The Waltons is an American television series that aired for nine seasons (1972–1981) on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS-TV) network. A further six made-for-TV reunion movies were made and aired in the following 1980s and 1990s. Below is a list of the series / films various principal characters and the actors who played them.
Main characters John "John-Boy" Walton Jr. John Walton Jr. (Richard Thomas, pilot episode and seasons 1-5, guest for 3 episodes in season 6; and three movies; Robert Wightman, seasons 8–9, and two movies). This first Walton child, known as "John-Boy," was born in 1916, and is the eldest son and child of Olivia Walton and John Walton Sr. John-Boy is based on creator / author Earl Hamner Jr (1923–2016), who narrates the opening and closing of each episode as the present-day adult John-Boy Walton. The main character, who is also the oldest of seven children, John-Boy is a serious thinker and avid reader with a passion to become a writer. He constantly records his thoughts about his family, friends, and circumstances, and writes stories in a journal. Normally a calm, quiet sort, John-Boy occasionally displays a touch of afiery temper and can become defensive and indignant when a situation warrants it. He is sensitive and empathetic with a drive to succeed in his chosen profession. He is deeply touched by tragic events, such as the 1937 Hindenburg airship disaster, and being injured trying to rescue people. Prior to World War II, John-Boy is the only member of his family seriously concerned about the rise of dictator Adolf Hitler, in Germany and is infuriated when his community attempts to burn German language books in response to hearing about Nazis doing the same to American books deemed subversive. After becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college at Boatwright University, he moves to New York City to fulfill his dream of becoming an author. After the 1941 Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, he immediately enlists in the U.S. Army and writes as a war correspondent for the U.S. Army's famous newspaper Stars and Stripes during the war.
In season 8, his parents learn he is missing in action and for weeks, John-Boy's location and condition are unknown to his family. Unbeknownst to them, the plane in which he was passenger / observer, the Katey Anne, was shot down and crashed into the sea near Great Britain while he was out looking for war stories. He and the pilot were forced to tread water to stay afloat, but after growing exhausted, his comrade succumbed to his injuries and drowned, while John-Boy, who had suffered extreme head trauma, lost consciousness as he was rescued from the sea. Due to the severity of his injuries, he slipped into a lengthy coma and was flown back to the United States to undergo more long-term medical care, leaving his parents to wait on his recovery. When he at last emerged from his coma, he was stricken with slight amnesia and no longer could participate in the war.
After World War II, he tried to return to New York at the promise of an opportunity waiting for him to tell his story, like many other veterans, but lack of demand for wartime books due to an over-saturated market of war stories knocked his story from publishers' consideration. He returned to Walton's Mountain to briefly teach courses in the new television department at Boatwright University. John-Boy then turned his attention to reporting news instead and gained a steady means of living once more, but would one day have to break the news of the shocking John F. Kennedy assassination, in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. It was in this profession that he finally found the love of his life, Janet, and they eventually married. Their first children were twins, born during the Easter film special.
John Walton Sr. Family patriarch John, called Daddy by his children, (pilot, Andrew Duggan; series and sequels, Ralph Waite) is a hard-working, industrious man who runs a small family sawmill on his property on Walton's Mountain. Another main character, he is the second son of Esther Walton (née Morgan) and Zebulon Tyler Walton. He is the husband of Olivia Walton (née Daly) and father of John "John-Boy" Jr., Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Benjamin "Ben", James Robert "Jim-Bob" and his stillborn twin brother Joseph, and Elizabeth. He is usually good natured, wise, and fearless, ready to stand up to a challenge and tell things straight. These personality traits sometimes cause him to be stern with his children and wife, and when greatly stressed he is prone to "workaholism." John deeply loves and respects his wife, and calls her “Liv” or “Livie.”
John graduated high school in 1911 (making him born in about 1893) and served in the World War I. John will do anything to protect his family; he also wishes to see all of his children graduate from college, which he was unable to do, although he was the first in his family to graduate from high school. Despite his Baptist upbringing he, like his father Zeb, is ambivalent toward organized religion and otherwise deist. He holds life sacred. He does not approve of hunting animals for sport, but will hunt to provide food for his family. Despite his rejection of the Baptist Church, (he never underwent baptism), his wife Olivia calls him "the most God-fearing man I know.""The Fire", Season one, episode 16
We are told in the pilot that he dies in the year 1969 (the same year Earl Hamner's father also died).
In 2004, TV Guide magazine ranked him #3 on its "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" list.
