After the last “Goodnight, John-Boy” rang out from Walton’s Mountain, whatever happened to the young cast of the long-running hit series?
One posed for Playboy, one battles a deadly disease, another drifts between dead-end jobs and another is a successful businessman.
Only one has become a well-known actor.
The cast was reunited again this month for the British TV show After They Were Famous, produced by Yorkshire Television.
“The Waltons” ran for 10 years in the ’70s and ’80s, featuring the lives of a large clan of homespun country folk in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
The show – in which actors Ralph Waite and Michael Learned played the parents of seven children growing up on Walton’s Mountain – lives on forever in reruns. Its theme and trademark ending – “Good night, John-Boy” – has become an American icon.
The British special chronicles the lives of the cast after “The Waltons” ended, showing how the young Waltons, while not having lives as perfect as they had on Walton’s Mountain, managed to avoid the pitfalls of drugs and crime that plagued the casts of many other ’70s and ’80s shows.
“There was nothing like it on the air,” John-Boy actor Richard Thomas told the show. “It was the age of super cops, super lawyers, wonderful doctors, funny shows. This was a show about a poor, rural, large family growing up in the Depression. It ran against time. But it became iconic.”
Here’s what happened to the stars:
1. John-Boy Walton, played by Richard Thomas
Thomas is the only Walton kid to have a successful acting career after the show.
The son of two New York City ballet dancers, Thomas spent five years playing the aspiring teenage writer before he became wary of being typecast and left the show.
“I needed to do what John-Boy needed to do – I needed to get out,” he said.
Since leaving “The Waltons,” Thomas has became a familiar face on the tube, starring in close to 40 television movies.
He has also done some Shakespearean acting and has won a Tony award for his portrayal of a gay Vietnam vet in the play “The 5th of July.”
“It made me a star,” he said of “The Waltons.” “I am very proud of it – I’m 50 and I work all the time.”
2. Mary-Ellen Walton, played by Judy Norton
After “The Waltons,” Norton became most famous for her decision to pose nude in a 1985 Playboy magazine spread.
Norton – who found herself hopelessly typecast after the show’s end – decided to strip down for Hugh Hefner’s cameras in a desperate bid to rid herself of her goody-goody Waltons image.
The move didn’t work – and the press will never let her forget it.
“I think it was one of those things that, had I known it would never go away, that everybody who ever did an interview with me would bring it up again, I probably would have said it’s not worth the trouble,” she said. “It wasn’t that big a deal for me at the time.”
Norton, who now teaches acting and singing while raising her 5-year-old son, Devin, keeps a sense of humor about the shots.
“When I’m old and sagging and decrepit, I might look back and figure at least I’ve got some pretty pictures.”
3. Jason Walton, played by Jon Walmsley
Walmsley is still married to actress Lisa Harrison, who played his wife on the show. They tied the knot in real life in nuptials officiated by Walton dad Ralph Waite, a minister in real life.
“He took it very seriously and did a really terrific ceremony,” Walmsley said.
After the show, Walmsley decided to dedicate his life to music.
He now writes sings and performs as a studio musician working on tracks for television, films and albums.
He and Lisa, who played Toni Hazelton on the show, live in Los Angeles with their daughter, Brighton.
“It’s pretty overwhelming that the show is still on, that people are still watching it, that they love it as much as they do, and that it’s had the kind of effect on some people’s lives that it has,” he said.
4. Ben Walton, played by Eric Scott
Unable to find work and low on cash, Scott was forced in the years after “The Waltons” to take the only job he could get – as a messenger boy.
The former television star found it hard to adjust to the change in status. But nothing was as difficult as the day he was forced to deliver a package at Lorimar Productions, where “The Waltons” was produced.
“I walked in and saw my picture and all the Waltons in the lobby. It was an adjustment time. I had to realize that that was not where I was going to be anymore. It was a humbling event.”
Scott, however, didn’t let the switch from star to working stiff get him down. He toiled long and hard at his messenger trade and now runs his own successful messenger company in Hollywood.
He married in 1989, but tragedy struck when his wife, Teresa, died two days after giving birth to their first child, Ashleigh. Scott is now remarried, and is also the father of a second daughter, Emma.
5. Erin Walton, played by Mary McDonough
After the show ended, McDonough made the same decision as many young wannabe starlets – to get breast implants.
Now she blames the implants for giving her a host of medical problems, including the disease Lupus.
“Instead of helping my career, [the implants] made me very sick,” she said. “I went through 10 years of declining health until I had them removed.
Today, McDonough, who produces and directs films, spends a lot of her time as a Lupus-awareness advocate.
“I feel the chemicals in my system triggered the Lupus response,” she says. “A lot of people will say I’m wrong and that there’s no link, but for me, I was a healthy girl. I had implants, I got sick. I had them taken out and I’m healthier now.”
6. Jim-Bob Walton, played by David Harper
Since “The Waltons” ended, Harper has drifted from job to job, never able to get his acting career off the ground and never really finding anything else to do with his life.
He eventually had to turn to Waltons pal Eric Scott for help.
“Around the time that my mother died and the money was running out, Eric was working for a messenger company that he had started. I called him up one day and said I need a job and he said we’ll put you to work right away.
“I was very grateful for that.”
Now 40, Harper is unmarried. The only acting job he got after the show was a role in the movie “Fletch” with Chevy Chase in 1984. He eventually gave up acting because he was too shy and reserved to stay in the limelight.
“I think it was the right thing for me to stop acting,” he said. “I’m not comfortable with being recognized so being an actor is kind of in conflict with that.”
7. Elizabeth Walton, played by Kami Cotler
The littlest Walton, Cotler was 16 when the show ended. She used her money to put herself through college – and buy a 1957 Thunderbird as a perk.
After appearing in three “Waltons” movies that were made after the show ended, she decided not to dedicate her life to acting.
“While it was fabulous to see everybody and to be ‘The Waltons’ again,” she said, “it was also very clear that this was not the job I wanted.”
Cotler worked as a high-school teacher for several years in Virginia, where each year she would give students 30 minutes to ask her questions about what it was like to be a child actor.
Today she lives in Los Angeles with husband Kim and their two children Cotton, 4, and Cally, 18 months.