| Alison Arngrim | |
|---|---|
| Born | Alison Margaret Arngrim January 18, 1962 New York City, New York, United States |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1974–present |
Alison Margaret Arngrim (born January 18, 1962; New York, New York, U.S.) is an American actress, stand-up comedian and author.
Arngrim's father, Thor Arngrim, was a well-known Hollywood manager. Her mother, Norma MacMillan, was a well-known voice actress, who provided the voices for characters on Casper the Friendly Ghost, Gumby, Davey and Goliath, Underdog, and many other beloved animated programs. Her brother Stefan Arngrim was also a child actor.
Arngrim is possibly best known as a former child star, playing the role of Nellie Oleson in the NBC television series Little House on the Prairie. She had originally auditioned for the role of Laura Ingalls, and later Mary Ingalls, on Little House on The Prairie, but received the role of Nellie Oleson.
She appeared in guest roles on television series like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. She was also a frequent panelist on the short-lived NBC game show Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour. She made a comedy record album, Heeere's Amy, in which she portrayed first daughter Amy Carter,[1] her mother who voiced the Kennedy children on the comedy albums of Vaughn Meader also guest starred on the album.
She currently does charity work in addition to performance. One of her inspirations for her charitable work is the memory of her friend and fellow actor Steve Tracy, who played the role of Nellie Oleson's husband Percival Dalton on Little House on the Prairie. Tracy died from complications from AIDS in 1986, after which she set her sights on becoming an activist towards AIDS awareness. She also focuses on other issues such as child abuse, speaking frequently for and lobbying with the group PROTECT. In 2004, she came out as an incest survivor on Larry King Live.
Arngrim was briefly married to a writer, Donald Spencer, in the late 1980s. She married her second husband, musician Robert Paul Schoonover, whom she met while she was were volunteering at AIDS Project Los Angeles, where he was director of the Southern California AIDS Hotline, on November 6, 1993. Bride, groom, and the wedding party all wore black tuxedoes with bare feet and black toenail polish to the wedding. Arngrim and Schoonover live in Los Angeles.
Arngrim tied with Danielle Spencer ('Dee' on What's Happening!!) for "Character Most in Need of a Time-out" award on the 2006 TV Land Awards for her role on Little House on The Prairie.
In one of her stand-up routines, she described playing Nellie on Little House on The Prairie as "like having PMS for seven years." On May 26, 2007, she made an appearance at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival signing autographs.
In 2010, Arngrim published her autobiography, titled Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.[2] In the book she for the first time publicly identified her childhood attacker as her older brother, Stefan, though the book is mostly light-hearted and received critical praise for her ability to mix humor and personal tragedy.
Arngrim regularly keeps in contact with her friend Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie. She occasionally appears at Little House on the Prairie reunion events and autograph shows and has recently begun occasionally hosting guided tours, in partnership with Scott Michaels' Dearly Departed Tours[3], of Hollywood called Nasty Nellie Tours.
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