| GRANTS PASS, Oregon (AP) -- Veteran television character actor Kevin Hagen, who left behind a string of Western bad guy roles to become the kindly Doc Baker in "Little House on the Prairie," died Saturday. He was 77.
Hagen died at his home a year after being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, said his wife, Jan.
Hagen's first movie part was in the 1958 Disney film "The Light in the Forest," but he credited his role in the 1965 film "Shenandoah" with starting him on a long trail of TV Western heavies.
Hagen had guest-starring roles on "Gunsmoke," "Rawhide" and "Cheyenne," and won his first regular role in the 1958 series, "Yancy Derringer," in which he played a city administrator of post-Civil War New Orleans.
He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Hiram Baker in "Little House on the Prairie," which ran from 1974 to 1983. | |
