Little Joe (character)
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Little Joe Cartwright was the youngest Cartwright on the 1960s television series Bonanza. Little Joe was played by Michael Landon.
[edit] Mini biography
Joseph Francis Cartwright was born in 1842 on the Ponderosa Ranch to Ben Cartwright and Marie De Marigny Cartwright.
Compared to the rest of the Cartwrights, at 5 feet 10 inches, he is the youngest and shortest: Adam is 6 feet 1 inches and 12 years older, Hoss is 6 feet 3 inches and 6 years older, and Pa is 6 feet 2 inches tall. Besides, Adam and Hoss, Joe also has another half brother, Clay Stafford, from his mother's first marriage. Clay only stays for a short time (one episode).
Joe is known as the most hot-headed character. He often jumps into a situation and considers the consequences later. He is also the ladies' man, and manages to date a new girl almost every episode in the first few seasons. He was the only Cartwright who never had to worry about a date for a dance.
A running gag throughout the run of Bonanza was that all Cartwright wives or girlfriends eventually died, most of them in the same episode. (However, Hoss's mother was in two to three episodes, becoming the only exception to that rule.) This happens quite often to Little Joe; he loses quite a few girlfriends throughout the run of the season and never appears to feel any guilt in the next episode.
Joe is the only Cartwright ever to hold a job on the Pony Express.
After Adam goes off to college and Hoss dies, Joe becomes the only Cartwright brother to ever get married. He was wed to Alice Harper, who becames pregnant before she was murdered by the men who owed her brother money.
[edit] External links
- Little Joe at Bonanza1.com
- Little Joe at PonderosaScenery.Homestead.com
- Michael Landon Remembrance Project Site
- BonanzaBrand Forum
