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

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

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)THE BREAK 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)JUNGLE STREET 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)FALLEN ANGEL 20)THUNDER ISLAND 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6)CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)SAM PECKINPAH 10)MICHAEL WINNER