Jonathan Gilbert

Once upon a time, before the advent of the Internet, video games, and texting, the medium of TV had the capacity to dominate the popular conversation the way movies did before the advent of television. In the 1970's and early 1980's, a large cross-section of America was enamored of Michael Landon's TV series "Little House on the Prairie," in which actor Jonathan Gilbert played the part of Willie Oleson. Gilbert was cast in part because he is the real-life brother of series star Melissa Gilbert. But despite that family connection, he was not part of her "Little House" family the Ingalls but part of the neighboring Oleson clan. While his sister kept acting after the end of the NBC TV series and eventually served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, that was not the case for brother Gilbert. After a farewell movie in 1984, he chose to move on to other pursuits.