Biography

Hersha Parady

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Overview

Born
May 25, 1945 · Berea, Ohio, USA
Died
August 23, 2023 · Norfolk, Virginia, USA (brain tumor)
Birth name
Betty Sandhoff

Biography

Hersha Parady was born on 25 May 1945, and raised in Ohio, USA. She later became an actress, appearing on television and in the theatre.

Years later, living in California, Hersha often looked after a free-spirited dog she called Lightning, who roamed the streets of Hollywood. That led to Hersha's befriending actress Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor, who looked out for the same dog. MacGregor starred as Harriet Oleson in the television series Little House on the Prairie.

When Hersha starred in a play as Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare, MacGregor and her Little House co-star Richard Bull came to see it. They were thoroughly impressed with Hersha's performance, and recommended her to the Little House casting director, as a possible new cast member.

This recommendation led to Hersha being cast as a guest star (playing Michael Landon's sister-in-law) in one episode during the third season, before being cast as a regular player in the role of Merlin Olsen's wife, Alice Garvey, for Seasons 4 - 6.

Ironically, Hersha's own personal favourite Little House episode is "May We Make Them Proud" - the one in which Alice Garvey and her friends' infant son burn to death in the school for the blind. Hersha relished acting in scenes involving real, controlled fire under the supervision of the Los Angeles Fire Department. On her unforgettable death scene, Hersha remarked: "At least I went out with a bang and not a whimper."

Formerly married to Oscar-winning producer John Peverall, with whom she had a son named Jonathan, Hersha moved to Florida and died in 2023.
- IMDb mini biography by: Barnaby Marriott barnabymarriott@yahoo.com
Hersha began her professional career at the Cleveland Playhouse (Betty Sandhoff), thereafter she worked in Regional Theatre from East to West coast, landing in Los Angeles where she continued her work on stage, garnering 3 Best Actress Awards and finding herself in front of the camera in dozens of commercials, After School Specials, Movies of the Week and as a regular on the internationally beloved series, Little House on the Prairie.

In LA she fatefully met her husband, Oscar winner John Peverall, with whom she had a son, now serving in the US Navy. While raising her son in Florida, she continued working on stage, until at long last she could head West.
- IMDb mini biography by: Amelia Burstyn

Family

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Trivia

In Florida doing professional theater.
She was friends with fellow Little House actors Katherine MacGregor, Richard Bull, and Dabbs Greer until their deaths.
The TV star always knew she was destined to become an actress, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 1975 that she was "always a child living in the world of pretend.
She graduated from Berea High School in 1963, acted at the Cleveland Play House and in regional theater, then came to Los Angele.
She moved west in the early 1970s to further her acting career and landed a role opposite Jon Voight in a touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire.