About Victor French | Little House on the Prairie (2024)

BOXING

Even as a kid Victor liked boxing and would shadow box while watching matches on the television at home. When his friend Al Goossen, a boxing promoter who ran the Ten Goossens Gym in North Hollywood, suddenly passed away, Victor stepped in to help the family-run organization. “I wanted to get involved. I don’t know anything about how good a fighter is, but I like the business. Some people go sailing to relax. I live a half mile from this gym and I spend all my free time here. All my troubles are gone when I walk in here.” [17] He liked it so much he went on to get licensed and was co-winner of the Promoter of the Year in 1985. [18]

FAMILY

About a month after his 24th birthday, Victor French married Judith Schenz on January 9, 1959. His son, Victor A. Jr., was born in 1960 with twin daughters, Kelly and Tracy, arriving in 1962. After sixteen years of marriage, Victor and Judith divorced on July 3, 1975.[19]

On March 14, 1976, Victor married Julie Cobb, daughter of actor Lee J. Cobb. Victor and Julie appeared opposite each other in the critically-acclaimed Company of Angels production of the Arthur Miller playAfter the Fall, which opened May 13, 1977. [20] The marriage did not last and they divorced childless on May 23, 1978. [21] Victor never remarried.

CANCER

Victor was a heavy smoker and in March 1989 he found out he had terminal cancer and by June was hospitalized. [22] His daughter Tracy remembered that Michael Landon would regularly come by the house and hospital to visit Victor while he was battling cancer. [23] It was a match he did not win and Victor French passed away June 16, 1989.

POSTSCRIPT

One thing that Victor French had was a vision. When he was campaigning to keep “Little House on the Prairie” on the air he said, “I can’t think of a time when we needed a show like this more – a show that teaches brotherhood, love, respect for the family, and regard for the law.” [24] Those sentiments ring just as true today as when he said them then.

Recommendations from the Website Editors

A number of the cast members from “Little House on the Prairie” have written about their experiences. Below are links to our website articles about them, as well as to their books, which make entertaining reading and inspired gifts for fans of the television series.

Melissa Anderson