The Waltons is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain and the 1963 film of the same name. The series aired from 1972 to 1981.
Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor. He is best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons for which he won an Emmy Award. He also received another Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe Award nominations for that role.
Earl Henry Hamner Jr. was an American television writer and producer, best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s as the creator of two long-running series, The Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for Spencer's Mountain, which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he provided voice-over narration.
Lainie Kazan is an American actress and singer. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for St. Elsewhere and the 1993 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for My Favorite Year. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in My Favorite Year (1982). Kazan played Maria Portokalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and its sequels My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 She also played Aunt Freida on The Nanny.
Ellen Hansen Corby was an American actress and screenwriter. She played the role of Esther "Grandma" Walton on the CBS television series The Waltons, for which she won three Emmy Awards. She was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Aunt Trina in I Remember Mama (1948).
Ralph Waite was an American actor, best known for his lead role as John Walton Sr. on The Waltons (1972–1981), which he occasionally directed. He later had recurring roles as two other heroic fathers; in NCIS as Jackson Gibbs, the father of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and in Bones, as Seeley Booth's grandfather. Waite had supporting roles in movies such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Bodyguard (1992), and Cliffhanger (1993).
Mary Lynn Carlin is a former actress. She is best known for her debut role in the film Faces (1968), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.
Jon Walmsley is a musician and actor.
Mary Elizabeth McDonough, sometimes credited as Mary Beth McDonough, is an American actress and writer, best known for her role as Erin Walton on The Waltons from 1972 to 1981.
Kami Cotler is an American actress. She is best known for her role as young Elizabeth Walton, which she played in the series The Waltons, and the television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971) which inspired it, as well as a number of later Waltons reunion productions.
Mary Jackson was an American character actress whose nearly fifty-year career began in 1950 and was spent almost entirely in television. She is best known for the role of the lovelorn Emily Baldwin in The Waltons and was the original choice to play Alice Horton in the daytime soap opera Days of Our Lives, playing the part in the unaired pilot. The role was instead given to Frances Reid.
Betty Neels was a prolific British writer of over 134 romance novels, beginning in 1969 and continuing until her death. Her work is known for being particularly chaste.
Scott Hamner, is an American television writer. He is the son of Earl Hamner Jr., who turned his autobiography into The Waltons.
Joseph Thomas Porcaro was an American jazz drummer.
Margaret Way was an Australian writer of romance novels and women's fiction. A prolific author, Way wrote more than 120 novels since 1970, many through Mills & Boon, a romance imprint of British publisher Harlequin UK Ltd., owned by Harlequin Enterprises.
Fielder Cook was an American television and film director, producer, and writer whose 1971 television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story spawned the series The Waltons.
Lee Rich was an American film and television producer, who won the 1973 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy award for The Waltons as the producer. He is also known as the co-founder and former chairman of Lorimar Television.
TaRanda Greene Beene is an American Christian musician, who sings Southern gospel, worship and Christian Contemporary music. She has released seven studio albums, Each Day You Face (2003), A Thing Called Love (2006), In The Sanctuary (2008), Stronger (2014), Spirit of Christmas (2015), A Collection (2017), and The Healing (2018).
Leslie Winston is an American actress best known for playing Cindy, wife of Ben Walton, on the television series The Waltons from 1979 to 1981.
