List of Bonanza characters

Cast

Though not familiar stars in 1959, the cast quickly became favorites of the first television generation. The order of billing at the beginning of the broadcast appeared to be shuffled randomly each week, with no relation whatsoever to the current episode featured that week. The main cast of actors portraying Cartwrights is listed here in the order of their characters' ages, followed by an array of recurring supporting players:

Lorne Greene – Ben Cartwright

Lorne Greene as Ben Cartwright

Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Russian-Jewish parents, Lorne Greene was chosen to play widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright. Early in the show's history, he recalls each of his late wives in flashback episodes. A standard practice with most westerns was to introduce some romance but avoid matrimony. Few media cowboys had on-screen wives. Any time one of the Cartwrights seriously courted a woman, she died from a malady, was abruptly slain, or left with someone else.

Greene appeared in all but fourteen Bonanza episodes. Greene was 44 years old at the beginning of the series while Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker, who portrayed two of his sons, were both 31, only thirteen years younger.

In 2007, a TV Guide survey listed Ben Cartwright as television's #2 favorite dad.

Pernell Roberts – Adam Cartwright

Pernell Roberts as Adam Cartwright

Pernell Roberts played eldest son Adam, an architectural engineer with a university education. Adam built the impressive ranch house. Despite the show's success, Roberts departed the series after the 1964–65 season (202 episodes) and returned to stage productions, allegedly because of clashes over the show's direction. John Goddard was initially offered the role of Adam Cartwright, but turned it down to star in Johnny Fletcher.

Attempts to replace Adam with Little Joe's maternal half-brother Clay (Barry Coe) and Cartwright cousin Will (Guy "Zorro" Williams), were unsuccessful. Creator David Dortort introduced a storyline that would keep the character of Adam in the mix, but with a lighter schedule. During season five Adam falls for a widow with a young daughter, while making Will Cartwright a central figure. Roberts decided to stay an additional season, so the scripts were quickly revised by having Adam's fiancée and her daughter depart the series prematurely with Guy Williams' Will, with whom she'd fallen in love. It was Landon, not Roberts, who objected to the infusion of any new Cartwrights.

Dan Blocker – Hoss Eric Cartwright

For the U.S. Marine Corps general nicknamed "Hoss", see James Cartwright.

Dan Blocker as Hoss Cartwright

Dan Blocker was 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and 320 pounds (145.15 kg) when chosen to play the gentle middle son Eric, almost always referred to as Hoss. The nickname was used as a nod to the character's ample girth, an endearing term for "big and friendly", used by his Swedish mother Inger (and Uncle Gunnar). In the Bonanza flashback, his mother names him Eric after her father. To satisfy young Adam, however, Inger and Ben agree to try the nickname Hoss and "see which one sticks." Inger says of the name Hoss: "In the mountain country, that is the name for a big, friendly man." According to a biography, the show's crew found Blocker to be the "least actor-ish as well as the most likeable" cast member. Producer David Dortort said, "Over the years he gave me the least amount of trouble."

Blocker as "Hoss" Cartwright

In May 1972, Blocker died suddenly from a post-operative pulmonary embolism, following surgery to remove his gall bladder. The producers felt nobody else could continue the role and for the first time a TV show's producers chose to kill off a young major male character (though it had been done twice before with young female leads—in 1956 on Make Room For Daddy, and again in 1963 with The Real McCoys). Not until the TV movie Bonanza: The Next Generation was it explained that Hoss had drowned attempting to save a woman's life.

Michael Landon – Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright

Michael Landon as Little Joe Cartwright

The role of "Little Joe" was given to Michael Landon. He played guest roles on several TV westerns and attained the title role in I Was a Teenage Werewolf. He portrayed the youngest Cartwright son, whose mother (Felicia in the pilot, and later changed to Marie), a widow, and mother whose child had died of fever (episode "Marie, My Love"), was of French Creole descent. Landon began to develop his skills in writing and directing Bonanza episodes, starting with "The Gamble". Most of the episodes Landon wrote and directed were dramas, including the two-hour, "Forever" (1972), which was recognized by TV Guide as being one of television's best specials (November 1993). Landon's development was a bit stormy according to David Dortort, who felt that the actor grew more difficult during the last five seasons the show ran. Landon appeared in all but fourteen Bonanza episodes for its run, a total of 416 episodes.

Beginning in 1962, a foundation was being laid to include another "son" as Pernell Roberts was displeased with his character. In the episode "First Born" (1962), viewers learn of Little Joe's older, maternal half-brother Clay Stafford. The character departed in that same episode, but left an opportunity for a return if needed. This character's paternity is open to debate. In the 1963 flashback episode "Marie, My Love", his father was Jean De'Marigny. Then in 1964, Lorne Greene released the song "Saga of the Ponderosa", wherein Marie's previous husband was "Big Joe" Collins, who dies saving Ben's life. After Ben consoles Marie, the two bond and marry. They choose to honor "Big Joe" by calling their son "Little Joe". So, whether to Stafford, De'Marigny or Collins, Marie Cartwright was previously married. 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.

