- - “Little House on the Prairie'”s Dean Butler Praises ‘Extraordinary Child Actress’ Melissa Gilbert: ‘She's the Whole Package’ (Exclusive)

Meredith WilshereDecember 7, 2025 at 6:00 AM

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Pictured: (l-r) Dean Butler as Almanzo James Wilder, Melissa Gilbert as Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder. -

Dean Butler looks back fondly on his time working with Melissa Gilbert on Little House on the Prairie

Butler, 69, joined Gilbert, 61, on the hit series in 1979

Butler has been engaging with the fans of the show and reconnecting with many of his costars for the new documentary, Little House Homecoming

Dean Butler has nothing but fond memories of his time working with Melissa Gilbert on Little House on the Prairie.

"America loved Laura — Melissa Gilbert — who embodied plucky, spirited in-your-face candor," the actor, 69, tells PEOPLE. "When lots of young people, adults are watching this, and they love Laura, and they see her, they see her fall in this lovely way, in this lovely innocent way that she did."

Butler joined the cast in season 6 as Almanzo Wilder, who later married Gilbert's character, Laura Ingalls. Almanzo, lovingly called "Manly" by Laura, attracted the attention of other young ladies in Walnut Grove.

Little House Homecoming

Dean Butler in 'Little House Homecoming.'

During fan events, Butler says he is almost always asked, "Where's Laura?" — for which he typically has a quippy response.

When asked what it was like working with Gilbert and the show's creator and star, Michael Landon, Butler emphasizes that the two carried the show.

"The two of them are at the center of this. Laura and Pa's relationship is at the heart of what makes Little House so unforgettable," he says. "The two of them were extraordinary doing this together, particularly in the early years of this, when Melissa was just this completely open book of emotion and authenticity. She was an extraordinary child actress."

Gilbert was cast in the series at just 9 years old and starred on the show for 10 years, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her memorable performance as Charles Ingalls's second daughter.

"I'd put Melissa up at that age up against anybody who's ever stood in front of a camera," Butler says. "She's the whole package, her emotional life, the way she looked with the buck teeth and the freckles. She was so real and so irresistible because of that."

"You couldn't not love her and wanna follow whatever she was going to be doing in any story that you were watching," he adds.

Butler says he felt lucky to be part of her character's story arc.

"That's a special thing for me to be in a really nice way attached to that, because I became the maturing of Laura. Her energy went from, and she always loved Pa, he was never gonna be replaced, but she moved to it, as we all do, we evolved beyond," he shares. "She evolved beyond sitting on Pa's lap, and with the pigtails and the lovely moments that they had together. There was going to be something else. It was great to be a part of that."

Little House Homecoming

Dean Butler in 'Little House Homecoming.'

In April 2024, when talking with PEOPLE for the 50th anniversary of Little House on the Prairie, Butler discussed the large age gap between him and Gilbert, as he was 23 and Gilbert was just 15 when their characters met in the season 6 episode "Back to School (Part 1)." The two characters would later share their first on-screen kiss in the episode "Sweet Sixteen."

"When I met Melissa in 'Back to School,' there was no sign of a woman there. She really was a little girl: bright, incredibly capable, spunky, vibrant, very extroverted," he said at the time, adding, "Now, I don't know how much more of a woman there was there at the end, but she was being asked to go there at the end of that season. And I think she did it amazingly well when you look at how little life experience she had."

Although Gilbert handled the situation with a maturity well beyond her age, the actress recently said she was shocked to see photos of herself at 15 alongside her much-older on-screen love interest.

Gilbert said the images now made her "nauseated" to think that her then-teenage self was "expected to 'fall in love with' and kiss a man on film who was several years older than she was."

"Through the lens of today, this is shocking," she continued on Instagram, noting that she was grateful to have had so many people on set, including Landon, "to make sure I was safe."

Little House Homecoming

'Little House Homecoming.'

Butler has been engaging with the fans of the show and reconnecting with many of his costars for the new documentary, Little House Homecoming, which, in addition to Butler, features original cast members Karen Grassle, who played Caroline Ingalls, Alison Arngrim as Nellie Oleson, Charlotte Stewart as Miss Beadle, and Wendi Lou Lee, who played Baby Grace. The show follows the cast as they travel to the real-life places that inspired the original books and reconnect with the spirit of Little House.

The film takes viewers on a journey across "Laura-land" alongside the cast, highlighting the places Laura called home. From the Big Woods to the Banks of Plum Creek, the Little Town on the Prairie to Laura's final home in Missouri, and everywhere in between. Museum directors and researchers dedicated to maintaining the real-life Laura Ingalls Wilder's legacy also share firsthand encounters of her impact on the Little House community.

All nine seasons of Little House on the Prairie can be streamed on Prime Video and Peacock.

on People

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