In the television show Bonanza, the character Ben Cartwright is a cattle rancher who owns a large 600,000 acre (2,400 km²) ranch, two hours ride out of Virginia City, Nevada. He was married three times and had three sons: Adam, Hoss and Little Joe. Ben was portrayed by Lorne Greene.
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Mini bio
- He had three wives: Elizabeth, Inger and Marie. All three wives were not around long enough to see their children grow up: Elizabeth (played by Geraldine Brooks in one flashback episode) died in childbirth, Inger (played by Inga Swenson in two flashback episodes) was shot by an Indian with an arrow when Hoss was only a few weeks old, and Marie (played by Felicia Farr in one flashback episode) fell off of a horse and was killed when Joe was only five. (This changed during the PaxTV broadcast of the Ponderosa, the prequel to Bonanza, when Marie died by a bandit's bullet when Joe was twelve.)
- In 1971, six years after Adam's departure, Ben adopts 14-year-old orphan Jamie Hunter, who came to live with the Cartwrights one year earlier.
- In addition to his most well-known family, his three sons, Ben also had two brothers (John and Aaron), a nephew (Will), and four grandchildren (A.C., Josh, Benj and Sara)
- He was a sailor before heading for the West
2001 Prequel Series
Daniel Hugh Kelly played Ben Cartwright in the 2001 prequel television series Ponderosa, set in time when Adam was a teenager and Little Joe a small child. The series was produced by Beth Sullivan (producer of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) and ran for twenty episodes.
