Karl Swenson
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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.
Known for
Credits
The Birds (1963)
as Le prophète de malheur ivre au bar
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
as Merlin (voice)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
as Heinrich Geuter
How the West Was Won (1962)
as Train Conductor (uncredited)
Vanishing Point (1971)
as Clerk
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
as Doc Isdell
Seconds (1966)
as Dr. Morris
Major Dundee (1965)
as Captain Waller
Lonely are the Brave (1962)
as Rev. Hoskins
Ulzana's Raid (1972)
as Rukeyser
Hour of the Gun (1967)
as Dr. Charles Goodfellow
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
as Mr. Rudd
North to Alaska (1960)
as Lars Nordqvist
Flaming Star (1960)
as Dred Pierce
No Name on the Bullet (1959)
as Stricker
Walk on the Wild Side (1962)
as Schmidt
The Prize (1963)
as Hilding
The Hanging Tree (1959)
as Tom Flaunce
Disney's Halloween Treat (1982)
as Merlin (voice) (archive footage)
One Foot in Hell (1960)
as Sheriff Ole Olson
The Man from Galveston (1963)
as Sheriff
A Howling in the Woods (1971)
as Apperson
The Spiral Road (1962)
as Insp. Bevers
Disney's Greatest Villains (1977)
as Merlin (voice) (archive footage)
The Gun and the Pulpit (1974)
as Adams
The Gallant Hours (1960)
as Bill Bailey
Disney Sing-Along Songs: Colors of the Wind (1995)
as (voice) (archive footage)
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night (1967)
as Dr. Keller
The Wild Country (1970)
as Jensen
… tick… tick… tick… (1970)
as Frank Braddock Sr.
Four Boys and a Gun (1957)
as Mr. Badek
Kings Go Forth (1958)
as The Colonel
Disney's Sing-Along Songs: Under the Sea (1990)
as Merlin (archive footage) (voice)
Ice Palace (1960)
as Scotty Ballantyne
Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1966)
as Theodore Roosevelt
December 7th (1943)
as Machine-Gunner (uncredited)
Gateways to the Mind (1958)
as Hal - the Cameraman (uncredited)
Alice in Wonderland (1955)
as Humpty Dumpty
The New Healers (1972)
as Mr. Fisherman
Strangers All (1935)
as Protester at Communist Meeting