Who Passed Away From Little House On The Prairie? – Celebrity
Daniel Moore
Updated on January 18, 2026
French was known for his roles in Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, and more. The actor died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989, at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital in Los Angeles, California. French was 54. While several actors from the series might have passed on, their characters will live on in the hearts of fans.
French played a troubled character who remained a good and loyal friend to the Ingalls family. French was known for his roles in Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, and more. The actor died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989, at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital in Los Angeles, California.
Known for playing the recurring role of Percival Dalton on Little House on the Prairie, Steve publicly announced his AIDs diagnosis to shocked fans and died shortly afterwards. Join Facts Verse as we explore the tragic death of Steve Tracy, Percival Dalton from Little House on the Prairie.
It was in 1980 that Steve began playing the recurring character of Percival Dalton on Little House on the Prairie, which would go on to be the actor’s most iconic role by the time of his death several years later from AIDs. Little House on the Prairie was an American television drama that aired on the NBC network from 1974 until 1982.
How did the actor in Little House on the Prairie die?
The actor died of lung cancer on June 15, 1989, at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital in Los Angeles, California. French was 54. Little House on the Prairie / YouTube. While several actors from the series might have passed on, their characters will live on in the hearts of fans.
Perhaps most famously, fans had to say goodbye to one of the show’s biggest stars, Michael Landon, who portrayed Charles Ingalls. Landon was known for starring on television shows such as Bonanza and Highway to Heaven. He was also hugely involved in creating the Little House on the Prairie series; Landon served as an executive producer, director, …
The iconic actor passed soon after receiving his diagnosis on July 1, 1991, in Malibu, California. He was 54. Victor French, who portrayed Isaiah Edwards, also passed away after a lengthy career in Hollywood.
What is the Little House on the Prairie?
Little House on the Prairie was an American television drama that aired on the NBC network from 1974 until 1982. A historical Western, the show followed the exploits of a family of settlers living on a Minnesota farm in the late 18th century. The show was based upon the book series of the same name by Laura Ingalls Wilder, who herself based the book upon her own childhood in a family of settler pioneers. The show featured Michael Landon as Laura’s father, Charles Ingalls, and actress Melissa Gilbert as Laura herself.
Little House on the Prairie had already been on the air for several years before Steve Tracy was brought on to portray the character of Percival Dalton. Percival was written onto the show as a love interest for one of it’s popular side characters, Nellie Oleson. Nellie had originally been written as somewhat of a villain on the show, acting as an antagonist to Laura Ingalls during her childhood years. However, each learned to appreciate the other when they got older, becoming good friends. The romance between Nellie and Percival further humanized her character.
However, the character’s backstory went that he decided to take his destiny into his own hands, changing his name to Percival Dalton to see what life had to offer besides the traditional ways of his Jewish parents. When Percival’s parents found out that he had fallen in love with the Christian Nellie, they were understandably devastated. As well, Nellie’s parents similarly believed that their daughter would be better of finding a husband of the Christian faith. However, Percival and Nellie’s love stood up to familial scrutiny, and the two ended up happily married by the end of the show’s run.
At the time that Steve passed away, he was only 34 years old. He was one of the first notable actors to have passed away from the AIDs virus, after Rock Hudson in 1985. As the years went on, AIDs became more and more common, with celebrities like Magic Johnson and Charlie Sheen publicly living moderately stable and healthy lives after receiving it. Hopefully, those stars today that are surviving with AIDs have some respect for television actor Steve Tracy, who bravely fought the disease in the early days of it’s history.
AIDS/US: Portraits in Personal Courage closed in August of 1986 due to the death of one of it’s cast members, as well as the increasingly failing health of two others. Those two others included Steve. Steve would pass away several months later, in November. However, Steve did everything within his power while he was alive to overcome the disease that had overtaken him, as well as to provide more knowledge for those suffering from the disease after his passing. Steve offered himself to experimental trials whose results would be used to garner important data on the newfound illness, and which could also potentially offer Steve an unlikely miracle cure. Sadly, these experimental trials didn’t do much to extend the actor’s life.
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Steve Tracy was a television actor whose most notable role was that of recurring character Percival Dalton on the hit 1970s historical drama Little House on the Prairie. Despite this notable role, Steve later became best known for being one of the first actors to be diagnosed with and die from the AIDs virus. Soon after publicly revealing to fans that he had been diagnosed, Steve passed away in 1986 at age 34.
Steve eventually came clean to Alison about the fact that he was suffering from AIDs instead of cancer. Alison understood Steve’s hesitancy to admit the truth to her given that the actor had been largely unsure about it himself for much of the time leading up to that point, as well as due to the stigma surrounding the illness at the time. Steve was apparently incredibly courageous during the final year of his life and never once shed a tear. Alison spent plenty of time with Steve during his final year, acting as someone that he could have a good time with to escape his woes.