Guy Williams – Will Cartwright

Guy Williams was slated in 1964, the year that Bonanza hit #1 in the ratings, to replace Pernell Roberts upon Roberts' departure, enabling the series to preserve the four-Cartwright format for the run of the series. His character, Ben's nephew Will Cartwright, was introduced and was the lead character in five episodes, receiving "Starring" billing after the four original rotating Cartwrights during his second appearance going forward, but Roberts changed his mind later and decided to stay for one more season, whereupon Williams found himself pushed out of the part; it was rumored that Michael Landon and Lorne Greene felt threatened by the studio initiating a precedent of successfully replacing one heroic leading man Cartwright with a new one, particularly in view of Williams' popularity with viewers. Williams had previously portrayed the titular character in Walt Disney's Zorro television series, and went on to play the lead in Lost in Space, a science fiction television series, after the role in Bonanza ended.

Ray Teal – Sheriff Roy Coffee

Veteran character actor Ray Teal essayed the role of Sheriff Roy Coffee on 98 episodes from 1960 to 1972. He appeared in more than 250 movies and some 90 television programs during his 37-year career. His longest-running role was as Sheriff Roy Coffee. He had played a sheriff many times in films and television.

Sheriff Coffee was occasionally the focus of a plot as in the episode "No Less a Man" (broadcast March 15, 1964). A gang of thieves has been terrorizing towns around Virginia City and the town council wants to replace Coffee, whom they consider over-the-hill, with a younger sheriff before the gang hits town, not realizing that they'd been spared earlier because the gang's leader was wary of Coffee's longevity and only acquiesced to rob the Virginia City bank after extreme pressure from other gang members. Coffee ends up showing the town that youth and a fast gun don't replace experience.

David Canary – "Candy" Canaday

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, David Canary was offered a left-end position with the Denver Broncos, but pursued acting and singing. In 1967, he joined the cast as "Candy" Canaday, a plucky Army brat turned cowboy, who became the Cartwrights' confidant, ranch foreman and timber vessel captain. Dortort was impressed by Canary's talent, but the character vanished in September 1970, after Canary had a contract dispute. He returned two seasons later after co-star Dan Blocker's death, reportedly having been approached by Landon. Canary played the character on a total of 93 episodes. Canary joined the cast in Season 9.

Victor Sen Yung – Hop Sing

Chinese American character actor Victor Sen Yung, veteran of more than 160 appearances in movies and on television between 1937 and 1970 (including portraying the "#2 son" in the Charlie Chan series after Keye Luke departed), played the Cartwrights' happy-go-lucky cook, whose blood pressure rose when the family came late for dinner. Cast here as the faithful domestic, the comedy relief character had little to do beyond chores. He once used martial arts to assail a towering family foe. Though often referenced, Hop Sing only appeared in an average of eight to nine shows each season. As a semi-regular cast member, Sen Yung was only paid per episode. After 14 years, he was widely known, but making far less than his Ponderosa peers. The Hop Sing character was central in only two episodes: "Mark of Guilt" (#316) and "The Lonely Man" (#404). Bonanza series creator David Dortort told the Archive of American Television that the "Hop Sing" character generated massive fandom - "Victor was just absolutely delightful. He loved the part; he loved doing it. In fact, he began to develop fans, to the extent that I wrote him in as the feature part in a number of shows."

Mitch Vogel – Jamie Hunter/Cartwright

After Canary's departure in mid-1970, and aware of the show's aging demographic, the writers sought a fresh outlet for Ben's fatherly advice. Fourteen-year-old Mitch Vogel was introduced as Jamie Hunter in "A Matter of Faith" (season 12, episode 363). Vogel played the red-haired orphan of a roving rainmaker, whom Ben takes in and adopts later in a 1971 episode, called "A Home for Jamie".

Tim Matheson – Griff King

During the final season, in 1972–73, Tim Matheson portrayed Griff King, a parolee who tries to reform his life as a worker at the Ponderosa Ranch under Ben Cartwright's tutelage.

Lou Frizzell – Dusty Rhodes

Following Canary's departure, Lou Frizzell's character accompanied Jamie Hunter to the Ponderosa and became the Cartwright's foreman.

Cast episode count

(Of 431 total episodes)

• Lorne Greene – Ben Cartwright – 417 episodes (Season 1–14)
• Michael Landon – Joseph "Little Joe" Cartwright – 416 episodes (Season 1–14)
• Dan Blocker – Eric "Hoss" Cartwright – 401 episodes (Season 1–13)
• Pernell Roberts – Adam Cartwright – 173 episodes (Season 1–6)
• Victor Sen Yung – Hop Sing – 107 episodes (Season 1–14)
• Ray Teal – Sheriff Roy Coffee – 98 episodes (Season 2–13)
• David Canary – "Candy" Canaday – 91 episodes (Season 9–11, 14)
• Bing Russell – Deputy Clem Foster – 57 episodes (Season 4–6, 8–14)
• Mitch Vogel – Jamie Hunter Cartwright – 45 episodes (Season 12–14)
• Tim Matheson – Griff King – 9 episodes (Season 14)
• Lou Frizzell – Dusty Rhodes – 11 episodes (Season 11–13)
• Betty Endicott – Various – 81 episodes (Season 2–8, 10–11)
• Guy Williams – Will Cartwright – 5 episodes (Season 5)