Karl Swenson
Acting
Born 1908-07-23
Died 1978-10-08
Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
119 credits
Read biography
Karl Swenson (July 23, 1908 – October 8, 1978) was an American theatre, radio, film, and television actor. Swenson is remembered for his role as the doomsayer in the diner in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) and as the voice of Merlin in Disney's The Sword in the Stone (1963). On television, he had numerous credits in guest roles on various shows, especially Westerns, including episodes of Bonanza, The Virginian, and Gunsmoke. He had a major recurring role as Walnut Grove founder Lars Hanson on Little House on the Prairie (1974 - 1978).
Swenson also had roles in The Prize (1963), Major Dundee (1965), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Seconds (1966), Hour of the Gun (1967), ...tick...tick...tick... (1970), The Wild Country (1970), Vanishing Point (1971) and Ulzana's Raid (1972).
Born in Brooklyn, New York of Swedish parentage, he originally planned to be a doctor and studied at Marietta College before pursuing acting. Swenson appeared extensively on the radio from the 1930s through the 1950s. He entered the film industry in 1943 with two wartime documentary shorts, December 7 and The Sikorsky Helicopter. Swenson was married to actress Joan Tompkins. He died of a heart attack at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, Connecticut on October 8, 1978, shortly after filming the Little House on the Prairie episode in which his character dies. The episode aired on October 16, 1978, eight days after Swenson's death. He was interred at Center Cemetery in New Milford, Connecticut.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 119
Acting
40 credits
Perry Mason
The Fugitive
Little House on the Prairie
Bonanza
The Andy Griffith Show
Ironside
The Rifleman
Hogan's Heroes
Hawaii Five-O
Mission: Impossible
Maverick
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Emergency!
The Virginian
Dr. Kildare
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
Leave It to Beaver
The Big Valley
Gunsmoke
Bat Masterson
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
The Odd Couple
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Sugarfoot
77 Sunset Strip
The Rebel
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
The Sword in the Stone
The Birds
Mr. Novak
Ghost Story
The Adventures of Jim Bowie
Riverboat
The Rat Patrol
Black Saddle
Cimarron Strip
Johnny Ringo
Sam Benedict
How the West Was Won
CBS Playhouse
Other credits
20 credits
Lassie
Have Gun, Will Travel
Robert Montgomery Presents
Happy Days
Rawhide
Cannon
Ben Casey
Hawaiian Eye
Tarzan
Surfside 6
The Texan
The Mod Squad
Bronco
Trackdown
The Guns of Will Sonnett
Judd, for the Defense
Lock-Up
Mr. Lucky
Outlaws
The Lieutenant
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