Katherine MacGregor

Katherine MacGregor

Born: January 12, 1925
Died: November 13, 2018
in Glendale, California, USA
Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor (born Dorlee Deane McGregor; January 12, 1925 – November 14, 2018) was an American actress, best known for her role as Harriet Oleson in Little House on the Prairie.

Katherine MacGregor was born Dorlee Deane McGregor on January 12, 1925, in Glendale, California, to Ralph S. McGregor and Beatrice E. Willard. When Katherine was a child, her mother Beatrice moved the family to Fort Collins, Colorado, where they lived most of Katherine's early life. She graduated from Northwestern University with a major in drama and moved to New York City in 1949. She was hired by the Arthur Murray Dance Studios as a dance instructor. She studied acting under N. Richard Nash, Sanford Meisner, and Stella Adler. She did summer stock in Lebanon, Pennsylvania as Dorlee Deane McGregor but switched to using the stage name Scottie MacGregor as her acting career advanced. When she adopted the use of Katherine as her given name is unclear but she switched from using ‘Scottie’ as she matured in age on the advice of her manager.

Beginning in the 1950s, as Scottie MacGregor, she worked in theatre on and off Broadway in New York City and other locations in plays such as The Seven Year Itch and Handful of Fire, and won such uncredited parts as "a longshoreman's mother" (On the Waterfront); "Alice Thorn" (The Traveling Executioner), and "Miss Boswell" (The Student Nurses). She appeared in numerous episodes of various television series: Love of Life (1956), The Secret Storm, The Nurses, Play of the Week (1959), East Side/West Side (1963), Mannix (1970–71), Emergency! (1972), Ironside (1972, 1974), and All in the Family (1973), as well as the two 1981 "Heroes vs. Villains" episodes of Family Feud hosted by Richard Dawson. She had roles in the TV movies, The Death of Me Yet (1971), The Girls of Huntington House (1973), and Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974).

MacGregor's best-known role was from 1974 to 1983 in NBC's Little House on the Prairie as Harriet Oleson, the general store owner's wife and a comedic part. MacGregor's favorite description of her character in Little House came in a fan letter from Minnesota in the 1970s, in which Mrs. Oleson was described as "the touch of pepper in the sweetness of the show". In 1979, due to the popularity of Little House in Spain, MacGregor was invited to Madrid, Spain, and appeared on RTVE's 625 Lineas and Ding Dong La Cocina programs.

After Little House on the Prairie, she withdrew from screen productions in favor of local theater. She dedicated herself to the Hindu religion, and to teaching acting to children at the Wee Hollywood Vedanta Players, before finally retiring in the early 2000s. In 2014, she did an in-depth interview about her life and career for the book Prairie Memories by Patrick Loubatiere.

She was married to actor Bert Remsen from 1949 to 1950 and to actor, director, and teacher Edward G. Kaye-Martin, 14 years her junior, from August 1969 to October 1970. She had no children.

While recovering from alcoholism, MacGregor converted to Hinduism. She was unable to appear in the series finale of Little House on the Prairie, because she was on a pilgrimage to India at the time of the episode's filming.

MacGregor died on November 14, 2018, at the age of 93, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. No cause was given.

Movies for Katherine MacGregor...

Title: Little House on the Prairie
Character: Harriet Olson
Released: September 11, 1974
Type: TV
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, and Karen Grassle, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s.
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Title: Little House on the Prairie
Character: Harriet Oleson
Released: September 11, 1974
Type: TV
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, and Karen Grassle, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s.
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Amy Prentiss
Title: Amy Prentiss
Character: Irma (as Scottie MacGregor)
Released: May 23, 1974
Type: Movie
A hardworking San Francisco police woman aspires to the position of Chief of Police. Though up against a lot of resistance from the all-male establishment, she has a staunch supporter in the form of former chief.
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Tell Me Where It Hurts
Title: Tell Me Where It Hurts
Character: Marge
Released: March 12, 1974
Type: Movie
A housewife, increasingly disenchanted with her homemaker role, looks for new meaning in her life and organizes a discussion group, changing the lives of her six closest friends.
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The Girls of Huntington House
Title: The Girls of Huntington House
Character: Rose Beckwith
Released: February 15, 1973
Type: Movie
An unmarried teacher in a school for unwed mothers finds herself becoming too emotionally attached to her students and their problems.
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Title: Emergency!
Released: January 22, 1972
Type: TV
The crew of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51, particularly the paramedic team, and Rampart Hospital respond to emergencies in their operating area.
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The Death of Me Yet
Title: The Death of Me Yet
Character: Nora Queen
Released: October 26, 1971
Type: Movie
The editor of a small-town newspaper has his past unexpectedly catch up with him: he finds out that a Soviet agent who knew him when he was a spy has been sent to the U.S. to kill him.
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Title: All in the Family
Character: Nurse
Released: January 12, 1971
Type: TV
Archie Bunker, a working class bigot, constantly squabbles with his family over the important issues of the day.
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The Student Nurses
Title: The Student Nurses
Character: Miss Boswell (as Scottie MacGregor)
Released: December 2, 1970
Type: Movie
Follows the lives of a group of young nurses in Los Angeles, including a nurse who joins a band of revolutionaries, and one who finds herself succumbing to drugs.
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The Traveling Executioner
Title: The Traveling Executioner
Character: Alice Thorn (uncredited)
Released: October 1, 1970
Type: Movie
Jonas Candide performs his job as state executioner in early 20th century Mississippi like a combination preacher and carnival barker, persuading condemned men to accept their deaths before electrocuting them on his electric chair. After he's assigned his first woman to execute, however, Jonas' sense of purpose is shaken.
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Title: Mannix
Released: September 16, 1967
Type: TV
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.
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Title: Ironside
Released: March 28, 1967
Type: TV
When an assassin's bullet confines him to a wheelchair for life ending his career as Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside becomes a consultant to the police department. Detective Sergeant Ed Brown and policewoman Eve Whitfield join with him to crack varied and fascinating cases. Ex-con Mark Sanger is employed by the chief as home help but eventually becomes a fully fledged member of the team also. Officer Whitfield leaves after 4 years service, and is replaced by Officer Fran Belding.
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Title: Play of the Week
Character: Maria
Released: October 12, 1959
Type: TV
This syndicated anthology series staged a different play every week covering all genres, dramas, comedies, musicals, fantasies, mysteries, et al, utilizing some of the best talent appearing on Broadway.
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On the Waterfront
Title: On the Waterfront
Character: Longshoreman's Mother (uncredited)
Released: June 22, 1954
Type: Movie
A dim-witted yet kind-hearted boxer, Terry Malloy, who failed to succeed unintentionally lures a man to his death after being tricked by a criminal called Johnny Friendly whose men pick of every man who has the courage to speak up to their crimes. As he works on the waterfronts that Friendly owns, he is sent to a church meeting run by a good preacher about how to deal with the problem and runs into the dead man’s sister. Slowly, he falls in love with her and begins to feel guilt about his crime.