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Katherine MacGregor, who played the petty, gossiping Harriet Oleson on the long-running television series “Little House on the Prairie,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. She was 93.
Her death, at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement community, was confirmed by a representative, Tony Sears.
While the nasty Nellie Oleson (played by Alison Arngrim) was the character viewers most loved to hate on “Little House,” which was seen on NBC from 1974 to 1983, her cruel, greedy mother, Harriet, was just as awful, never missing a chance at small-town social climbing or petty backbiting.
The Olesons stood in contrast to the warm, loving members of the Ingalls family, who were the show’s focus and often the Olesons’ targets.
Ms. MacGregor was born in Glendale, Calif., on Jan. 12, 1925. She worked as a dance instructor in New York before studying acting with Sanford Meisner and other teachers.
Her screen career consisted of small film roles and television guest spots before she landed on “Little House on the Prairie,” the beloved series based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about her childhood.
Ms. MacGregor remained with the show for its entire run, as did Michael Landon, the show’s star, who died in 1991 at 54, and Melissa Gilbert, who played the young Laura Ingalls.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, Ms. Gilbert called Ms. MacGregor “a truly gifted actress, as she was able to play a despicable character but with so much heart.”
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