A: According to several “Bonanza” websites, Landon — who played Little Joe on the long-running western — had more than a dozen horses playing his mount over the course of the show. One reason was the need for stunt doubles chosen to fit the demands of different scenes.
One night an intruder broke into Fat Jones Stable, wielding a knife and injured several of the horses. Unfortunately, the veterinarian could not save Cochise.
The horses on the show Bonanza were famously rented from the Fat Jones Stables in North Hollywood. Because the show would be filmed in color, the horses had to be easily discernible on screen to viewers. Each one had a distinct color and pattern, reflecting the personalities of the riders.
He had a riding 'double' - over the years he had several riding 'doubles' - and anything other than basic, easy riding was done by his riding 'double'.
Cochise was a beautiful black and white Paint horse chosen by Michael Landon, who portrayed Ben's impetuous youngest son, Joseph 'Little Joe' Cartwright. Cochise loved to sip coffee (but not too hot) from Landon's tin cup.
Dan Blocker’s Last Episode on Bonanza Is Too Hard to Watch
Who is the best horseback rider in western movies?
Tom Mix: Considered one of the first Western movie stars, Tom Mix was renowned for his horseback riding abilities [2]. He began his career as a Wild West show performer and showcased his expertise in horse training and trick riding in films like "The Great K & A Train Robbery."
What breed of horse did Dan Blocker ride in Bonanza?
As the imposing powerhouse Hoss Cartwright, actor Dan Blocker was matched with a 15.3 hand Quarter Horse / Thoroughbred-cross gelding, named Chub, who weighed a sturdy 1.250 pounds.
In 1959, at the age of 22, Landon began his first starring TV role as Little Joe Cartwright on Bonanza, one of the first TV series to be broadcast in color.
At the beginning of the 14th season, Joe (Michael Landon) married Alice Harper (guest star Bonnie Bedelia); at the end of the first of two episodes, she told Joe she was pregnant. But in the second episode, she was murdered.
Landon tried to appear taller, according to co-star Alison Arngrim (she played Nellie Oleson). In her book Confessions of a Prairie B****, Arngrim says Landon tried his best to hide the fact that he wasn't tall. She reveals he used to wear lifts in his shoes.
Both Greene and Dan Blocker (Hoss) wore hairpieces, as well. Greene had his own toupee mishap when leaping into a pond for a stunt. Michael Landon was the only one of the four core Cartwrights to not wear a toupee.
Greene had been on a horse a few times in the past so he answered with an affirmative. Before he knew it, he was astride a 12-year old buckskin named Dunny and the horse was running at full speed through a field. Greene said the ride was exhilarating until he noticed that they were heading straight for a fence.
Did Matt Dillon and Ben Cartwright use the same horse?
Did You Know Ben Cartwright (Bonanza) and Matt Dillon's Horse Are One And The Same? They've had many horses over the years, but the horse they've both ridden is named Buck.
Michael Landon (1936–1991) did do some of his stunts on BONANZA and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. However he was a valuable asset to the television shows. Landon had a stunt double.
The show was so popular that it went on to air for thirteen years and even spawned a theme park. Historical accuracy was of great import to Bonanza's creator, but as the series evolved, it took on a life of its own beyond the boundaries of real-life Virginia City.
He ultimately passed away after a postoperative pulmonary embolism. Subsequently, the writers also had to make the tough decision to write him off the show as they didn't wish to recast his character with anybody else. The show decided to give Hoss a heroic death with him drowning in an attempt to save a woman.
Ben Cartwright went through 3 wives and it was said that Adam went to Australia but never married. There is a site that says the show Forever, was originally supposed to have Hoss marry. Instead it was Little Joe, because Dan Blocker had died before that next season started.
Q: By the end of “Bonanza,” had any of the sons married? A: I know of one. At the beginning of the 14th season, Joe (Michael Landon) married Alice Harper (guest star Bonnie Bedelia); at the end of the first of two episodes, she told Joe she was pregnant.
Eric Warren “Hoss” Cartwright. “Hoss” is an endearing term for "big and friendly", used by his Swedish mother Inger and his uncle Gunnar. In the Bonanza flashback, his mother Inger names him Eric after her father.
They wanted to have another younger character that could get in school fights and stuff like that. And watch him grow up in front of your eyes.” And that's just what Mitch Vogel did as Jamie Cartwright, on the final four seasons of Bonanza.
Pernell Roberts, a versatile actor best remembered for his portrayal of the eldest Cartwright son on the television western Bonanza and later as the lead character in the medical drama Trapper John, M.D., died at his Malibu home Sunday. He was 81.
In the last of the three Bonanza TV movies, it is revealed that "Little Joe" had died in the Spanish-American War – a member of the "Rough Riders". Little Joe had a son named Benjamin 'Benj' Cartwright who was played by Landon's real-life son and seen in all three Bonanza TV movies.
Drury's laconic character was always referred to as “The Virginian”; he had no name, unlike his horse, a white Appaloosa called Joe D. The Shiloh foreman may have sported a black hat, but he routinely did the right thing, rescuing folks and fighting rustlers and outlaws in the Wyoming Territory in the 1890s.
