Actor Dean Butler attends Mansfield’s Wilder Days

Mansfield’s Wilder Days has always been about celebrating the life and career of acclaimed local author Laura Ingalls Wilder, but this year is a particularly momentous one. 2024 marks the 50-year anniversary of the “Little House on the Prairie” television show, based on Wilder’s iconic book series.
Dean Butler, the actor who portrayed Laura’s husband, Almanzo, in the series, has been busy celebrating this milestone all year long. Not only has he been traveling the country, visiting with fans and promoting the show, but he has also released his first book: “Prairie Man: My Little House Life and Beyond,” a memoir recounting his life and career with a special emphasis on the show that made the Wilders a household name.
It’s been a nonstop whirlwind of activity for Butler ever since he made his debut in season six of the hit show 45 years ago—and interestingly, it all began because of a girl he was interested in during high school.
“I became interested in acting after following a girl I had a crush on into a musical rehearsal for a production of Once Upon a Mattress at our high school,” Butler tells the Wright County Journal. “I loved the laughter and applause. I loved being in that spotlight. There was something very powerful about having an audience focus on you. A lot of adrenaline came from that. As a kid, I felt like I needed to find something that I was going to excel at. I wasn’t going to get attention or recognition as an athlete. I wasn’t a particularly strong student. Finding this niche in performance was really a gift to me. It has carried me through my entire life. Butler’s acting career began not long after. He attributes his auditioning for “Little House” to his agent, who happened to be a huge fan of the show. “If anything ever comes up that you’re right for on ‘Little House,’ I’m going to get you in the door for that,” he recalls her saying—and before long, she did.
“I had a series of four different meetings,” he says, “three with our casting director, and the final with Michael Landon [executive producer, writer, director and actor who played Charles Ingalls]. He was bigger than life when I met him in the room. He looked like the essence of what a television star should look like, a very high fashion kind of guy, very different from Charles Ingalls in his own life.”
The meeting went over well. So well that Landon basically offered Butler the part then and there. The only potential snag—Butler was finishing up his college career and wouldn’t be able to commit to the role until after graduating. Thankfully, Landon said they might be able to wait until then. “It was really anxiety provoking,” Butler said. “I wasn’t able to concentrate on any of the last weeks of college, but when it finally happened, it was this enormous relief. I graduated from college on my 23rd birthday, and two days later, started on ‘Little House on the Prairie.’”
Little did Butler know just what an integral role he would be playing in the show. He had never read the books growing up or watched the series prior to working on it. As time went on, he rectified that. “I knew as I watched these episodes in summer reruns— it was the first time I’d ever watched it from beginning to end—that it was a beautiful show,” he says, “wonderfully acted and beautifully shot, so I completely understood why it was so successful.”
(Read the rest of the story in the Oct. 2 issue of the Wright County Journal.)