Acting
Karen Grassle
Born 1942-02-25 · Berkeley, California, USA
Karen Trust Grassle (born February 25, 1942) is an American actress, known for her role as Caroline Ingalls in the NBC television drama series Little House on the Prairie. After summers at the Stanford Contemporary Workshop playing leads and two summers at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival playing classical roles, her first professional engagement was a season at the Front Street Theatre, Memphis, TN. upon return from London. While living in New York City, she worked at resident and stock theatres throughout the country, also appearing on PBS in original works and on networks in three soap operas. She made her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1968 play The Gingham Dog. Grassle played in Butterflies Are Free on Broadway (as stand-by with Gloria Swanson, Rosemary Murphy, etc.) as well as at the Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado, in June 1972, along with Maureen O'Sullivan and Brandon deWilde, who was killed before leaving town after the performances ended. Grassle starred in the Shakespeare in the Park "Cymbeline." with Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, and Bill Devane. Grassle auditioned for the role of the mother, Caroline Ingalls, in the Little House on the Prairie TV series and won the part. The series ran for nine seasons, from 1974 to 1983. After making the pilot for Little House on the Prairie, Grassle appeared in one episode of Gunsmoke titled "The Wiving" as Fran, one of several saloon girls kidnapped. Subsequently, she acted in the features Harry's War, a 1981 American film where she played Kathy, the wife of Edward Herrmann's title character, and Wyatt Earp, a 1994 film starring Kevin Costner. On television, she starred in and co-wrote the NBC-TV film Battered. Other TV movies include Cocaine: One Man's Seduction, Crisis in MidAir, and Between the Darkness and the Dawn. In episodic TV, she starred in Hotel, Love Boat, and Murder She Wrote (twice.) She also appeared on Hollywood Squares and numerous talk shows such as Dinah, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, and John Davidson. During this period, she lobbied for federal funding for shelters for battered women and appeared in many events to support the Equal Rights Amendment. After the series ended, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and became co-founder and artistic director of Santa Fe’s Resource Theater Company. Later she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where she performed with the company of actors at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Grassle continues to perform in productions in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Palo Alto as well as tours and productions such as Driving Miss Daisy in the starring role of Miss Daisy at the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in a co-production with Rubicon Theatre and at the Riverside Center for the Performing Arts in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 2008, she was awarded a prize for her performance in Cabaret at the San Francisco Playhouse. Over the years, she has appeared in commercials such as the promotional face for Premier Bathrooms, a supplier of bathing products for the elderly and infirm.
Acting credits
6.8From Wichita to Dodge City, to the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Wyatt Earp is taught that nothing matters more than family and the law. Joined by his brothers and Doc Holliday, Earp wages war on the dreaded Clanton and McLaury gangs.
Wyatt Earp
1994
8.4Celebrate the holidays with two classic "Little House" specials, restored and remastered for superior picture and sound. In "Christmas at Plum Creek," the members of the Ingalls family share a heartwarming first Christmas in their new home, and Laura makes a personal sacrifice that captures the meaning of the holidays. In "A Christmas They Never Forget," the family waits out a snowstorm by remembering favorite Christmases from the past.
Little House on the Prairie: A Merry Ingalls Christmas
2014
8.1The story of the Ingalls family who left their house in Wisconsin and moved to the west, wanting to find a new place for home.
Little House on the Prairie
1974
6.8A government courier is caught in a deadly cover-up after discovering that his murdered sister was not only the mistress of a U.S. president, but also a Soviet spy.
The President's Mistress
1978
6.2After his aunt dies of a heart attack while fighting the IRS, Harry Johnson decides to take up the cause.
Harry's War
1981
6.1The story of Simon and Kit, two young leaders of an Active Senior adventure tour group that take a day trip out to a small-town Rodeo located deep in the woods. Their lives are turned upside down when they find themselves fighting to stay alive against a group of psycho, bloodthirsty cowboys from the local rodeo.
Lasso
2017
6.9A 47-year-old real estate salesman gets trapped in the insidious web of cocaine addiction.
Cocaine: One Man's Seduction
1983
6.6A 17-year-old girl lapses into a coma and wakes up 20 years later.
Between the Darkness and the Dawn
1985
7.1While Charles and Caroline are visiting Walnut Grove, the townspeople learn that a land development tycoon has acquired title to all the land in Hero Township. They are inspired by Laura to vent their anger at this injustice.
Little House: The Last Farewell
1984
NRFilmed in Vienna against the backdrop of a traveling Russian circus, The Magic Hand of Chance is the true story of a clumsy magician whose life is turned around when two clowns trick him into thinking he has received the highest honor by a fictitious Magicians Society in America. Because he starts to believe he is great . . . he ultimately becomes great.
Tales of Everyday Magic
2012
6.8A judge sentences a self-centered millennial to take care of his grandmother, who's affected by Alzheimer's. As he realizes the extent of the elderly woman's wealth and becomes her caregiver, the young protagonist gets ever-closer to Grandma and the treasure he's been looking for.
Not to Forget
2021
NRA haunted war vet accepts an unlikely offer to watch a cat, and is plunged into a fever dream of twisted characters, sexual intrigue and catastrophic violence.
Where's Roman?
2017
8.0The life of a stressed-out air controller falls apart as he battles a court case involving a mid-air collision for which an investigator is trying to hold him responsible.
Crisis in Mid-Air
1979
NRCast members from Little House on the Prairie embark on a journey to the real-world locations that inspired Laura Ingalls Wilder’s classic books. Along the way, they explore the history behind the stories and revisit the enduring spirit of Little House that continues to inspire audiences around the world.
Little House Homecoming
2025
9.0Gritty drama of three interweaving stories of three women of various backgrounds and ages whose marriages are complicated by spouse-abuse by their husbands.
Battered
1978
8.5Laura Ingalls reminisces about the Ingalls' journeys and struggles during a family Thanksgiving gathering.
The Little House Years
1979