8 of the 11 Waltons Are Still Alive, 54 Years On 😱
Primetime Then & Now
26,248 views
The Waltons premiered on CBS in September 1972, created by Earl Hamner Jr. out of his own Depression childhood in Schuyler, Virginia. The network expected it gone by Christmas; it won the Emmy for best drama in year one and ran nine seasons and 221 episodes. Seen from September 2026, fifty-four years on, this is that rare cast where most of the family is still here — eight of the eleven Waltons are with us.
Richard Thomas was John-Boy, the son with the notebook and the lamp in the window, and won the Emmy for it at 22. He left the show at its height in 1977. Younger viewers know him as the grown Bill Denbrough in Stephen King's It. He is 75 in September 2026 and still on stage.
Michael Learned won three Emmys as Olivia Walton and a fourth for Nurse. She has spoken openly about getting sober in 1977, while playing the steadiest mother in America. She is 87 and still acting.
Judy Norton was Mary Ellen. She took up skydiving and stunt work, and since 2020 has run a YouTube channel retelling the show episode by episode. She is 68. Mary Elizabeth McDonough was Erin. After lupus she went public about silicone breast implants and spent years warning other women. Her memoir is Lessons from the Mountain. She is 65.
Jon Walmsley was Jason, the son with the guitar — and he was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, not Virginia. Before Walton's Mountain he was Disney's voice of Christopher Robin. He has played with the Doobie Brothers, and at 70 lives in Cornwall.
Eric Scott was Ben and left acting for a courier company in Encino he has run for decades; he is 67. David W. Harper was Jim-Bob, worked at that same company, and chose an ordinary life ever since; he is 64. Kami Cotler was Elizabeth, and after Berkeley moved to Nelson County, Virginia — the real place the show came from — and taught school there. She is 61, now a school principal in Los Angeles.
Three we have lost. Will Geer, Grandpa Zeb, was blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to testify and spent those years growing a Shakespeare garden in Topanga Canyon; he died on 22 April 1978, aged 76, and his ashes were placed in that garden. Ellen Corby, Grandma Esther, had a stroke in 1976 and came back sixteen months later; the show wrote it into the character rather than hide her. She died on 14 April 1999, aged 87. Ralph Waite, an ordained minister before he acted, died on 13 February 2014, aged 85.
Which one did you love most — John-Boy, or Grandpa? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe if these cast updates mean something to you.
Disclaimer: Ages, dates and figures were checked against publicly available sources as of September 2026; money amounts are estimates unless stated. This video uses an AI-assisted voiceover. This channel is a nostalgic tribute made with love and respect for the cast and their families.
8 of the 11 Waltons Are Still Alive, 54 Years On 😱
Primetime Then & Now
26,248 views
The Waltons premiered on CBS in September 1972, created by Earl Hamner Jr. out of his own Depression childhood in Schuyler, Virginia. The network expected it gone by Christmas; it won the Emmy for best drama in year one and ran nine seasons and 221 episodes. Seen from September 2026, fifty-four years on, this is that rare cast where most of the family is still here — eight of the eleven Waltons are with us.
Richard Thomas was John-Boy, the son with the notebook and the lamp in the window, and won the Emmy for it at 22. He left the show at its height in 1977. Younger viewers know him as the grown Bill Denbrough in Stephen King's It. He is 75 in September 2026 and still on stage.
Michael Learned won three Emmys as Olivia Walton and a fourth for Nurse. She has spoken openly about getting sober in 1977, while playing the steadiest mother in America. She is 87 and still acting.
Judy Norton was Mary Ellen. She took up skydiving and stunt work, and since 2020 has run a YouTube channel retelling the show episode by episode. She is 68. Mary Elizabeth McDonough was Erin. After lupus she went public about silicone breast implants and spent years warning other women. Her memoir is Lessons from the Mountain. She is 65.
Jon Walmsley was Jason, the son with the guitar — and he was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, not Virginia. Before Walton's Mountain he was Disney's voice of Christopher Robin. He has played with the Doobie Brothers, and at 70 lives in Cornwall.
Eric Scott was Ben and left acting for a courier company in Encino he has run for decades; he is 67. David W. Harper was Jim-Bob, worked at that same company, and chose an ordinary life ever since; he is 64. Kami Cotler was Elizabeth, and after Berkeley moved to Nelson County, Virginia — the real place the show came from — and taught school there. She is 61, now a school principal in Los Angeles.
Three we have lost. Will Geer, Grandpa Zeb, was blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to testify and spent those years growing a Shakespeare garden in Topanga Canyon; he died on 22 April 1978, aged 76, and his ashes were placed in that garden. Ellen Corby, Grandma Esther, had a stroke in 1976 and came back sixteen months later; the show wrote it into the character rather than hide her. She died on 14 April 1999, aged 87. Ralph Waite, an ordained minister before he acted, died on 13 February 2014, aged 85.
Which one did you love most — John-Boy, or Grandpa? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe if these cast updates mean something to you.
Disclaimer: Ages, dates and figures were checked against publicly available sources as of September 2026; money amounts are estimates unless stated. This video uses an AI-assisted voiceover. This channel is a nostalgic tribute made with love and respect for the cast and their families.