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Katherine MacGregor (born Dorlee Deane McGregor; January 12, 1925 – November 13, 2018) was an American actress who portrayed Harriet Oleson in Little House on the Prairie. She started her career on stage in New York City, in theatres off and on Broadway, credited as Scottie MacGregor.
Biography
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.
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,
The 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).
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, and was still credited for her film and television roles
as Scottie MacGregor until an early 1974 two-hour episode of Ironside (which
served as pilot for the short-lived Amy Prentiss).
Her first screen credit as Katherine MacGregor, and her
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 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.
Personal life and
death
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 13, 2018, at the Motion Picture
& Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles at
the age of 93.
Filmography
1954 On the
Waterfront Longshoreman's Mother Uncredited
1956 Love of Life Tammy Forrest #1 Unknown episodes
1959 Play of the
Week Maria Episode - "The Power and the Glory"
1963 East
Side/West Side Grace Morrison Episode - "Go Fight City Hall"
1970 The
Traveling Executioner Alice
Thorn Uncredited
Mannix Nurse Evans Episode - "The World Between"
The Student Nurses Miss
Boswell
1971 The Young
Lawyers Mrs. Brady Episode - "The Bradbury War"
The Death of Me Yet Nora
Queen TV movie
Mannix Nurse Episode - "Run Till Dark"
1972 Ironside Mrs. Pyle Episode - "Programmed
for Panic"
Emergency! Myrna
Scudder Episode - "Musical Mania"
1973 The Girls of
Huntington House Rose Beckwith TV movie
All in the Family Nurse Episode - "Edith's Christmas Story"
1974 Tell Me
Where It Hurts Marge TV movie
Ironside Irma Episode - "Amy Prentiss" (Parts 1 & 2)
1974–1983 Little
House on the Prairie Harriet
Oleson 153 episodes
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