Olivia Walton Olivia, also known as Liv, Livie, or Mama, (pilot, Patricia Neal; series, Michael Learned) is John Walton Sr.'s soft-spoken, patient, religious, loving wife, who complements his tough-skinned, opinionated nature. She is the sister of Frances Daly of Edgemont, Virginia. She has seven children: John Jr., Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim Bob, and Elizabeth. An eighth child, Jim-Bob's twin brother Joseph, died at birth. Olivia also suffered a miscarriage in season two. She is usually gentle but firm and unafraid to speak up or administer discipline when needed. She especially hates being in debt. Like her mother-in-law Esther, she is a devout Southern Baptist, although her husband doesn't share her commitment to the organized religion of the church. Her Southern Baptist faith extends to the home, and she punishes the children by telling them to memorize verses from the Bible. She is willing to open her home to friends or strangers in need, but, during early seasons, is uncomfortable with her family associating with the Baldwin sisters because she strongly disapproves of their production of homemade liquor (moonshine), which they refer to as "Papa's Recipe”. (Olivia, along with the rest of the community, more warmly embraces the Baldwin sisters during later seasons.) Though she is mostly grounded and content with her life, Olivia also displays a dreamy side and a thirst for novelty, as seen in "The Airmail Man" (season two) where she dreams of flying in an airplane, and in "The Rebellion" (season five) when she gets a perm. She is also a natural artist. After John's brother Ben was killed in World War I, she resolved to never see another family member off to war and declined to be present when Mary Ellen's husband Curt shipped out for active duty. When her own sons got involved in the war as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack, she changed her mind.
Her background and family are not referenced to the same degree as John's. It is known that she displayed budding artistic talent in high school and considered going to college on a scholarship but instead chose to marry John when she was 16 and become a homemaker. It is implied she had John-Boy within a year or so of her marriage, setting her birth year around 1897–98. She is content that she made the right choice to become a wife and mother.
She survives polio in the first season, and develops tuberculosis later in the series.
Olivia overcomes her health challenges and becomes an active senior citizen; in the final reunion movie she is working as a school teacher at the Walton's Mountain school where daughter Erin has become principal. It is implied Olivia completed college courses to qualify for this job.
In a 1999 Archive of American Television interview, executive producer Earl Hamner Jr. stated that, when transitioning from the film to the TV series, he chose to recast the role of Olivia because he did not think that Patricia Neal's health would allow her to commit to the grind of a weekly television series. In her 1979 memoir, Neal suggested that she would have accepted the role, had it been offered to her.
Zebulon Tyler Walton The Walton family elder, The Grandfather/Grandpa Walton (Pilot, Edgar Bergen; seasons 1–6, Will Geer), husband of grandma Esther Walton (née Morgan), and father of Benjamin Walton, who was killed in World War I, John Walton Sr., and an unknown Walton child (early in the first season, Zeb is showing John Boy military medals stored in a trunk, and mentions that they belonged to John Boy's Uncle "Matt" (Season 1, Episode 5). It can be logically assumed that since the medals are in Zeb's possession, rather than Olivia's parents, that this is the name of the third child, and that since they are military in nature, like Ben the elder, he never made it home from the "Great War".) Referred to as "Zeb" to friends, "Zeb" or "old fool" by his wife Esther (who in turn is lovingly referred to as "old woman" or "old girl"), "Pa" by his son John, "Grandpa" by Olivia and the rest of the family, and "the Grandfather" in the show's opening credits, likes to spend his time working with John in the sawmill, fishing, walking the mountain, occasionally playing a game of billiards at the pool table in the back of Ike Godsey's general store, and playing with and teaching his grandkids. As hardworking as son John, Grandpa is much more easygoing in general and has a mischievous yet wise and vibrant personality. An example of this was in one episode, when one of his grandchildren tried smoking and he caught them, and got them to stop the same way his father taught him: he had the boys smoke cigarettes, one after another, until they were sick. Grandma, John Sr., and Olivia didn't approve of his methods. He especially cherishes his wife (and vice versa), although he can often be found alone relaxing with the Baldwin sisters, happily sipping their "Recipe" (moonshine). He also tends to distrust his wife's Southern Baptist church,"The Sinner", season 1"The Baptism", season 5 although he has a deep love and respect for God. He served in the Spanish–American War of 1898 (although he dramatized his involvement by telling tall tales and vivid war stories to his grandchild despite Esther's indignation) and is an amateur botanist. He has the habit of making ornate prayers at the dinner table and sometimes ends them with "awomen" in respect to "amen", and dislikes the use of the phrase, "The Civil War", preferring using the Southern term of "The War Between the States". Esther often complained about his rotund figure and tried to get him to diet, worrying about his heart. This was exemplified in "The Birthday"; as he was about to turn 73, he suffered a major heart attack and was bedridden for weeks. He often claimed that he would live to 101, but in the end, he suffered a second and final heart attack three years later.