: The Next Generation,” he was to play Ben Cartwright, the head of the Ponderosa, again. Mr. Greene was born in Ottawa to a mother who wanted him to become a concert violinist and a father who made orthopedic shoes.
After acting and directing as a student at Queen’s University, he went to New York to study acting for two years. When he got back to Canada, he worked in theatre and radio. He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.
After becoming one of the best newsreaders in Canada, he went back to New York to sell a stopwatch for newsreaders that he had invented. After getting a TV part, he went on to act on Broadway and in six Hollywood movies before getting the part of Ben Cartwright on “Bonanza.”
Lorne Green’s death was linked to the tragic TV show Bonanza.
After the show Bonanza ended, there was never a real get-together. During the show’s run, Dan Blocker died, Pernell Roberts didn’t want anything to do with it, and Michael Landon moved on to bigger shows like Little House on the Prairie.
Lorne Greene lived a long life and worked as an actor for more than ten years after the show ended. In fact, he became well-known for his work on the TV shows Battlestar Galactica and Code Red.
But the idea of bringing back Bonanza grew in the 1980s, and Greene liked it.
In 1987, he agreed to play “Ben” in Bonanza: The Next Generation, a TV movie about the children of the original “Cartwrights.” Sadly, a terrible event put an end to this exciting plan. Lorne Greene died not long after he agreed to be in the movie.
Read More:
Kevin Greene’s Cause of Death: The Sudden Demise of A Professional Football Player.!
What killed Lorne Greene at age 72?
The actor had surgery for an ulcer, but afterward, he got pneumonia. On September 11, 1987, he died because of complications from pneumonia. He was 72. And it looks like he was just a few weeks away from riding again as “Ben Cartwright.” The movie was shot that fall, and it came out in March 1988.
Instead, Bonanza: The Next Generation added “Aaron Cartwright,” Ben Cartwright’s brother. The part was played by John Ireland. There were no other original Bonanza stars in the movie, but Michael Landon Jr. was in it, and Lorne Greene’s daughter Gillian had a small part.
“Bonanza” was innovative in more than one way.
Bonanza was the first color western show to be shown on TV. It was also one of the longest western shows ever. It ran from 1959 to 1973, which is longer than any other Western show except for Gunsmoke. 14 years on the air is a long time for any type of TV show.
And Bonanza could have gone on longer if the cast hadn’t had a real-life tragedy.
Adam, the oldest son of the Cartwrights, was played by Pernell Roberts. Roberts left the show in 1965, but Bonanza didn’t lose any viewers because of it. Even though there were only two Cartwright sons left, their big personalities and the problems they had running the ranch kept the drama going.
The man who played Hoss, the middle Cartwright, died in 1962. Without Hoss, played by Dan Blocker, the show was ruined. It stopped airing just one year later. After Bonanza ended, there were many spin-offs and prequels for decades, some of which starred the real children of the Bonanza cast.
The legacy of Bonanza will last much longer than the show itself or even the actors who were in it. The two actors who were on Bonanza the longest were buried very close to each other.
