cult film freak: CHARACTER ACTOR RICHARD BULL PASSES AWAY

Written by James M. Tate / 2/04/2014 / 1 Comment / richard bull , tribute

CHARACTER ACTOR RICHARD BULL PASSES AWAY

2/04/2014 | 1 Comment

Richard Bull in THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR

A good percentage of LITTLE HOUSE AND THE PRAIRIE fanatics will tell you the most intriguing characters aren't the hard-working, focal point Ingalls clan, but the peripheral Oleson family...

While Katherine MacGregor's Harriet Oleson gets most of the memorable lines, she'd be nothing without her patient, kindhearted hubbie Nels, played by character-actor RICHARD BULL, who appeared as a bank booth guard in the Steve McQueen heist film THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR a few years prior...

On LITTLE HOUSE

And in the photo to the left, Richard's vacant, foiled expression, motivated by a loaded gun to his head, isn't much different than whenever he dealt with Harriet's perpetual bickering on LITTLE HOUSE. Nels Oleson epitomized the henpecked victim of a marriage that seemed to have lasted forever, and ever and ever and ever... And although he tried his very best to tame those two spoiled kids, Nellie and Willie, his punishments were short lived: Harriet might have been an antagonizing bully to the townsfolk, but to her children she was always the "good cop" during times of much-needed discipline.

Even though the husband/wife duo, who ran Walnut Grove's mercantile... that would continue to prosper even while the farmers struggled... were always at each other's throats, there was a unique, lived-in quality that gave the impression, through better or worse, the couple would remain together till the end.

Share This Post :

Tags : richard bull , tribute

James M. Tate

1 comment:

UnknownFebruary 4, 2014 at 2:50 PM
You know, as difficult as Harriet Oleson could be, deep down, they loved one another very much. Richard and Scottie did a wonderful job together as Nels and Harriet...and in the end, they stand out just as much as the Ingalls themselves.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)THE FEARMAKERS 3)CANYON PASSAGE 4)HOT CARS 5)THE CROWDED SKY 6)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 7)VIOLENT SATURDAY 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE 10)HELL IS A CITY 11))ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)SHARKS' TREASURE 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)HARDCORE 15)FRENZY 16)THE SYSTEM 17)WHITE HEAT 18)THE SERGEANT 19)AL CAPONE 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)ASH WEDNESDAY 22)CURSE OF THE DEMON 23)ATLANTIC CITY 24)KILLER FISH 25)AIR PATROL 26)DUEL IN THE JUNGLE 27)EASY LIVING 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)ROBBERY 30)THE ROARING TWENTIES 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)JACK NICHOLSON 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)CHARLES BRONSON DAMES 1)VIRGINIA MAYO 2)SUE LYON 3)GENE TIERNEY 4)MERRY ANDERS 5)FAYE DUNAWAY DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)STANLEY KUBRICK 4)ORSON WELLES 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)JOHN LANDIS 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)VAL GUEST 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER